Julia Windmiller
| Department | Climate Physics |
| Group | Tropical Cloud Observations |
| Position | Group Leader |
| phone | +49 40 41173-179 |
| julia.windmiller@mpimet.mpg.de | |
| Room | B 431 |
Research interests
The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is a crucial region for the Earth's climate. It is characterised by heavy precipitation and can be clearly seen from space (see e.g. NASA Worldview). Satellite images show that the ITCZ varies greatly from day to day, from almost cloudless to densely overcast, from almost still to hurricane force. My goal is to better understand these changing patterns by combining modern observation methods, advances in scientific theories and the latest climate models.
Publications
- Köhler, L., Windmiller, J., Baranowski, D., Brennek, M., Ciuryło, M., Hayo, L., Kȩpski, D., Kinne, S., Latos, B., Lobo, B., Marke, T., Nischik, T., Paul, D., Stammes, P., Szkop, A. & Tuinder, O. (2025). Calm ocean, stormy sea: atmospheric and oceanographic observations of the Atlantic during the Atlantic References and Convection (ARC) ship campaign. Earth System Science Data, 17(2), 633-659. doi:10.5194/essd-17-633-2025 [publisher-version]
- Windmiller, J. (2024). The calm and variable inner life of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone: the relationship between the doldrums and surface convergence. Geophysical Research Letters, 51: e2024GL109460. doi:10.1029/2024GL109460 [publisher-version]
- Windmiller, J. & Stevens, B. (2024). The inner life of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society: early view. doi:10.1002/qj.4610
- Windmiller, J., Bao, J., Sherwood, S., Schanzer, T. & Fuchs, D. (2023). Predicting convective downdrafts from updrafts and environmental conditions in a global storm resolving simulation. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15: e2022MS003048. doi:10.1029/2022MS003048 [supplementary-material][publisher-version]
- Bao , J. & Windmiller, J. (2021). Impact of microphysics on tropical precipitation extremes in a global storm-resolving model. Geophysical Research Letters, 48: e2021GL094206. doi:10.1029/2021GL094206 [publisher-version][supplementary-material]
- Beucler*, T., Leutwyler*, D. & Windmiller*, J. (2020). Quantifying convective aggregation using the tropical moist margin's length. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 12: e2020MS002092. doi:10.1029/2020MS002092 [publisher-version]
- Stevens, B., Acquistapace, C., Hansen, A., Heinze, R., Klinger, C., Klocke, D., Schubotz, W., Windmiller, J., Adamidis, P., Arka, I., Barlakas, V., Biercamp, J., Brueck, M., Brune, S., Buehler, S., Burkhardt, U., Cioni, G., Costa-Surós, M., Crewell, S., Crueger, T., Deneke, H., Friederichs, P., Henken, C., Hohenegger, C., Jacob, M., Jakub, F., Kalthoff, N., Köhler, M., van Laar, T., Li, P., Lohnert, U., Macke, A., Madenach, N., Mayer, B., Nam, C., Naumann, A., Peters, K., Poll, S., Quaas, J., Röber, N., Rochetin, N., Rybka, H., Scheck, L., Schemann, V., Schnitt, S., Seifert, A., Senf, F., Shapkalijevski, M., Simmer, C., Singh, S., Sourdeval, O., Spickermann, D., Strandgren, J., Tessiot, O., Vercauteren, N., Vial, J., Voigt, A. & Zängl, G. (2020). The added value of large-eddy and storm-resolving models for simulating clouds and precipitation. Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan, 98, 395-435. doi:10.2151/jmsj.2020-021 [publisher-version]
- Windmiller, J. & Hohenegger, C. (2019). Convection on the edge. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11, 3959-3972. doi:10.1029/2019MS001820 [supplementary-material][publisher-version]
- Windmiller, J. & Craig, G. (2019). Universality in the spatial evolution of self-aggregation of tropical convection. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 76, 1677-1696. doi:10.1175/JAS-D-18-0129.1 [publisher-version][supplementary-material]
- Craig, G. & Mack, J. (2013). A coarsening model for self-organization of tropical convection. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 118, 8761-8769. doi:10.1002/jgrd.50674 [publisher-version]
* The authors contributed equally to the corresponding study; their names are listed in alphabetical order.
A recent study on the doldrums, low-wind regions in the tropical Atlantic, provides new evidence that challenges the long-standing hypothesis about their origin. The study was highlighted in an AGU press release and attracted the attention of journals such as Science (image: Julian Wagenhofer).
ORCESTRA: Exploring Tropical Clouds and their Impact on Climate
The ORCESTRA started his performance on August 10th in Cap Verde. The PERCUSION gives the beat by flying back and forth across the belt of deep rain over the tropical Atlantic Ocean...
How do the ups control the downs within deep convective clouds?
In convective storms, the air that goes down is almost as important as the air that goes up. These convective downdrafts influence the termination of updrafts, near surface air properties, surface winds. However, predicting downdrafts under specific atmospheric conditions is difficult because their properties depend on several interrelated processes.
Julia Windmiller becomes new group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Dr. Julia Windmiller is the new scientific head of the group “Tropical Cloud Observations”. The group collects and uses observational data of tropical clouds and atmospheric convection.
Radiosonde measurements of the intertropical convergence zone
On 27 June 2021, the research vessel RV SONNE set off 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. The cruise under the name "Mooring Rescue" served to control and collect scientific measuring buoys in the tropical Atlantic by 15 ocean researchers from different institutions. The aim of the campaign was to investigate how processes on the scale of convective storms, and their interaction with the ocean, influence the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in the Atlantic.
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).
