Popular Science
From the ocean to the atmosphere - how does the climate system work?
Explore The Earth System
Planet Earth is more than a giant rock in space. Our planet has an atmosphere and oceans, it has sea ice and ice sheets, and it has huge land masses with trees and marshes. This is the Earth system. Climate on Earth is all about how the energy from the sun moves within and between different parts of the Earth system.
Join us on a tour through the Earth’s climate – from the atmosphere, oceans and ice, to scientists who use climate models to better understand our home in space.
The Ocean
Oceanography, the scientific study of the oceans, provides essential insights into the dynamics of ocean currents and the impacts of human activity on marine environments. Through cutting-edge research, researchers at the Bjerknes Center are advancing our knowledge of how oceans influence climate systems, from seasonal weather variations to long-term climate trends. This research is an important part of developing solutions to the challenges posed by a changing climate.
Paleo Climate
Studying ancient climate can be an important guiding tool to understand our present and future climate. At the Bjerknes Center researchers use a variety of methods to unlock the secrets of climate pasts. From studying ocean sediments, or air bubbles trapped in ice, to looking at carbon molecules in lakebeds and studying the rings of sea shells. By learning to read natures subtle clues, we unlock amazing knowledge from the past.
The Poles
The Arctic and Antarctic regions play a critical role in global climate regulation, acting as Earth's cooling systems and influencing atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. At the Bjerknes Center we study the poles through comprehensice research on the dynamics of ice sheets, monitoring the Arctic and Antarctic seas and analyzing their broader implications on global climate. This work involves several different areas, such as investigating changes in ice sheet mass, studying ocean density, ocean currents and more.
Weather
Rain or shine the weather defines much of our experiences on the earth. From the freezing streets of Yakutsk in Siberia, the coldest city on earth, to the smoldering deserts of Death Valley, USA. The earths weather is created by a complex tapestry of natural forces, and no event happens alone in a vacuum. Everything from changes in ocean temperature in the Pacific, ice sheet expanse in the Arctic or the earths rotation impacts the weather. A sandstorm in Sahara can create heatwaves in the Atlantic ocean, and the Rocky Mountains can send powerful storms all the way to Bergen, Norway. Learn more about how weather forms, and the many natural processes involved.
Climate Science
From modeling the worlds climate to fieldwork in remote locations, climate science takes on many different forms. But how does it really work? How can scientist know what the climate used to be like? How can scientific models help predict what the climate will be like in the future?
The Atmosphere
The atmosphere is the layer of air that surrounds the Earth, it has no defined upper boundary, but gradually passes into space. Like a protective shield the atmosphere guards us against solar radiation and makes the earth a livable, breathable space.