= Joseph Smagorinsky
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<Joseph Smagorinsky> developed numerical experiments on atmospheric circulation and was a central figure in the early modeling work at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Its institutional history credits his work with <Syukuro Manabe> in building atmospheric models for climate research during the 1950s and 1960s.<Brief History of Global Atmospheric Modeling at GFDL by NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory>[Opening historical account]{ref}
His 1963 <General Circulation Experiments with the Primitive Equations: I. The Basic Experiment by Joseph Smagorinsky> integrated a simplified atmospheric model over an extended period and examined its <momentum> and <heat> transport. The model represented winds at two internal levels and a single temperature, with specified radiative forcing and dissipative mechanisms. Its lateral exchange coefficient depended on the local horizontal strain rate.<General Circulation Experiments with the Primitive Equations: I. The Basic Experiment by Joseph Smagorinsky>[Abstract: model variables, forcing and strain-dependent lateral diffusion]{ref}
The motivating difficulty is scale. A computational grid can represent large circulation patterns while failing to resolve smaller eddies that still transport <momentum> and <heat>. The <Smagorinsky model> represents some effects of those unresolved motions by an <eddy viscosity>, linking the closure to the resolved deformation rather than tracking every small eddy directly.
The original experiment also illustrates scientific restraint: Smagorinsky reported aspects of agreement with observed circulation while judging the modeled small-scale diffusion to play too large a role. A model can reproduce broad patterns yet misallocate the processes producing them. Comparing transport mechanisms and energy budgets therefore supplies a stronger test than visual resemblance alone.<General Circulation Experiments with the Primitive Equations: I. The Basic Experiment by Joseph Smagorinsky>[Abstract: circulation comparison and explicit concern about excessive small-scale diffusion]{ref}
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