A history of how we model the Earth
Climate models are among the most sophisticated scientific tools ever developed. They combine mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science to simulate Earth’s climate system and project how it may change in the future.
Earth Digital traces that story one landmark paper at a time — from the first numerical experiments of the 1950s to today’s AI-driven forecasting systems. Each page summarizes a single influential model or study: what its authors observed, what they hypothesized, how they tested it, what they found, and why it mattered for the science of climate.
How the collection is organized
The models are arranged chronologically and grouped by era — Pre-2000s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. Open the menu at the top-left to browse by year, or start with the full index.