Summary

The activities of the department span almost all aspects of the ocean's role in climate dynamics. Areas of interest range from the mechanisms of ocean-climate dynamics and biogeochemistry over glacial-interglacial cycles, to the behaviour of the ocean meridional overturning circulation in a future world with enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations. The main research tools are coupled ocean-atmosphere and Earth system models, but observations, statistical analysis, and data assimilation are also employed to improve the understanding of the past, current, and future ocean. Important initiatives within the department are the development of the ocean component of ICON and the building of a system for decadal climate prediction.

Scientific Working Groups

Director's Research Group (Prof. Dr. Jochem Marotzke)

Numerical Model Development and Data Assimilation (Dr. Peter Korn)

Ocean Statistics (Dr. Jin-Song von Storch)

Ocean Biogeochemistry (Dr. Tatiana Ilyina)

Ocean Physics (Dr. Uwe Mikolajewicz)

MiKlip - Decadal Climate Predictions ( Dr. Wolfgang Müller)

Max Planck Research Group

The Sea Ice in the Earth System (Dr. Dirk Notz)

Max Planck Fellow Group

Coupled Climate System Data Assimilation (Prof. Dr. Detlef Stammer)