Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is currently not plausible, as is shown in a new, central study released by Universität Hamburg’s Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS). Climate policy, protests, and the Ukraine crisis: the participating researchers systematically assessed to what extent social changes…

Dr Chetankumar Jalihal, a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), successfully applied for a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral scientists. Since January 2023, he continues his research in the research group "Ocean Physics" at the MPI-M — now focusing on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the…

In a joint publication whose author list comprises a substantial fraction of all scientists of the department “The Ocean in the Earth System” at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), another milestone of the ICON project was reached. In the paper “ICON-O: The Ocean Component of the ICON Earth System Model—Global Simulation…

This year's recipients of the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change Category are paleoclimatologists Prof. James Zachos (University of California) and Prof. Ellen Thomas (Yale University and Wesleyan University).

Chenbo Guo took over the position of head of administration at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) from her predecessor Reiner Letscher on January 1, 2023. The MPI-M wishes Chenbo Guo every success. Reiner Letscher, who has held the position since 1999, will continue to serve the institute until mid-2023 after which he will retire.

Dr. Florian Schütte, scientist in the department “Ocean in the Earth System” at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, will become junior professor at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel on 01.01.2023. As an observational oceanographer, he thus returns to his roots in the department of the sea-going physical oceanography in Kiel.…

The early 1970s is often associated with the birth of the modern environmental movement. In 1970 the first Earth day was celebrated, and Greenpeace was founded in 1971. In March 1972 the Club of Rome published its influential report entitled the “limits of growth”. The growing environmental consciousness was also felt within the scientific…

The response of trade cumulus clouds to warming is a major uncertainty in climate projections. In the last decade, a hypothesis was developed according to which the interplay of convection and cloud cover leads to increased warming.

In a recent study in Journal of Climate Moritz Günther, Hauke Schmidt, Claudia Timmreck (all MPI-M), and Matthew Toohey (University of Saskatchewan) argue why the cooling following large volcanic eruptions is smaller than what one might expect from simple energy balance arguments.

An autumn tour of Germany's scientific landscape also took the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, to Hamburg on October 25, 2022 to the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) and the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ).