Summary

The activities of the department span almost all aspects of the ocean's role in climate dynamics. Areas of interest range from the mechanisms of ocean-climate dynamics and biogeochemistry over glacial-interglacial cycles, to the behaviour of the ocean meridional overturning circulation in a future world with enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations. The main research tools are coupled ocean-atmosphere and Earth system models, but observations, statistical analysis, and data assimilation are also employed to improve the understanding of the past, current, and future ocean. Important initiatives within the department are the development of the ocean component of ICON and the building of a system for decadal climate prediction.
 

Scientific Working Groups

Director's Research Group (Prof. Dr. Jochem Marotzke, Dr. Johann Jungclaus)

Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics group (AMCP) (Dr. Peter Korn)

Ocean Energetics (Dr. Jin-Song von Storch)

Ocean Biogeochemistry (Dr. Tatiana Ilyina)

Ocean Physics (Dr. Uwe Mikolajewicz)

Earth System Modelling and Prediction ( Dr. Wolfgang Müller)

The Sea Ice in the Earth System (Prof. Dirk Notz)

Observations, Analysis and Synthesis (Dr. Peter Landschützer)

Climate-Biosphere Interaction (Prof. Dr. Victor Brovkin)