"Atmospheric Circulation on Buckyball Grids"
The sphericity of the Earth has been a major inconvenience for atmospheric modelers. Grids based on latitude-longitude methods have difficulties where the meridians converge at the poles. "Spectral" methods based on spherical harmonics avoid this "pole problem" but run into trouble when dealing with water vapor. This talk will outline an alternative approach based on an icosahedral grid, which resemble the geodesic domes invented by Buckminster Fuller. A full atmospheric general circulation model has now been created through this approach. Illustrative results will be presented. The talk will be almost entirely non-mathematical; the ideas needed will be conveyed through graphics, many of which have been created with Mathematica.