From September 23 to 25, 2024, around 70 researchers met in the German city of Lüneburg to kick off the third funding phase of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre “Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean” (TRR 181) of the German Research Foundation (DFG). TRR 181 focusses on cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional research to improve the description of small-scale processes in climate models with the aim of improving future climate scenario calculations. A total of 12 partner institutions, including the IOW, are working together under the lead of the University of Hamburg. Funding for the third funding phase until June 2028 totals around 15 million euros.

The three-day retreat in Lüneburg provided a perfect setting for the large, cross-institutional TRR 181 community to meet up again for stimulating talks and discussions, to reflect on what has been achieved so far and to plan the next steps of the third and final TRR181 phase in intensive breakout groups. More on the retreat’s programme and topics at https://www.trr-energytransfers.de/news/article/annual-retreat-2024

TRR 181 – Background
Climate is driven by processes in the atmosphere and oceans that lead to the exchange of energy and matter between the two. This involves causal links between local processes and ocean currents as well as wind systems on a global scale: Turbulence and waves in the ocean and the atmosphere, which occur in a time range of seconds to days and on spatial scales ranging from centimetres to hundreds of kilometres, have a major influence on this exchange and can therefore be of decisive importance for the global climate.

When TRR 181 began its work in 2016, the focus was on researching many of these fundamental wave and turbulence aspects and, above all, their correct physical description in global climate models. Since then, numerous new parameterisations and numerical methods have been developed, which have already been implemented in the two most important German climate models. The third phase of the project will now focus on applying these improved, more accurate models.

Furthermore, particular attention will continue to be devoted to the promotion of young scientists. “It is really very exciting to see how, over the 12 years of this large project, young scientists have developed over various career steps into prolific researchers in marine and atmospheric research,” comments Hans Burchard from the IOW. The physical oceanographer is a TRR181 board member and one of the leaders of the sub-project “Diagnostics of numerical mixing in ocean models”. The sub-project leaders for the TRR 181 topics “Multiscale Atmosphere-Ocean Coupling” (Lars Umlauf) and “Energy transfers between eddies and waves” (Manita Chouksey) are also based at the IOW.