The fundamental aim of the supercomputer project would be to bridge the yawning gap between weather forecasting and climate prediction.

The conference included a two-day workshop on climate prediction uncertainties.

Examples of such disciplines include physics, economics, mathematical finance, computer vision, control theory, geophysics, medical imaging, weather forecasting and climate prediction, and statistics.

Its purpose was to study variations in the solar output as a possible factor in climate prediction.

Scientists conceded that a focus on the potentially devastating long-term scenarios for global warming had meant that shorter term uncertainties in climate predictions had not been effectively communicated.