Mad scientists flip the Earth’s spin in climate models, watch water go nuts

Enlarge (credit: Gabriela Pinto)

Climate models-computer simulations of Earth's climate system-are crucial tools for scientists, given that it's impossible to run experiments on the entire planet. Access to these digital laboratories also gives people the option to occasionally play "mad scientist" and mess with the Earth a bit. One newly published study falls into that category, asking the question "What would happen if the Earth spun backward?" You can almost hear the maniacal laughter.

If you've ever learned about the atmosphere, you know that Earth's rotation makes swirling weather like hurricanes possible through something called the Coriolis Effect. Simply put, fluids heading in a straight line on a spinning globe deflect off to the side-to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. And if the Earth's rotation reversed, fluids (including ocean currents) would deflect the other way.

It may sound like a trivial bit of pondering, but it's actually a scientifically interesting question. A group led by Uwe Mikolajewicz of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology effectively set the planet spinning backward to find out just how many things would change when they let their model run for a few thousand years.

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