SFB/TRR 181 "Energy Transfer"
Energy transfer in atmosphere and ocean
SFB/TRR 181
Project W2: Scattering and Refraction of Low-Mode Internal Tides by Interaction With Mesoscale Eddies (Janna Köhler, Dirk Olbers, Monika Rhein, Jin-Song von Storch)
Project W4: Gravity Wave Parameterization for the Ocean (Janna Köhler, Dirk Olbers, Friederike Pollmann)
Project W5: Internal Wave Energy Dissipation and Wavenumber Spectra: Adaptive Sampling in the Ocean Interior (Ralf Bachmayer, Maren Walter)
Project L3: Meso- to Submesoscale Turbulence in the Ocean (Alexa Griesel, Maren Walter)
Funding: DFG
Period: 2016 - 2024
- At present, climate models feature energetic inconsistencies, with an error equivalent in magnitude to the energy imbalance of the Earth climate system due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This leads to biases in the models and limits their ability to predict climate-relevant processes and mechanisms which ultimately affect climate projections. To resolve these shortcomings, we need to address model inconsistencies of numerical and mathematical nature by deepening the physical understanding of energy transfers between the three main dynamical regimes in the atmosphere and the ocean, i.e. small-scale turbulence, gravity waves and geostrophically balanced motion. The TRR181 assembles expertise in observational and theoretical physical oceanography and meteorology, numerical modelling, and mathematics to establish an energetically consistent framework of the coupled climate system and to develop physically, mathematically and numerically consistent models for both the atmosphere and the ocean.