How mathematical models can aid our understanding of climate

IMA Conference on the Mathematics of the Climate System; Reading, United Kingdom, 13–15 September 2011. About 40 researchers attended a conference by the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) to discuss the mathematics of the climate system. The conference focused on the construction and use of mathematical and computational models. The entire hierarchy of models was considered, from the conceptual to the comprehensive. Conceptual models provide understandable paradigms for dynamical climate system behavior, enabling researchers to assess and interpret comprehensive models.