SFB/TRR181 "Energy transfers in Atmosphere and Ocean" awarded funding by the DFG

If you ever poured cream into your coffee mug, you know how turbulent currents lead to mixing of liquids. What happens in the mug on a small scale happens similar in the atmosphere and ocean. There, small scale physical processes are connected with global winds and currents, which is important for the global climate.

The researchers of our interdisciplinary project want to investigate turbulent processes and waves to improve climate models and to develop new models with closed energy cycles. “Existing climate models still show energetic and mathematical inconsistencies even with the current progress that has been made. This can lead to fundamental errors with climate forecasts.” says Prof. Carsten Eden, speaker of the project from the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) at Universität Hamburg. “Now is the right time to combine recent efforts in the different disciplines and to pursue new ways.”

The project closely combines the work of oceanographers, meteorologists and mathematicians. The vision is to understand and describe the energy exchange in the climate system, to improve existing and develop new ocean and atmosphere models.

“The long standing cooperation with the University of Bremen is further strengthened by this success. We congratulate the colleagues of our universities and thank them for their effort!” says the president of Universität Hamburg Prof. Dieter Lenzen.

“The collaboration with Hamburg and our partners show that the universities and scientific institutions in northern Germany live cooperation and do their research on the highest level. I am happy that we can further extend our cooperative work with this new project.” says the rector of the University of Bremen, Prof. Bernd Scholz-Reiter.

Universität Hamburg and Bremen applied for funding in the funding program for collaborative research centers (Sonderforschungsbereich/Transregio) of the German Research Foundation. The project involves locations in Hamburg, Bremen and Rostock and is coordinated by the research center CEN at Universität Hamburg. Additional partners are the Jacobs University Bremen, the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Ocean Research, the Leibniz Institute for Atmospheric Research at the University of Rostock, the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Research Warnemünde at the University of Rostock, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht. An extension of the four year project is possible for a maximum of eight years.