News
Humboldt Fellow Nadja Omanovic Conducts Research on Arctic Clouds
Nadja Omanovic, a postdoctoral researcher in the Lise Meitner Research Group “Multiscale Cloud Physics,” is studying the impact of Arctic clouds on…
Which Mechanisms Control the Temperature Trend in the Tropical Pacific?
According to climate projections, the eastern tropical Pacific will warm up in the long term, but the opposite is currently being observed. A new…
Clara Bayley Conducts Postdoctoral Research as Part of the Susanne Hasselmann Fellowship
Clara Bayley, recent graduate of the IMPRS-ESM program, is conducting postdoctoral research on the microphysics of tropical clouds using a numerical…
Lara Wallberg Receives Böttcher Award
Lara Wallberg was honored with the Johann Max Böttcher Award for her innovative research on the variability of hot summers in Europe. The Max Planck…
Jochem Marotzke Honored with the Federal Cross of Merit
Jochem Marotzke, director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, has been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of…
New Study Provides Empirical Evidence of Human Influence on Regional Climate Change
Climate change is affecting the entire planet—and yet different regions are warming at different rates. Where is human-induced warming already clearly…
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Department Climate Physics
Department Climate Dynamics
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Independent Research Groups
PhD positions in Climate Research - Annual Call 2027 open 1 July to 15 September
The International Max Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling (IMPRS-ESM) is a structured, interdisciplinary and international program for graduate students who want to earn a PhD degree. The aim of our doctoral program is to advance our understanding of processes and dynamics in the Earth system as well as predictive capabilities.
ICON Team Receives International Recognition for Groundbreaking Achievements in High-Performance Computing
A team led by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the German Climate Computing Center has received the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modelling for their groundbreaking work at the intersection of climate science and high-performance computing. Their achievement—a landmark simulation of the full Earth system with the ICON model at 1.25-kilometer resolution—overcame a challenge long considered impossible to master.
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Seminars
Joint Seminar: Mixed-phase clouds: Insights from observations and modelling
Clouds are not only fascinating to observe for their myriad of shapes, but are also scientifically challenging because their formation requires both knowledge about the large-scale meteorological environment as well as knowledge about the details of cloud droplet and ice crystal formation on the micro-scale.
Mixed-phase clouds consist of liquid droplets and ice particles. They are thermodynamically unstable because of the lower water vapor pressure over ice than over liquid water. In a series of field experiments we perturbed supercooled stratus clouds over the Swiss plateau by injecting AgI-containing particles from an uncrewed aerial vehicle upwind of our measurement site. These seeding particles caused ice crystal formation and triggered the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF) process, by which ice crystals grow at the expense of the evaporating cloud droplets. Accompanying ICON large-eddy simulations (LES) showed that ICON-LES can reproduce the observed ice crystal number concentrations most of the time, but not the observed fast reductions in cloud droplet number concentrations. Our detailed analysis shows that the WBF process appears to be less efficient in ICON-LES than in the field. I will also discuss the conditions under which the WBF process can create a hole-punch cloud and its implications for weather modification and climate intervention.
Date
22.09.2026
Time
15:15
- 17:00Event Place
Bundesstr. 53, room 022/023
Seminar Room 022/023
Ground Floor
Bundesstrasse 53
20146 Hamburg, Hamburg
Speakers
Ulrike LohmannChair
Franziska GlassmeierBack to overview