Prof. Sarah M. Kang joins the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) as a director on 15 August 2023. Prof. Kang joins the MPI-M from the Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, where she is a professor.
My long-term goal at the institute is to better understand how physical processes, particularly clouds and convection, determine the behavior and sensitivity of the climate system. Probably one of the most important influences on our global and regional climate is the planetary albedo. What is it that determines the distribution of clouds and thus the planetary albedo? How variable can cloud distributions be? How do clouds and moisture processes perturb the system? Modern simulation and…
In the first semesters of my bachelor studies, I got to know the fascinating world and language of mathematics. However, I quickly realized that I would like to apply my knowledge and analytical skills elsewhere, for something that really excites me. I finally found my passion of climate science during the master's program Integrated Climate System Science at the University of Hamburg. I was particularly interested in the interface between natural science and social science perspectives: What…
since Apr 2022: PhD Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg (GER). Quantifying the added value and rate of improvement of underway carbon dioxide data from sailboats.
Jun 2023: SOLAS Summer School, Ocean Science Centre Mindelo, Cabo Verde (CPV)
Oct 2019 - Feb 2022: M.Sc. Marine Environmental Science, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. Thesis: Effect of Light and Upwelling Intensity on the Phytoplankton Community Composition in the…
Jule Radtke, postdoctoral researcher in the joint CLICCS working group on Drivers of Tropical Circulations of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the University of Hamburg, was awarded the Early Career Scientist (ECS) Award at the joint Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) and Global Atmospheric System Studies (GASS) 2023 conference in Paris. The award recognises her poster presentation entitled “Spatial Organization Affects the Pathway to Precipitation in Simulated…
Arctic ponds are important sources of methane emissions, and knowledge on their role in the future methane budget is lacking. A new study led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in collaboration with scientists from Universität Hamburg uses the first specialized model to investigate the response of pond methane emissions to global warming and suggests a substantial increase in emissions mainly driven by more productive and denser vegetation in a warmer world.
Can land receive more rain than the ocean? One might think that the obvious answer is “Yes”. But land and ocean are two components of a coupled system whose moisture fluxes are constrained by the conservation of water. Luca Schmidt and Cathy Hohenegger developed a conceptual model to investigate which atmospheric and land surface processes control the partitioning of precipitation between land and ocean in the tropics. They show that the efficiency of atmospheric moisture transport, determined…
Research interests
I’m interested in land-atmosphere interaction. One specific question is which condition of soil moisture can lead to precipitation. Is it wet soil or dry? But the answer on this question remains open. Studies using global coarse-resolution models have found wet soil leads to precipitation. But such models employ convective parameterization which is one major uncertainty of precipitation. On the other hand, studies using high-resolution regional models have reported that dry…
The summary statement of the Berlin Summit for Earth Virtualization Engines (EVE) issues an impassioned call for international cooperation to advance science and technology so that “Everyone knows how climate and climate change affect them, and where this knowledge empowers them to act”. The Summit Statement, developed and signed by the summit’s participants, succinctly outlines how inadequacies and injustices in how climate information is developed and shared is leaving lives and livelihoods…
since 2021 : PhD student at Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany
2019 - 2021 : M.Tech in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science & Technology
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
2014 - 2018 : B.E in Geoinformatics
Anna University, India
Curriculum Vitae
Research
Planetary rotation,…
My Research
How will clouds behave in a warming world and how will this change feed back to the warming process? This question has occupied scientists for many years. It is especially hard to answer for the smallest clouds, shallow cumulus, as they need high resolutions to be properly represented in climate models. In my PhD project I try to leverage the capabilities of ICON-LES to look at the behaviour of these clouds under global warming conditions in sub-kilometer resolution. I work with…
![[Translate to English:]](/fileadmin/_processed_/2/9/csm_T_Sarah_Kang_Director_02_cf0510a6a5.jpg "[Translate to English:]")
