A two-day international scientific conference, Numerical Modelling of Weather and Climate: The Present and a Vision of the Future, will open on Thursday, 24 September, at 10 a.m., at the Grand Hall of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Eight years ago, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts organised a conference dedicated to the numerical modelling of weather and climate in the city where Milanković published his pioneering book on climate change. The theme proposed at that conference was ‘Beginnings, the Present and a Vision of the Future’, which, for most participants, probably referred to the dynamic cores of the models, of which there are quite a few. The conference brought together the creators of several leading modelling centres.

Have any of the visions of the future presented at that time since become reality? Have any been abandoned? One particularly novel approach is applying artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Does the remarkable success of AI/ML approaches render the visions of a few years ago obsolete? Some recently published studies suggest that certain models perform better than others. But does it matter which model variables we choose to predict successfully? And can our models accurately represent the global warming that is taking place, particularly its acceleration over the past few decades?

Our real atmosphere has become darker. Have the atmospheres in our models become darker as well? If not, why not? There are a number of questions that we consider important and worthy of attention.