Oxford seeks PC users to help map climate change

[boise1]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-02-14T150925Z_01_L14722762_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE.xml

Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:09 AM

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists set out on Tuesday to harness the power of home computers to predict climate change more accurately than ever before.

Using the reach of the BBC and the forecasting techniques of Britain's Meteorological Office, they hope to persuade thousands of people to take part.

"If 10,000 people join in, you are already bigger than the world's biggest supercomputer," said lead scientist Myles Allen from Oxford University.

"The more we get, the more accurate will be our predictions. We have got 500,000 climate variations stacked up and ready to go," he told reporters.

Volunteers should go to www.bbc.co.uk/climatechange and follow the instructions.