Welcome to the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), Hamburg
The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) is an internationally renowned institute for climate research. Its mission is to understand Earth's changing climate.
The MPI-M comprises three departments:
The Atmosphere in the Earth System
The Land in the Earth System
The Ocean in the Earth System
and three independent research groups:
Scientists at the MPI-M investigate what determines the sensitivity of the Earth system to perturbations such as the changing composition of its atmosphere, and work toward establishing the sources and limits of predictability within the Earth system. MPI-M develops and analyses sophisticated models of the Earth system, which simulate the processes within atmosphere, land and ocean. Such models have developed into important tools for understanding the behaviour of our climate, and they form the basis for international assessments of climate change. Targeted in-situ measurements and satellite observations complement the model simulations.
Together with several other non-university research institutions the MPI-M and the 
University of Hamburg constitute the KlimaCampus, a centre of excellence for climate research and education in Hamburg, Germany.
Focus on
Water in the Atmosphere
Two recent papers of the atmospheric scientists Prof. Dr. Bjorn Stevens and Dr. Sandrine Bony address the Earth system´s essential component: water (in: "Science" and "Physics Today"). Prof. Stevens is Managing Director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg and leader of the department "The Atmosphere in the Earth system". Dr. Bony works at the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) in Paris.
In an overview article in "Physics Today", the authors address the essential role of water in the atmosphere. Water - H2O - is a small molecule with big impact. It exists in Earth's atmosphere in all three states of matter (solid, liquid, gas), with the distribution of each being strongly regulated by temperature. Water also interacts strongly with radiation, both in condensed and vapor forms and is the most important atmospheric constituent for Earth's energy cycle. Read more.
