One half of the prize, worth more than 1.1 million USD, goes in equal parts to Manabe, who is 90, and Hasselmann for modelling earth’s climate and reliably predicting global warming. The other half goes to Parisi for discovering "hidden rules" behind seemingly random movements and swirls in gases or liquids.

Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week after Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the prize for medicine on Monday for the discovery of receptors in the skin that sense temperature and touch.

Last year, scientists Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez won the Nobel physics prize for their discoveries concerning black holes.