The #MPIM mourns the loss of one of the most influential researchers in its history: Erich Roeckner passed away in February 2026, at the age of 84. He was known as the developer of the ECHAM atmospheric model, which formed the basis for many generations of climate models used at our institute and contributed to all #IPCC assessment reports. He will be remembered as one of the leading figures of the #ClimateScience community and as a perfect gentleman. 🔗 https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/communication/detail-view-news-homepage/hamburg-climate-researcher-erich-roeckner-has-died
Credit: MPI-M

🌬️❓How are the frequency, strength, and trajectories of storms in the #GermanBight going to change under #GlobalWarming? A study by Daniel Krieger (#MPIM) & Ralf Weisse (@hereon) reveals that most current climate models predict a decrease in #storm activity in the future. However, when storms do occur, they may be more severe than today. One possible explanation is a change in storm tracks, but this needs to be investigated further.
📖 https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-1-2026
📸 Credit: Hereon/Ina Frings

Scientists from across the @maxplanckgesellschaft, including Josipa Zupanic & Vidur Mithal from #MPIM, came together in #Berlin last week to look beyond their research and dive into #SciencePolicy. They explored how science & decision-making interact at national & international levels. The workshop showed how many institutions & processes support the scientific system & how important it is for researchers to engage with them—especially when #FreedomOfScience is under threat.
Credit: Ellen Rumley

📏🌍 How do we know if the Arctic is becoming a carbon source or a sink?

To get the answer, we connect what happens on the ground to global climate models.

As shown in our framework below, we build the bridge layer by layer:
1️. Fieldwork & Observations (The Ground): We start with direct measurements. We use chambers, towers, and drones to track exactly the soil and plants "breathing" CO2 and CH4, the high-resolution reality of the tundra.

#ERC #arctic #mpim

Figure credit: Q-ARCTIC Team

🌊 How ocean eddies affect the intensity of #TropicalCyclones (TCs) 🌪️

A new #MPIM study using a 5km global #ICON simulation shows that TCs crossing more cold than warm eddies intensify more slowly & stay weaker on average, + there is preliminary evidence of the opposite effect when a TC passes over more warm than cold eddies. The global effect is a net weakening. The study suggests that accounting for mesoscale ocean turbulence could improve TC forecasts.
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL116072

📸 © JSC/NASA

Our interdisciplinary team brings together:
📍 MPI-BGC leads the ground-level work using in-situ observations and drone data to quantify regional carbon fluxes.
📍 b.geos GmbH provides the view from above by specializing in high-resolution satellite remote sensing and Arctic mapping.
📍 MPI-M integrates these findings into global models (ICON-LAND) to better simulate land-surface processes.
Together we answer whether the Arctic will remain a carbon sink.
#arctic
#ERC
#MPIM
#HorizonEurope

🌊 Measurements of #CO2 dissolved in the ocean surface are essential to quantify the marine #carbon sink, but data is scarce.
⛵️ #MPIM researcher Jacqueline Behncke et al. investigated if measurements taken on board sailing boats can fill in the blank spots. They found that with existing data, the marine carbon sink is underestimated, but 2 more circumnavigations already improve the estimate. 📖 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adz1502
📸 © Andreas Lindlahr
#TeamMalizia #CitizenScience
@geomar_de @TatianaIlyina

🎉 Thrilled to share that Nils Brüggemann is starting a professorship at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research #ZMT in #Bremen in cooperation with @unibremen! He will oversee the new #TropEcS project to build an Earth system model that links physical, ecological & social processes for better climate projections & resilience in the tropics.

Nils, you will be missed at #MPIM—but we look forward to regular visits & future collaborations.🙌 Have a great start!
🔗 https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/communication/detail-view-news-homepage/nils-brueggemann-appointed-professor-at-zmt-bremen

✨During its last meeting in 2025, the #MPIM social media team ended the year on a sweet note 🍪 & looked back on a successful year.
Some highlights that came to mind included
🎉our anniversary #MPIM50
🌍the #CELLO2025 conference & the global km‑scale #Hackathon
🌥️our guests & new research groups
🖥️and our award-winning #ICON simulations on #Alps & #exa_JUPITER.
Thanks to everyone who's been a part of this journey, including our esteemed followers on this channel!👋
❓What were your highlights in 2025?

🎨Art + Science = Team Building at MPI-M!
🖌️The Climate Dynamics Department of the #MPIM turned their kitchen into a collaborative canvas at their latest #TeamBuilding event. Each of the 12 team members was given 15 minutes to draw on a canvas or piece of paper & then passed it on to the next person to continue the drawing.
The result? A vibrant, collective artwork that now adds a unique charm to the kitchen & reminds everyone of the strong team work. 🖼️What's your favorite team building activity?

