Welcome to the Collaborative Research Center TRR 181 ”Energy Transfers in Atmosphere and Ocean“
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About the project
Energy does not vanish
The energy of a closed system is steady. It is not lost but rather converted into other forms, such as when kinetic energy is transferred into thermal energy or vice versa heat results in a force.
However, this fundamental principle of natural science is often still a problem for climate research. For example, in case of the calculation of ocean currents, where small-scale vortices as well as mixing processes they induce need to be considered, without fully understanding where the energy for their creation originates from. This is similar in the atmosphere, the only difference being that air is moving instead of water. Again, local turbulences can drive larger movements or vice versa waves on a larger scale can disintegrate into small structures.
All these processes are important for the Earth’s climate and determine how temperatures will rise in the future.
Being Part of the Team: What TRR 181 PhDs say
Existing climate models show energetic and mathematical inconsistencies which may lead to fundamental errors in climate forecasts. Now is the right time to combine recent efforts in Meteorology, Oceanography and applied Mathematics and to go new ways.
News
"FS Sonne” reaches first mooring site

The research ship "FS Sonne" cast off on March 20 in the North Sea and will be on the Atlantic Ocean for 67 days to do research activities and collect data from the mooring stations. more ›
TRR 181 Newsletter "Energy Inflow" - March 2021

Our newsletter comes out every three months and includes information about the work done in our project and more. more ›
Successful first Digital Winter School of Phase 2

From March 10-12, 2021 our new PhDs of Phase 2 met online to get an introduction of the project's topics. Up to 60 TRR 181 members gathered in the three-day Zoom meeting, we are amazed by the positive spirit of everyone! more ›
Upcoming Events
RTG Meeting for PhDs and Postdocs
We’ll meet every second Thursday for 1.5h, starting next week on the 25th at 3 p.m. more ›
IDEMIX and more: Discussion meeting on flow decomposition
We discuss (ocean) modeling topics related but not limited to IDEMIX that link TRR scientists across subprojects and institutions on Tuesday, 11am. more ›
TRR 181 Seminar "Subgrid parameterizations of quasi-2d turbulence and implementation in NEMO ocean model" by Pavel Perezhogin
The TRR 181 seminar is held every other week in the semester and as announced during semester break. The locations of the seminar changes between the three TRR181 locations, but is broadcastet online for all members of the TRR. more ›
Latest Publications
Lorenz, M., Klingbeil, K. & Burchard, H. (2021). Impact of evaporation and precipitation on estuarine mixing relations. J. Phys. Oceanogr., doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0158.1.
Ma, Q., Lembo, V. & Franzke, C. L. (2021). The Lorenz energy cycle: trends and the impact of modes of climate variability. Tellus A, doi: 10.1080/16000870.2021.1900033
Chrysagi, E., Umlauf, L., Holtermann, P., Klingbeil, K. & Burchard, H. (2021). High‐resolution simulations of submesoscale processes in the Baltic Sea: The role of storm events. J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016411.