Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology: Search

325.

New IPCC Assessment Report: Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying

How has climate changed up until the present? How will it change in the future? Questions like these are answered in the recently published first part of IPCC´s Sixth Assessment Report, which summarizes the scientific facts about climate change. This first part will be supplemented with two more parts in the coming spring, addressing adaptation to potential impacts of climate change and its potential mitigation. A synthesis report of the three parts will be published in autumn 2022.

326.

Past abrupt changes provide evidence of cascading tipping points and ‘early warning signals’ in the Earth system

Can climate change result in a collapse in parts of the Earth system, what impacts would these events have on society, and can they be predicted? In the article published in Nature Geoscience, an international team of natural and social scientists have reviewed abrupt shifts in the Earth's past in order to sharpen their tools for predicting the future. They used well-documented abrupt changes of the past 30 thousand years of geological history to illustrate how abrupt changes propagate through…

327.

The observed impact of mesoscale vertical motion on tropical clouds

A recent study by Geet George, Bjorn Stevens (both from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology) and Marcus Klingebiel (now at Leipzig University) along with Sandrine Bony and Raphaela Vogel (Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Paris) shows that aspects of the atmospheric circulation tend to control low-level cloudiness at the mesoscale (20-200 km) more than the conventionally studied thermodynamic aspects.

328.

Waves and coherent flows in the tropical atmosphere: new opportunities, old challenges

In a review article appearing in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Dr. Claudia Stephan (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology), Prof. Nedjeljka Žagar (Universität Hamburg) and Prof. Ted Shepherd (University of Reading) provide their perspective on present understanding of waves and coherent flows in the atmosphere, and their interaction.

329.

Exploiting large ensembles for a better yet simpler climate model evaluation

In a new study, Dr. Laura Suarez, Dr. Sebastian Milinski and Dr. Nicola Maher evaluate which models best capture the real-world climate with its internal variability and response to external forcings in observed surface temperatures. They used a novel framework that utilizes the unique design and power of SMILE experiments, single model initial-condition large ensembles from fully-coupled, comprehensive climate models.

330.

Cathy Hohenegger successfully habilitated at Universität Hamburg

Dr. Cathy Hohenegger, scientist and leader of the group “Precipitating Convection” at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), was awarded her Habilitation (the highest qualification level in the German university system) on 24 June 2021.

331.

Julia Windmiller co-leads the atmospheric measurements on board RV SONNE

On 27 June 2021, after a 10-day quarantine of the participants, the RV SONNE will set off from Emden under the cruise guidance of Prof. Peter Brandt from GEOMAR in Kiel and co-leader Dr. Julia Windmiller from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M). The cruise under the name "Mooring Rescue" serves to control and collect scientific measuring buoys in the tropical Atlantic by 15 ocean researchers from GEOMAR as well as atmospheric measurements by 9 participants from MPI-M, the Leibniz…

332.

How climate modelling works — Johann Jungclaus involved in establishing new website on climate simulations

Climate neutrality by 2045 is Germany´s goal, and debates on how to get there are in full swing. To achieve it, profound changes are needed. Climate simulations show why this is important. Without them, climate policy remains blind. How climate models work and why they are reliable is explained by the Deutsches Klima-Konsortium (DKK) on the new website https://www.klimasimulationen.de/. Dr Johann Jungclaus, scientist and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M),…

333.

Abrupt CO2 quadrupling: Resolving ocean eddies leads to smaller increase in global mean surface temperature

In a recent study in Geophysical Research Letters, Dr. Dian Putrasahan and colleagues from the department “The Ocean in the Earth System” at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), from Universität Hamburg and from the UK MetOffice Hadley Centre investigated the effect of resolving ocean eddies on global mean surface temperature (GMST) response to increasing CO2 concentrations. They find that resolving eddies leads to a 0.1°C smaller GMST increase under abrupt CO2 quadrupling, and…

334.

Claudia Stephan has been accepted into the Elisabeth Schiemann Kolleg

Dr. Claudia Stephan, Minerva Fast Track group leader in the department “The Atmosphere in the Earth System” at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) has been accepted into the Elisabeth Schiemann Kolleg of the Max Planck Society. She is the first researcher at MPI-M to be included in this select group of outstanding young female scientists. Claudia Stephan came to MPI-M in May 2018 with a PhD from the University of Colorado, USA. She was awarded a Minerva Fast Track position by…

335.

Only eddy-resolving models capture the complete range of AMOC responses to surface winds

In a new paper, Veit Lüschow, Jin-Song von Storch and Jochem Marotzke from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology show that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation could respond unexpectedly to anticipated future changes in the winds near Antarctica: Besides increasing the northward transport of warm water near the surface, stronger winds in the Southern Ocean might also lead to a drastic weakening of the bottom circulation.

336.

The Arctic polar vortex response to volcanic forcing of different strengths

Large volcanic eruptions can inject sulfur containing gases into the stratosphere where they build sulfate aerosols. These particles, on the one hand, scatter incoming sunlight away from the Earth, resulting in a temporary global mean surface cooling. On the other hand, they absorb infrared radiation and thereby warm the lower stratosphere. These temperature anomalies have consequences for atmospheric circulation which are still not well understood.