💡Surprised by simplicity: #MPIM researchers have derived a useful simplification from idealized Earth system model experiments.📝Victor Brovkin et al. showed that land & ocean #carbon uptake grow proportionally as emissions continue at 10 PgC/yr. The proportionality persists even when emissions are reversed, simplifying carbon‑climate dynamics to a single equation that links atmospheric CO₂ to fossil emissions.#climatescience
📖https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/16/2021/2025/
©FarazHabiballahian/Adobe Stock
@TatianaIlyina

🌊 New ICON Configuration Provides Realistic View of Small Ocean Eddies🌀

#MPIM scientists Moritz Epke et al. have demonstrated that sub-mesoscale eddies can be explicitly + realistically simulated with an innovative configuration of the #ICON ocean model, using a telescope grid. 🔎They achieved a resolution in the #NorthAtlantic < 1km!

Check out what this looks like: https://vimeo.com/1140325844?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
and read the paper: https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-25-0015.1

🌿 Last week, the #MPIM hosted a colloquium on "Vegetation-Climate Interactions," celebrating the 70th birthday of our former director, Prof. Martin Claussen.
The symposium featured talks on the #GreenSahara, past #monsoons, tropical tree‑cover dynamics, and #ClimateModeling—all of which sparked lively discussions.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this event truly memorable! 🥂

#ICON team earns international recognition in #HPC🏆👏
What an outstanding achievement! Using the ICON Earth system model, a team led by #MPIM + #DKRZ successfully simulated the full Earth system at an unprecedented grid spacing of 1.25 km. For this, they received the Gordon Bell Prize for #ClimateModeling, awarded at #SC25. The team also included experts from #JSC, #ETH Zurich, CSCS, #UHH, & #NVIDIA. We're thrilled, proud, & grateful for this wonderful recognition! 🎉
🔗 https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/communication/detail-view-news-homepage/icon-team-receives-international-recognition-for-groundbreaking-achievements-in-high-performance-computing

A team led by #MPIM & #DKRZ has received the prestigious HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award🏆, presented at the #SC25 conference in St. Louis, MO, US. It recognizes a simulation of the full Earth system with the #ICON model at 1.25-km resolution 🌐, which was carried out on the Alps & #exa_JUPITER supercomputers & achieved an unprecedented time compression of 145.7 simulated days per day. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement! 🎉 #HPC #Supercomputing #ClimateModeling
🔗 https://www.hpcwire.com/2025-readers-editors-choice-top-hpc-enabled-scientific-achievement/

🌀 The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation #AMOC is expected to weaken due to the melting of ice in the Arctic. However, many modeling experiments are based on unrealistic assumptions. A new study by Fraser Goldsworth of the #MPIM highlights the limitations of previous experiments & ways to make them more realistic in the future by taking timing⌛ , location📍 , and source of freshwater input 💧into account.

🗺️ Credit: EERIE/MPI-M

📖 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1463500325001027

🎉 Happy 70th Birthday to our former director Prof. Martin Claussen!

🔭 Martin Claussen, a true pioneer in Earth system research, did groundbreaking work on climate-vegetation interactions. He was the first to successfully couple a #ClimateModel with a vegetation zone model, a prerequisite for modeling climate periods of the past! Learn more: https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/communication/detail-view-news-homepage/martin-claussen-celebrates-his-70th-birthday

Thank you for your dedication, leadership, & unwavering commitment to science. Wishing you the very best!✨

#climatescience #MPIM

Is tropical rain belt variability driven by self-organization of #clouds? ⛅️

We're proud to welcome Dr. Tomoro Yanase at #MPIM to investigate this question, together with #MPI_Scientist Cathy Hohenegger. 🌅

They aim to use both idealized & realistic simulations, & #ORCESTRA observations to understand how variations in SST patterns may cause variability in cloudiness across the #ITCZ 🌧️🌊🌍

Dr. Yanase’s #ResearchStay is supported by the @HumboldtStiftung & will last for 1 year from Oct 2025 🙌

🔍 We’re #Hiring: Information & Publication Manager and #Postdocs

📖 Are you passionate about #Science, #DigitalKnowledgeSystems, & open scholarly communication? We offer an opportunity to shape the information & publication services at #MPIM. https://jobs.mpimet.mpg.de/jobposting/f694bd4cd12b83d65861c257346ae4e42e1ab4f10

3️⃣ Postdoc positions are also open—perfect for early-career researchers ready to make an impact: https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/career/job-opportunities
📮 We look forward to receiving your applications!

#Bibliothek #Library #ScienceJobs #OpenAccess

Announcing our new group leader Moritz Günther! 🎉

As of today, Moritz's group is exploring how the land and ocean surfaces shape large-scale atmospheric circulation 🌬️. Above all: how does the coupling of the atmosphere with the land & ocean influence the circulation and its response to global warming? 🌏

Whilst Moritz's group is new, we already know him well at #MPIM. He's very popular for founding the interface seminars and his iconic pink pants!

We look forward to his group's successes! 🌅