They're just animations that play, that sort of simulate a lot of intelligence. (gamefreaks365.com)
Then they used the climate models to simulate by how much ocean heat content has risen since the 1970s. (scientificamerican.com)
These same models can be used to simulate climates in the past when CO2 levels were higher, and checked against the fossil record (link to page on past climate). (thiniceclimate.org)