Jin-Song von Storch

In my research, I study the Earth’s climate as a high-dimensional forced–dissipative system. I pursue this goal using two complementary approaches.

The first is process-oriented. I focus on the ocean and investigate the processes that control and maintain the general circulation. From an energetics perspective, these include (a) processes that supply mechanical energy for diapycnal mixing in the ocean interior and thereby support the upwelling required to close the overturning circulation, and (b) processes that dissipate mechanical energy and thus counteract the continuous input of energy from wind and buoyancy forcing at the sea surface. Understanding these processes is, in my view, essential for understanding how the ocean operates as part of the climate system.

The second approach is system-oriented. A climate model consists of a set of discretized differential equations with a structure similar to that of many-particle systems studied in statistical physics. Climate variables exhibit random fluctuations reminiscent of phenomena such as Brownian motion, suggesting that concepts and methods developed in statistical physics may be applicable to climate dynamics—and vice versa. The aim of this approach is to develop climate predictions that describe changes in macroscopic quantities (climate statistics) in response to changes in external forcing.

The system-oriented approach addresses more fundamental questions, such as how solutions of purely deterministic systems can exhibit randomness, and what determines the macroscopic properties of systems in dynamical equilibrium. My theoretical work addressing these questions can be found here:

 https://doi.org/10.16993/tellusa.4065

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2025.131218

http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.22894