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Formulating reasonable hypotheses regarding climatic change requires physical insight and ingenuity, but subsequently testing these hypotheses demands quantitative computation. Many features of today's climate have been reproduced by mathematical models (equations arranged for numerical solution by digital computers), similar to those used in weather prediction. Models currently in use generally predict only the atmosphere, and pre-specify the state of its environment (oceans, land surfaces, sun, etc.). Newer models, where certain environmental conditions enter as additional dependent variables, should be suitable for testing climatic-change hypotheses. Aspects of the atmosphere which play no role in these hypotheses may be highly simplified. A super-model where virtually all not-strictly-constant features of the atmosphere and its environment enter as variables may ultimately lead to an acceptable theory of climatic change.
Edward N. Lorenz (Mon,) studied this question.