How Deep Learning Is Dispelling the Clouds Hanging Over Climate Models

Global climate projections don’t always agree on how much the climate will warm in coming decades. Some project temperature rises of three or more degrees Celsius by the year 2100. Others predict a 1.5 degree shift. The primary reason for this variation may be surprising: clouds. “Most of the uncertainties we have — not all, but most — really tie back to how we represent clouds in those models,” says Pierre Gentine, an associate professor in Columbia University’s earth and environmental engineering department. To resolve this haziness in climate projections, Gentine and his fellow researchers came up with a deep learning model.