August 25, 2026
What are climate models, and who is behind the models that inform Australia’s understanding of its own weather and climate?
As National Science Week 2026 draws to a close, we are releasing this new animation that explains what climate models are and why we can’t navigate a changing climate without them. A climate model is not a guess. It is millions of equations, run on some of Australia’s most powerful supercomputers, simulating the atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice and biological components together.
What are climate models?
Ever wondered what a “climate model” actually is?
Our new animation explains why we need climate models, how these models work, and how ACCESS-NRI supports the Australian research community building and using them.
This animation shines a light on the value of collaboration between two of the NCRIS facilities that make climate research possible: ACCESS-NRI, Australia’s climate simulator, and NCI’s Gadi supercomputer, which powers the climate simulations run by ACCESS-NRI and the Australian research community.
Another clear example of the enormous global and local impact of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
This animation was produced by Redboat in collaboration with ACCESS-NRI.