TOKYO -- The physical modeling of Earth's climate, for which Syukuro Manabe, senior meteorologist at Princeton University, was chosen as a recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics is a technology to simulate physical phenomena of the Earth on a computer. Aiming to create a "digital twin" of the real world, it is an indispensable tool for discussing plans for humanity's future, such as predictions on global warming and the effects of measures against it.
Meteorological modeling has developed from a simple primary model of reproducing behaviors of atmospheric columns from the ground to the sky, to a general circulation model calculating three-dimensional atmospheric circulation, to a coupled ocean-atmosphere model combining the general circulation model with one for the ocean. Manabe has been involved in all of these as a pioneer.
