Current climate change in a broader context.

Research focus

The climate system is changing at unprecedented rates. Understanding the human influence compared to natural variability and natural forcings is critical for predicting the current and future course of global climate.

We investigate the dynamics that give rise to large-scale patterns of surface temperature, rainfall, winds, ocean currents and sea surface elevation, as well as to changes in these patterns over time. Such dynamics act on a wide range of time scales, from days or seasons to centuries and beyond.

Examples of dynamics on the time scale of days are midlatitude weather systems. For seasons it will be monsoons, when they occur and their intensity. When we look at the time scale of centuries and beyond, the large patterns are important, such as variation in the ocean thermohaline circulation, interactions with changing continents, topography, greenhouse gases and solar radiation.

We are interested in how such key processes give rise to past, present and future climate conditions.

Keywords: teleconnections, interactions and feedbacks, predictability, storms and storm tracks, ocean circulation and ventilation, climate and human evolution, tropical variability, Atlantic-European climate, past warm climates