The climate science community must join forces to provide the most accurate predictions and make their results publicly accessible.

As described in our Scientific American OpEd, we call for an international centre for climate models supported by dedicated (and not simply shared) exascale supercomputing to:

• reduce the grid spacing of models to around 1km (0.6 mi)
• implement modern techniques of software development as they arise
• explore novel computer technologies and hardware architecture
• bring together scientists and technologists of diverse disciplines
• develop an open data interface for projecting changes in future weather and climate

This initiative is part of a programme called Extreme Earth which seeks to improve our ability to predict a range of natural and human-induced hazards. The petition will send a clear message to politicians and funding agencies to come together to address one of the biggest challenges for our society'.

Authors

Tim Palmer, University of Oxford

Bjorn Stevens, Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology

Peter Bauer, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts