A climate model is fundamentally an energy-balance calculation on a grid: how much radiation comes in, how much leaves, and how feedbacks amplify the difference.
∂T/∂t = alpha*(CO2 forcing + solar forcing) - beta*T + feedback
- Grid resolution — spatial cells the simplified radiative model is evaluated across.
- Cloud/ice feedback — how strongly warming-triggered feedbacks (ice-albedo, water vapour) amplify the initial forcing.
- CO2 concentration — atmospheric CO2 level driving radiative forcing.
- Solar forcing — incoming solar radiation reaching the modelled surface.
Real GCMs (like NASA GISS or the UK Met Office model) couple exactly these processes — radiation, feedback and grid transport — just at far higher resolution and with a full ocean-atmosphere-ice system.