SimClimat

SimClimat is an educational application to simulate the climate of the Earth and of other planets. It is composed of a graphical interface coupled to a simple physical climate model. Its user-friendly interface allows the user to run climate simulations at different time scales. The results pertaining to global surface temperature, sea level, ice sheet exent and atmospheric composition are displayed as curves and drawings. The user can test the influence of various parameters influencing the climate, such as astronomical parameters, the composition of the atmosphere, continental alteration, volcanism or human greenhouse gas emissions. The user can also plug or unplug some climatic feedbacks to highlight and quantify their effect. This application can for example be used to make climate projections with different scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions, to study the mechanisms and feedbacks involved in current global warming or in past climatic variations (glacial-interglacial variations, past glaciations, snow-ball earth) or to compare the climate of different planets.