Conceptual climate modelling

Modelling the climate is notoriously difficult and generally associated with high-dimensional general circulation models that may be quite unwieldy from the mathematical perspective. At the other end of the spectrum are seemingly simple conceptual models that focus on underlying mechanisms, such as the roles of different types of delayed feedback loops and/or switching phenomena for a specific climate phenomenon. This special issue is designed to highlight the usefulness of conceptual modelling in climate. It presents a number of conceptual climate models, discusses the mathematical techniques available for their analysis, and showcases how relevant insights can be gained from them, including informing more realistic modelling of the climate.