Toy Models
Simplified “toy” models of various components of the climate system are a powerful tool for learning and exploration. Here are a collection of extremely simple models for you to play with and explore.
Most of these simple models were coded in the R programing language, which is free and open-source and available on Mac, Linux, and Windows. There’s an R package called “shiny” that makes it almost ridiculously easy to turn simple models into interactive websites. I’ve included documentation and code on these sites so you can see how the models and websites work, and adapt them to your own problems if you want.
Land-Atmosphere Interactions
- Diurnal cycle of insolation by latitude and season
- Soil hydraulic properties by texture and moisture
- Bucket hydrology model of Fort Collins
- Aerodynamic resistance
- Photosynthesis
Climate
- N-Layer Blackbody Atmosphere
- Two-layer graybody atmosphere
- Infrared absorption by greenhouse gases
- BUGSrad radiative transfer with gases and clouds
- Advection of a passive tracer in one dimension
- Milankovitch orbital data browser
- Climate of the Past Millennium
- Local Temperature Extremes (Fort Collins)
- Local Temperature Extremes (New Haven)
- Economics of Carbon with Kaya Identity
- Simple Model of Climate Damages with Discounting
- CO2 and climate effects of emissions reductions
- Earth[carbon]: simple model of the future