Glossary

A helpful glossary of terms associated with weather and climate.

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Resolution

climate models split the Earth's atmosphere and ocean into a finite number of grid boxes (similar to the pixels on a digital camera) - the higher the number of grid boxes, the higher (or finer) the spatial resolution. For example, a model with a horizontal resolution of 1 degree would have 360 (latitude) x 180 (longitude) = 64,800 grid boxes. The height of the atmosphere, and the depth of the ocean are split into distinct layers - so the number of these layers determines the vertical resolution of the model.