Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to three for climate discoveries

NEW DELHI: This year, the Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to three scientists from Japan, Germany and Italy. Syukuro Manabe (90) from Japan and Klaus Hasselmann (89) from Germany were awarded for their work in the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifiable variability and reliably predicting the global warming. The second half of the prize was given to Giorgio Parisi (73) for discovering the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical system from atomic to planetary scales.

The winners were awarded on Tuesday, October 5, by Goran Hansson, Secretary-General, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The jury panel said that Manabe and Hasselmann have laid the foundation of learnings about Earth’s climate and how is the humanity influencing it. Beginning from 1960s, Manabe studied how increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will result in the surge of global temperature which laid the foundation of the current climate models.

After a decade, Hasselmann constructed a model which linked climate with weather which explains why climate models can be reliable despite the chaotic nature of weather. He also developed the ways to analyse the specific signs of human influence on climate. After the announcement, Parisi said that it is urgent to take strong decisions and move at a strong pace to combat the climate change.