Long-Term Climatic Variations : Data and Modelling - Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Long-Term Climatic Variations - Data and Modelling, Held at Siena, Italy, September 27-October 11, 1992

Climate is the most important component of the Earth's environment and climatic fluctuations have a strong impact on water supplies, vegetation and energy use.

This volume features contributions from experts in the field of climate modelling and palaeoclimatology, presenting the most recent methods for reconstructing past climatic variations and for modelling the climatic system and its evolution.

The first section of the text is devoted to the climatic system and the physical basis for its modelling; the second summarizes the evolution of the global atmosphere, the ocean, the continents, the biosphere and the ice sheets during recent climatic cycles; and the last part focuses on the understanding of past and future climatic changes.