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Henning Franke

Department Climate Physics
Group Climate Surface Interaction
Position Postdoc
phone +49 40 41173-354
Email henning.franke@mpimet.mpg.de
Room B 406

My research focuses on using next-generation km-scale general circulation models to understand fundamental aspects of various atmospheric circulation systems — ranging from local thunderstorms up to global-scale wind systems. Km-scale models explicitly resolve, rather than parameterize, atmospheric convection and gravity waves, allowing for a much more detailed understanding of these processes and their role in different circulation systems. I’m particularly interested in using my scientific discoveries to further develop these models.

During my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, I used the km-scale model ICON to understand the role of small-scale atmospheric gravity waves for the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) in the tropical stratosphere and how the gravity wave forcing of the QBO and the QBO itself might change in a warming climate. I showed that the gravity wave forcing of the QBO is likely to become stronger and to shift to faster absolute phase speeds — favoring an acceleration and strengthening of the QBO. I also found out that in a km-scale model without a parameterization of deep convection and gravity waves, the QBO is strongly dependent on parameterized diffusion — potentially indicating a crucial role of small-scale turbulent processes in driving the QBO.

During my Postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, I am using simulations with the km-scale ICON model to study the coupling of the ocean and the atmosphere in the tropics. I focus on understanding the role of oceanic mesoscale structures, such as sea surface temperature gradients or ocean surface waves, in triggering atmospheric convection.

I believe that km-scale general circulation models have great potential to advance our understanding of the atmosphere. With my work, I want to contribute to fully exploit this potential every day.

H. Franke, M. A. Giorgetta: Toward the direct simulation of the quasi-biennial oscillation in a global storm-resolving model, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024MS004381, 2024.

H. Franke, P. Preusse, M. A. Giorgetta: Changes of tropical gravity waves and the quasi-biennial oscillation in storm-resolving simulations of idealized global warming, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.4534, 2023.

I. Quaglia, C. Timmreck, U. Niemeier, D. Visioni, G. Pitari, C. Brühl, S. Dhomse, H. Franke, A. Laakso, G. Mann, E. Rozanov, T. Sukhodolov: Interactive Stratospheric Aerosol models' response to different amounts and altitudes of SO2injections during the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, Atmos. Chem. Phys., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-921-2023, 2023.

M. A. Giorgetta, W. Sawyer, X. Lapillonne, P. Adamidis, D. Alexeev, V. Clément, R. Dietlicher, J. F. Engels, M. Esch, H. Franke, C. Frauen, W. M. Hannah, B. R. Hillman, L. Kornblueh, P. Marti, M. R. Norman, R. Pincus, S. Rast, D. Reinert, R. Schnur, U. Schulzweida, and B. Stevens: The ICON-A model for direct QBO simulations on GPUs (version icon-cscs:baf28a514), Geoscientific Model Development, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6985-2022, 2022.

D. K. Weisenstein, D. Visioni, H. Franke, U. Niemeier, S. Vattioni, G. Chiodo, T. Peter, and D. W. Keith: A Model Intercomparison of Stratospheric Solar Geoengineering by Accumulation-Mode Sulfate Aerosols, Atmos. Chem. Phys., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2955-2022, 2022.

H. Franke, U. Niemeier, D. Visioni: Differences in the quasi-biennial oscillation response to stratospheric aerosol modification depending on injection strategy and species, Atmos. Chem. Phys., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8615-2021, 2021.

Postdoc, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (since 2025)
Investigating the influence of mesoscale ocean properties on tropical convection using coupled km-scale ICON simulations
Supervision: Dr. Cathy Hohenegger

Postdoc, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (2024)
Investigating the influence of the model setup on the representation of the quasi-biennial oscillation in km-scale ICON simulations
Supervision: Dr. Marco Giorgetta

Ph.D. Earth System Sciences, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (2020 – 2024)
PhD Thesis: The quasi-biennial oscillation in a warming climate
Supervision: Dr. Marco Giorgetta, Dr. Ulrike Niemeier, Prof. Bjorn Stevens

M.Sc. Meteorology, University of Hamburg (2017 – 2020)
Master's Thesis: Stratospheric Injection of Sulfur - Injection of H2SO4 Compared to Injection of SO2
Supervision: Dr. Ulrike Niemeier, Prof. Stefan Bühler

B.Sc. Meteorology, University of Hamburg (2014 – 2018)
Bachelor's Thesis: Cloud Correlations in Tropical Convection
Supervision: Dr. Jan O. Härter, Prof. Stefan Bühler

More information

An oscillating wind system in the tropical stratosphere: future evolution and new projections

The “quasi-biennial oscillation” (QBO) is a well-known wind system characterized by alternating layers of westerly and easterly winds encircling the whole globe that descend through the equatorial stratosphere with a roughly two year periodicity. However, so far it has been still uncertain how the QBO may change due to global warming. A team of scientists led by researcher Henning Franke from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology...

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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). [...] Julia Windmiller is accompanied by Henning Franke and Katharina Stolla from the department "The Atmosphere in the Earth System" as well as Ilaria Quaglia, who is currently a guest at the MPI-M.

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