Computer glitch hits climate prediction project
A software error has hit one of the world's most sophisticated climate simulations. Participants in the BBC-sponsored project, which uses spare time on home computers to predict Britain's climate in 2080, will have to wait longer than expected to see their work on television.MichaelHopkin/news@nature 19.Apr.06
The results, due to be presented as part of the BBC's "Climate Chaos" television season, will be delayed by about two months as experts at climateprediction.net, the research project based at the University of Oxford, reset the software.
Some 200,000 volunteers had pledged their computers to the effort, making it possibly the largest mass-participation climate experiment ever. The model aims to simulate the British climate from 1920 to 2080. But users found that the program was mysteriously crashing at 2013.
What's more, the models were predicting far greater global warming up to that point than experts expected.
