Stochastic Climate Theory

Abstract: In this chapter we review stochastic modelling methods in climate science. First we provide a conceptual framework for stochastic modelling of deterministic dynamical systems based on the Mori-Zwanzig formalism. The Mori-Zwanzig equations contain a Markov term, a memory term and a term suggestive of stochastic noise. Within this framework we express standard model reduction methods such as averaging and homogenization which eliminate the memory term. We further discuss ways to deal with the memory term and how the type of noise depends on the underlying deterministic chaotic system. Secondly, we review current approaches in stochastic data-driven models. We discuss how the drift and diffusion coefficients of models in the form of stochastic differential equations can be estimated from observational data. We pay attention to situations where the data stems from multi scale systems, a relevant topic in the context of data from the climate system. Furthermore, we discuss the use of discrete stochastic processes (Markov chains) for e.g. stochastic subgrid-scale modeling and other topics in climate science.