This is rather OT but reading the attached artilce about the ongoing work on improving climate change models, the "jack and jill" level description made wonder if there are any similarities to the CFD models used to compute airflow pressure levels across the complex shape of an F1 car.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125686509223717691.html

I am a dummy on climate modles and CFd so sorry if it is a dumb question.

The equations of Fluid Mechanics are the equations of fluid mechanics I guess, so the principles would be very similar.

There would be some similarity in the method, just a different scale of motion I think. Instead of the surface of the car, the surface is the terrain of the earth etc. Instead of small scale turbulence around an F1 car, the scale of the turbulence in the atmosphere can be massive etc.

Extra issues in atmospheric fluid mechanics: Coriolis forces, stratification effects, interaction with oceans etc.

. . . . . significant temperature gradients, altitude induced pressure gradients, moisture-content induced density gradients, dynamic conversion of latent heat to sensible and back, nucleation effects from suspended aerosols, shading by clouds, sun spot activity . . . . no wonder they can't predict anything!