The brief history of climate research in Hamburg spans the arc from the first recording of "Hamburg's climate and weather" a good 200 years ago to modern climate system research supported by supercomputers: with the start of meteorological measurements, individuals also collected data in Hamburg. International data collection and evaluation formed the basis for sailing instructions from the North German (later German) Naval Observatory. Hamburg thus became a center of international climate research. The meteorologist Wladimir Köppen developed, among other things, a simple calculation of climate zones that is still valid today. At the University of Hamburg, founded in 1919, climate was researched and taught within the framework of geography, albeit characterized by geo- and climate determinism. The Meteorological Institute, founded in 1929, focused on the physics of the atmosphere. The founding of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology 50 years ago revived climate research in Hamburg. Klaus Hasselmann's groundbreaking ideas led to international recognition with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021.
The development of climate research at the MPI-M cannot be explained without the close cooperation with the University of Hamburg. Pioneering work by the UHH in the field of modeling ocean currents, the atmosphere and global material cycles was incorporated into the MPI-M's climate models. The MPI-M and the UHH have been working together on large interdisciplinary projects since the 1970s. This led to the establishment of the first national Climate Cluster of Excellence in 2007 and the successor cluster "Climate, Climate Change and Society". It covers a wide range of topics, from basic research into the dynamics of the climate system and social dynamics to transdisciplinary research into the interactions between humans and the environment.

Overview of all events in the series "Hamburger Perspektiven zur Klimaforschung"

Speaker

Martin Claußen (MPI-M)