Max Planck Institute for Meteorology: Search

421.

Could the deglaciation of Snowball Earth have started in the mid-latitudes?

A new study, led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), investigates the question which conditions could have triggered the terminal deglaciation of a hard Snowball Earth. Philipp de Vrese, Tobias Stacke, Jeremy Caves Rugenstein, Jason Goodman and Victor Brovkin found that the thawing of a fully glaciated planet could have started at comparatively low atmospheric CO2-levels as a result of low surface albedos in the mid-latitudes due to a combination of high dust…

422.

Response of high-latitude ecosystems to temperature overshoot scenarios

High-latitude soils contain almost twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and the fate of this frozen organic matter under ongoing climate change is not well understood. Two recent studies led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) are focused on the response of high-latitude ecosystems to temperature overshoots – climate pathways that are becoming more and more likely if we are to stabilize global temperatures at a desirable level. Philipp de Vrese, Victor Brovkin,…

423.

Relative humidity is key in quantifying Earth’s changing climate sensitivity

In a new paper by Stella Bourdin, Lukas Kluft and Bjorn Stevens the authors found a dependence of climate sensitivity on the given distribution of relative humidity. Lead author Stella Bourdin visited the department “The Atmosphere in the Earth System” at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology for an internship when she was a masters student from École Centrale Paris and is now a PhD candidate within the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE/IPSL, Paris-Saclay…

424.

The Gender Equality Plan of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology: Equal opportunities for MPI-M employees

The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) has renewed its Gender Equality Plan (GEP) to further facilitate equal opportunities for all genders and to support compatibility for family life and career. The GEP of MPI-M is an institute specific policy, which responds to guidelines set forth by the Max Planck Society. In it, targets and actions are identified, pooled and coordinated to advance equality of opportunity. The renewed GEP was drafted by the gender equality officers Andrea…

425.

Ozone, air chemistry, Earth-system science, environmental modeling — researcher portrait Guy Brasseur

Collage: Brasseur in front of ozone molecules

The recently published book “The Ozone Layer, From Discovery to Recovery” is a fascinating reading from the discovery of ozone in the 19th century through the late 20th century international agreements to protect humanity from the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere. The author portrays the evolution of scientific knowledge on air quality issues and stratospheric chemistry and dynamics (Brasseur, 2020a). The book is easy to read and understand, just like a science history novel. The author…

426.

Climate response to emissions reductions due to COVID-19: Initial results from CovidMIP

In a new publication in Geophysical Research Letters led by Chris D. Jones from the Met Office Hadley Centre, in Exeter, UK, a group of 49 scientists from different institutions including Wolfgang Müller, Tatiana Ilyina, Claudia Timmreck, Hongmei Li, and Michael Botzet from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), addressed one of the currently most timely questions, how reduced emissions of aerosols and greenhouse gases during the lockdown restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic in…

427.

Documentation of JSBACH published

Title by C.H. Reick employing a painting by Dieter Reick (2003).

Today, JSBACH is the land component of the two Earth System models at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), MPI-ESM and ICON-ESM. Work on it started in the early 2000s. At that time, Ernst Maier-Reimer was already routinely using his HAMOCC model of ocean biogeochemistry in the ocean-atmosphere coupled model MPI-OM/ECHAM (in those days worldwide known as "the" MPI model). To close the global carbon cycle and thereby make the MPI model a true Earth System model, only the necessary…

428.

Climate effect of trade-wind clouds – bridging the gap between hectometer and kilometer simulations

In a new study Jule Radtke, Dr Cathy Hohenegger and Prof Thorsten Mauritsen have investigated the representation and climate feedback of trade-wind clouds in high-resolution simulations while degrading the horizontal resolution from hectometre (large-eddy resolving) to kilometre (convective storm resolving) scales. They found that the cloud feedback is positive when simulated with kilometre but near zero when simulated with hectometre horizontal resolution.

429.

More accurate quantification of model-to-model agreement

In a new study scientists Dr Nicola Maher and Prof Jochem Marotzke from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in collaboration with Prof Scott Power from Monash University (Melbourne) have more accurately quantified model-to-model agreement in strongly forced long-term projections of temperature, precipitation, and their temporal variability.

430.

Predicting the global carbon cycle to support decision-making related to carbon management

Still picture of a visualization showing the evolution of atmospheric CO2 concentration in a MPI-ESM simulation

In a recent study Dr. Tatiana Ilyina, Dr. Hongmei Li, Aaron Spring and Dr. Wolfgang Müller, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, and a team of international colleagues used a set of prediction systems based on Earth-system models to establish predictive skills of the ocean and land carbon sinks and to infer predictability of the atmospheric CO2 growth rate. They found an emerging capacity of the initialized Earth-system model simulations for predicting the global carbon cycle.

431.

Meteorological Society of Japan Publication Award for HD(CP)2 Added Value Paper

A group of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) were recognized for their co-authorship of the paper "The added value of large-eddy and storm-resolving models for simulating clouds and precipitation”, which was awarded the 2020 Meteorological Society of Japan Publication Award. The paper demonstrates the ability of models run at hecto- and kilo-meter scales, to surmount long standing obstacles hindering more accurate climate predictions. Models run at kilometer scales…

432.

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 began to retreat, reaching their present extent about 8,000 to 6,000 years ago. The beginning of the Holocene, the geologic period in which we now live, is dated to about 11,000 years before present, after the last major climate oscillation in the transition from the Ice Age to the present warm phase. The climate and climate changes of the Holocene…