Collaborative study of turbulent clouds could improve climate predictions
Bernhard Mehlig from the Department of Physics is part of an international research team that has been awarded an ERC synergy grant to investigate the role of turbulence in stratocumulus clouds, key to improving weather and climate predictions.
The interdisciplinary team consists of Eberhard Bodenschatz (Göttingen, Germany), Fabian Hoffmann (Berlin, Germany), Bernhard Mehlig (Göteborg), and Pier Siebesma (Delft, Netherlands), and their research groups.
Together the four scientists have been awarded a 13.7 million-euro ERC Ssynergy grant TurPhyCloud – The role or Turbulence in the Physics of Clouds. The goal of the research project is to reduce the uncertainty of climate predictions by understanding the microphysics of stratocumulus clouds. The project is coordinated in Göttingen.
Clouds affect the climate
The researchers focus on stratocumulus clouds because this is the most common cloud type, covering approximately 20 percent of Earth’s surface. Turbulent processes at the stratocumulus cloud top can have a drastic influence upon the overall evolution of the cloud, and upon its properties.
Field campaigns and model development
During the coming six years, the researchers will assess these processes in measurement campaigns on the island Utö (Finland) in the Baltic Sea, using drones (Delft) as well as the CloudKite developed in Göttingen. Using these field data, the scientists will develop models for the turbulent processes in stratocumulus clouds which will be validated by further measurements. By combining numerical approaches and model calculations, the team aims to create a simulation tool that can be incorporated in current weather and climate models.
"It took us many years of model development to arrive at the point where this project becomes possible. To now contribute to solving the stratocumulus problem is tremendously exciting” Bernhard Mehlig comments, and “I really look forward to learn from and work with Eberhard, Fabian, and Pier on field campaigns, cloud simulations, and weather and climate prediction.”
