Recurring cases of Saharan and Sahelian greening over the past 800,000 years
A humid climate in the Sahara and Sahel played a critical role in shaping the environment for early human settlement and migration. A new study…
New climate model reveals the triggers of abrupt climatic changes in the past 20,000 years
Between the last glacial maximum and today, humans were exposed to severe changes of the climate: Coastal settlement areas were lost due to rising…
Lennart Ramme receives Wladimir Köppen Award
Lennart Ramme, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, has been awarded the Wladimir Köppen Prize, endowed with 5000…
Tropical wetlands drove methane changes since the last glacial
In a new study in Climate of the Past Dr. Thomas Kleinen and Prof. Victor Brovkin, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, together…
When sediment samples reveal the past’s secrets: James Zachos and Ellen Thomas win BBVA Climate Change Award
This year’s recipients of the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change Category are paleoclimatologists Prof. James Zachos (University…
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Large-scale research project PalMod: What have we learned?
The PalMod project (short for paleo-modeling), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), investigates the climate…
Earth´s orbit and greenhouse gas concentrations influence African humid periods
In a new study, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology have investigated what caused African humid periods to vary in duration and…
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What controls the millennial-scale climate variability in simulations of the last deglaciation?
The transition between the last glacial maximum (LGM, about 21,000 years before present) and present, which is referred to as the last deglaciation,…
“Glaciers are the planet’s early warning system”: Ellen Mosley-Thompson and Lonnie Thompson win BBVA Climate Change Award
This year's recipients of the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change Category are Prof. Ellen Mosley-Thompson and Prof. Lonnie…
Variability of the Earth system over the last 8000 years
After the peak of the last ice age about 21,000 years ago, the great ice masses that had covered large parts of North America and northern Europe…
Freshwater release and elevation loss affect climate during Heinrich events
A team of researchers around Dr. Florian Ziemen in the department "The Ocean in the Earth System" at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M)…