 Welcome to Cooking Up a Storm with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. I'm Tim, a science education specialist at the NCAR Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Hi everyone, and I'm Chef Nancy from the Mesa Laboratory Kitchens. And today we are going to have some fun with science and food. Honestly, I'm feeling pretty hungry today, Nancy. In place of a science experiment, could I cook something with you today? Oh, of course. I'd love that, Tim. Listen, I'm about ready to make some French bread pizzas, and I have extra bread made. So why don't I send some over to you? Oh, it's fast. Here you go. Sure, you're welcome. Hey, for those of you who want to make pizza with us today, you can find a recipe for my favorite homemade dough and sauce linked in the description below. But remember, you can always use your favorite crust recipe, or any store-bought pizza dough or crust that you might like. Today we're going to start with this French bread that I've already made. And I'm going to cut it in half this way, like that. Okay. Like this? Exactly. You got it. You know, Nancy, on my ride home from the NCAR Laboratory today, I was thinking of something really cool that NCAR scientists do. They make climate models. Okay. You were thinking about climate models on your drive home, really? Yeah. So climate models are computer simulations using math equations, real data, and lots of computer coding to show how all of the earth systems might interact and behave over time. Okay. So when you say earth systems, earth systems include land, water, air, ice, and living organisms like vegetation, which all interact with each other, right? Yes. Yes. And climate models are based on global patterns in and between these systems. Okay. Maybe it's just because I'm hungry, but I think I actually see some similarities between climate models and making pizza. Okay. Between pizza and climate models, seriously? Sure. Tell me, Nancy, what are the basic ingredients that make up any pizza? Well, okay. All pizzas start with crust, like this French bread that we just cut. Okay. Let me see. Did you get yours cut, Tim? How's that? Perfect. After the crust, everything needs some sort of sauce. So I made this basic pizza sauce using crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, fennel seed, basil, and salt and pepper. Okay, Tim. So you need to spread a layer of sauce on your crust, kind of like this. Okay, Nancy. I get it. So all pizzas start with crust and sauce. And simulations have, climate models have land simulations that are like our crust with different valleys and mountains and landforms. And the sauce is another part of the simulation. And it's like the oceans, a climate model pizza. Pizza sauce ocean. Okay, I like it. All right. So next, I like to put my favorite toppings on the pizza. And today I've got some chopped bell peppers. I also have some sliced onion. And on my pizza today, I also have a little bit of sweet Italian sausage chunk. That's my pizza. Wonderful. My favorite toppings are green chilies, mushrooms, a little bit of vegan cheese, and some roasted sundried tomatoes. So I'm going to add my sundried tomatoes on my climate pizza. This is going to be my dynamic sea ice component. And these are going to be icebergs. So all my icebergs are sundried tomatoes. And then my mushrooms are going to be my Arctic. Okay, Tim, I gotta tell you, I am never going to look at pizza the same way again. So hang on, let me get this straight. Land is the crust. Oceans are my sauce. My toppings are my sea ice. Okay, I get that, but I have to ask you, so the last thing that I add to my pizza is some shredded cheese. Are you going to try to tell me that cheese is part of a climate model too? Well, hello. Yes. Cheese is exactly like the atmosphere in our climate model. The atmosphere is a blanket of toppings that are made up of particulates and gases and chemicals, and they circulate all around our atmosphere. And then they actually move and interact with the oceans and the landforms underneath. Okay, cool. But I got to say it again so I make sure I've got it right. So my crust is my land. The sauce is the ocean. The toppings are the sea ice moving around. And last but not least, my cheese is the atmosphere. Okay, I think I've got it. I think you do, yeah. And climate scientists spend years learning how these complicated earth systems work, and each piece of data we add to the climate model changes the simulations that we create. I get it. So just like each of my different ingredients adds and changes the flavors of my pizza. Okay, so here's the thing though, when pizza bakes, the cheese melts and mingles with the sauce and the toppings, and of course it changes the flavor of the pizza as it cooks. Yeah. Well, climate modeling is exactly the same, Nancy. The ingredients mix and mingle in a climate model too. For example, the water that's in the sea ice might melt into the ocean and then move into the atmosphere. Climate scientists call these fluxes. Fluxes, I love it. Well, I am definitely ready for some flavor fluxes in our pizza. Shall we bake them off? Oh, yes. Okay, so today we are going to cook our French bread pizzas in a 425 degree oven for 12 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your crust and the amount of toppings and of course the thickness of the cheese. Baking our pizza is kind of like running a climate model. This means starting each separate simulation with the changing of the oceans and the sea ice and the land formations in the atmosphere. And each of these, those systems influence one another in the computer model just like the oven baking our pizza. Every model blends differently. Wow. Okay, this is incredible. And delicious. All right, so let's take a look at these ingredients and see how they come together. Ooh, I got it pretty done too. Okay, so look at how all the ingredients have come together on a climate model pizza. So each pizza has unique characteristics, complicated qualities, flavors and textures based on the ingredients and toppings. The ingredients change and interact in different ways affecting the outcome of the pizza. And in the very same way, that climate model data creates a variety of complicated behaviors and outcomes. You know, Nancy, I know you can make a lot of pizzas and can make the kitchen, but our earth systems are actually so large and complicated that we can't run our climate models on just a regular N car or Mesa computer. We need the N car supercomputer. Using a supercomputer is like cooking 300 pizzas on 300 different pizza stones, each with their own heat source. Okay, we would need a really big kitchen to house all of those ovens. Yes, we definitely would. But instead, N car has an entire building in China, Wyoming, just to hold the supercomputers that run our climate models. Nancy, do you always use the same ingredients when you make your pizza? Nope. Not in my world. There are no rules for pizza. And depending on what flavors I want to experience, I change it up with varying meats, raw or roasted vegetables, and different spices and seasonings based on the flavor profiles from around the world. So today's pizza, for me, is kind of a Midwestern standard issue French bread pizza topped with sweet Italian sausage, bell pepper, onion, and sometimes I add mushroom. But I encourage you to find out what works for your family, whether it's a Chicago deep dish with pepperoni or maybe a white sauce pizza with whole basil leaves, or maybe you might like a Hawaiian pizza that's chopped topped with some pineapple and spam chunks. Remember, everyone has different tastes and preferences. You know what Nancy? Climate models also have flavor variations reflecting different groups of developers located in different places around the globe. For example, some climate models might focus on simulating the interactions of the ocean and the atmosphere, like how the sauce and the cheese cook together, while others track the movement of a particular chemical throughout the atmosphere, like how the addition of my chilies will affect the flavor of the other toppings, the sauce and the crust. But all climate models include the same basic ingredients, a land of the crust, the ocean of the sauce, the sea ice or the toppings, and the atmosphere of the cheese. And exactly like our homemade pizza ends up with a unique flavor based on toppings, each climate model tells us something different based on the basic data or flavors the scientists add to their model. Wow. That's incredible. Tim, you just helped me completely understand how scientists model our atmosphere. Thank you. And I'll not forget it because I really like homemade pizza. Okay, everyone, you can find a link to my favorite pizza dough recipe and my favorite pizza sauce recipe in the description below. And we'd love to know how your climate model pizza turns out. So please tell us in the comments. And don't forget to share a photo of your climate model, I mean pizza, on social media using hashtag cookingwithencar. And don't forget to tell us your favorite sea ice topics because it'll change everything. Cool. Okay, thanks for exploring with us, everyone. We will see you next time on Cooking Up a Storm. Bye.