Weather
High-resolution global atmospheric model erases 'popcornlike' rain
Key Points
Global climate and weather forecasting use predictive models that divide Earth's atmosphere into a grid, with each section typically covering tens to hundreds of kilometers. Now a new model, run by a team at the University of Tokyo, has narrowed this grid spacing to just 220 meters (720 feet). This higher resolution eliminated instances of "popcornlike" rain—bursts of heavy rain that appear in simulations but not in real life—providing more accurate predictions of extreme local weather from...
Global climate and weather forecasting use predictive models that divide Earth's atmosphere into a grid, with each section typically covering tens to hundreds of kilometers. Now a new model, run by a team at the University of Tokyo, has narrowed this grid spacing to just 220 meters (720 feet). This higher resolution eliminated instances of "popcornlike" rain—bursts of heavy rain that appear in simulations but not in real life—providing more accurate predictions of extreme local weather from a global model.