Alfred-Wegener-Lecture in Climate Sciences
Every other year the climate sciences division of the Alfred Wegener Institute invites a distinguished scientist in climate sciences for a lecture on emerging fields of research and for scientific exchange.
This biennial lecture series was opened by Prof. Timothy N. Palmer of the University of Oxford, UK. With his talk on "(Five Reasons For) The Probabilistic Earth-System Model" he launched the lecture series at the "Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum" in Bremerhaven.
In 2015 Prof. Lynne D. Talley, Scripps Institution of Oceanography elaborated the "Role of the Southern Ocean in the Global Overturning Circulation". About a hundred colleagues from Bremen and Bremerhaven attended this event and witnessed a surprising turn in the lecture, linking tectonic plates boundaries, sea ice edges and atmospheric fronts.
Our 4th lecture was on the 22nd of September 2022 with Prof. Jean-Louis Tison from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
Prof. Jean-Louis Tison is an expert on the physics and biogeochemistry of glacial and sea ice.
His abstract was and title of the lecture was: SEA ICE: A Dynamic Physical and Biogeochemical Interface between Ocean and Atmosphere
Sea ice, the frozen ocean in both polar regions, has a well-known impact on the Earth’s albedo, deep water mass formation and energy and matter exchanges between the Ocean and the Atmosphere. It has long been (and still mostly is) considered as a passive insulator between the Ocean and the Atmosphere, especially in global modelling approaches. More recently, however, it has also been shown to be one of the most extended ecosystem on Earth, with a life of its own, where complex microphysical processes combined with active internal biogeochemical processes might still challenge the view of the “passive blanket”, with potential climatic and economic impacts. This seminar will walk you through the various aspects of this thrilling enigma, wealthy in future scientific challenges, with perspectives from combined experimental, field and modelling approaches.
The 5th lecture in our series took place on November 9th, 2023 with Henk A. Dijkstra. His abstract and title of his lecture was: Tipping of the Atlantic Ocean Circulation
Henk A. Dijkstra is professor of Dynamical Oceanography at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht and director of the Centre for Complex Systems Studies within the Department of Physics of Utrecht University. He was trained as an applied mathematician and held positions at the University of Groningen, Cornell University, and Colorado State University. His main research interests are on climate variability, in particular climate transitions, with a focus on the role of the oceans. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and in 2005, he received the Lewis Fry Richardson medal from the European Geosciences Union. In 2021, he was awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council.
Our upcoming lecture is scheduled for September 3rd, 2024, featuring Peter Dueben from ECMWF
His abstract and title of his lecture was: The Digital Revolution of Earth System Modelling
Peter Dueben is the Head of the Earth System Modelling Section at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) developing one of the world’s leading global weather forecast model. Before, he was AI and Machine Learning Coordinator at ECMWF and University Research Fellowship of the Royal Society performing research towards the use of machine learning, high-performance computing, and reduced numerical precision in weather and climate simulations. Peter is coordinator of the MAELSTROM EuroHPC-Joint Undertaking project that is implementing a software/hardware co-design cycle to optimise performance and quality of machine learning applications in the area of weather and climate science.