Mission Statement
We advance climate science by developing high-resolution models, integrating AI, leveraging supercomputing and international collaboration to improve physical understanding, and simulations of climate variability, extremes, and long-term change–providing actionable insights to support adaptation and decision-making.
What we do
In Climate Dynamics section, we deepen our understanding of the ocean, sea ice, and atmosphere, exploring their complex interactions within the broader climate system. Our research covers process understanding, natural variability, predictability, and the profound changes emerging in a warming world, with a particular emphasis on extreme events and their impacts.
We provide robust climate change projections, making climate change more tangible through storyline approaches that illustrate potential impacts, supporting adaptation strategies. The polar regions are a major focus, as we model transformations in these sensitive and rapidly changing environments and their far-reaching effects.
Modeling is at the core of our work. We develop and apply high-resolution, kilometer-scale climate models, including the Finite VolumE Sea ice-Ocean Model (FESOM2) within advanced coupled climate systems (e.g., IFS-FESOM). We also integrate cutting-edge AI, building foundational models for ocean and sea ice dynamics. By leveraging large language models (LLMs), we aim to bridge the gap between complex climate science and accessible, real-world insights.
High-performance computing is essential to our research. We run complex simulations and analyze vast datasets using some of the most powerful supercomputers available—Levante and JUWELS in Germany, LUMI and MareNostrum5 in Europe, and other leading global systems.
We have actively contributed to CMIP6, providing simulations that have supported global climate assessments, and will continue our contributions to CMIP7. In this context, we play a key role in CAP7, a project supporting the development of next-generation climate models to improve our understanding of climate variability, extremes, and long-term change.
We are also deeply engaged in large-scale international projects, including Destination Earth and nextGEMS, and lead major initiatives such as the EU Horizon Europe project EERIE. Through these collaborations, we drive breakthrough research to advance climate understanding and predictive capabilities.
Who we are
We are a team of about 50 scientists, software engineers, and students committed to advancing climate science. With members from over 12 countries across Europe and beyond, we bring together diverse expertise and perspectives in a collaborative, innovative environment.
Key collaborators
Our research is strengthened by collaborations with leading institutions in Germany, Europe, and beyond. In Germany, we work closely with GEOMAR, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, DKRZ, the Jülich Supercomputing Center,and the Universities of Bremen and Hamburg. Across Europe, key partners include the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain, and the CSC IT Center for Science in Finland. Internationally, our collaboration with the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) in South Korea exemplifies our commitment to advancing global climate science.
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