The interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere are key processes in the weather and climate system. At the surface, the incoming solar radiation is absorbed, transformed and released as turbulent heat into the atmosphere. This energy release into the atmosphere constitutes the main driver of earth’s weather and climate. A precise and profound understanding of the land-atmosphere interactions is therefore a basic prerequisite for an adequate description of earth’s weather and climate system.

Thus, the goal of the junior research group is to improve the understanding of these processes and to optimize their representation in weather and climate models. In this way, we contribute to the development of modern weather and climate models, by which more reliable information on the future development of the weather and climate system can be provided. Such information is of high socio-political relevance. For this purpose, different modeling systems (ICON, COSMO-CLM, PALM4U), working on different spatial scales (from the micro-, and the meso- to the global scale), are applied and combined with innovative machine learning methods (DFG Project about extending MOST). A special research focus is on the impact of land use changes on the regional climate conditions in Europe (LUCAS), and how beneficial afforestation is, in this context, as a regional adaptation strategy to man-made climate change.

Ongoing Projects

• CO2FORKlim: Mehr als nur ein CO2-Speicher – Aufforstungen in Europa neu gedacht funded by Vector foundation
• WCRP CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study LUCAS - Land Use and Climate Across Scales
• DFG Project about extending MOST

Publications

• Publications