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Climate models need more frequent releases of input data — here’s how to do it

Annual updates to ‘climate forcing’ data sets would allow simulations to keep pace as global warming accelerates.
By
  1. Vaishali Naik

    1. Vaishali Naik is a senior physical scientist at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

  2. Paul J. Durack

    1. Paul J. Durack is a climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA.

  3. Zebedee Nicholls

    1. Zebedee Nicholls is a senior scientist at Climate Resource S, Berlin, Germany.

  4. Carlo Buontempo

    1. Carlo Buontempo is director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Bonn, Germany.

  5. John P. Dunne

    1. John P. Dunne is a senior physical scientist at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

  6. Helene T. Hewitt

    1. Helene T. Hewitt is a science fellow at the Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK.

  7. Claire Macintosh

    1. Claire Macintosh is a climate scientist at the European Space Agency’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications, Harwell, UK.

  8. Eleanor O’Rourke

    1. Eleanor O’Rourke is director of the CMIP International Project Office at the European Space Agency’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications, Harwell, UK.

A fire-fighter silhouetted by flames and shrouded in smoke, pouring water from a hose on to burning vegetation

A wildfire being tackled in Ribadavia, northwest Spain, earlier this month. Credit: Pedro Pascual/Anadolu/Getty

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Global warming has accelerated in the past decade, with the world’s average surface temperature in 2024 surpassing pre-industrial levels by 1.5 °C1. Although, so far, human activities have been largely responsible2, the factors behind recent record-breaking temperatures remain to be understood. Are human activities amplifying warming faster than scientists expected, or might natural changes in the Earth system have a stronger role than presumed? Researchers and policymakers need answers fast.

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Nature 644, 874-875 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02642-3

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Supplementary Information

  1. List of co-signatories and supplementary table

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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