Climate science plays an increasingly important role for European policy-makers and private sector companies. Basic research and development of effective strategies to mitigate climate change and deal with its impact on society are required, involving a wide range of experts from multiple disciplines. These expert need to access climate data, in particular data from model projections for the next decades and centuries, and to assess the suitability of that data for their purposes.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be one of the largest scientific projects ever undertaken. It is a machine designed to answer some of the big questions of our time: what is Dark Energy? Was Einstein right about gravity? What is the nature of dark matter? Can we detect gravitational waves? When and how did the first stars and galaxies form? What was the origin of cosmic magnetism? How do Earth-like planets form? Is there life, intelligent or otherwise, elsewhere in the Universe? There are several issues that need to be addressed before construction of the SKA can begin: 1.
