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.
Explore the models →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.
Browse by Eras
Pre-2000s
Foundational 2D and 3D numerical models, atmospheric circulation experiments, and early coupled systems (1956–1998).
2000s
The era of MIROC, CCSM3, C4MIP carbon cycle feedback analyses, and the landmark CMIP3 dataset (2004–2007).
2010s
Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), CMIP5 experiment design, and the CMIP6 framework (2011–2016).
2020s
High climate sensitivity, Fourier Neural Operators, GraphCast, and machine-learning weather models (2020–2025).
Overview
Global Climate Models
A chronological timeline tracing landmark scientific papers and milestones in numerical atmospheric and oceanic modeling.
About Earth Digital
Discover our mission to aggregate, archive, and analyze key developments in climate science and computational weather forecasting.
Get in Touch
Have questions, updates, or paper suggestions? Connect with our team to help expand the digital archive.
Featured Highlights
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1956
The General Circulation of the Atmosphere: A Numerical Experiment
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1969a
The Effect of Solar Radiation Variations on the Climate of the Earth
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1969b
Climate Calculations with a Combined Ocean-Atmosphere Model
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1969c
A Global Climatic Model Based on the Energy Balance of the Earth-Atmosphere System
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1988
Global Climate Changes as Forecast by Goddard Institute for Space Studies Three-Dimensional Model
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2004
K-1 Coupled GCM (MIROC) Description
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2006a
The Community Climate System Model Version 3 (CCSM3)
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2006b
Climate-Carbon Cycle Feedback Analysis: Results from the C4MIP Model Intercomparison
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2023
GraphCast: Learning Skillful Medium-Range Global Weather Forecasting