Stefan Rahmstorf

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Stefan Rahmstorf
Stefan Rahmstorf, 2013 (cropped).jpg
Rahmstorf in 2013
Born (1960-02-22) 22 February 1960 (age 63)
Karlsruhe, Germany
NationalityGerman
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields Oceanography
Institutions Potsdam University
Thesis An oceanic mixing model : application to global climate and to the New Zealand West Coast  (1990)

Stefan Rahmstorf (born 22 February 1960) is a German oceanographer and climatologist. Since 2000, he has been a Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University. He studied physical oceanography at Bangor University and received his Ph.D. in oceanography from Victoria University of Wellington (1990). His work focuses on the role of ocean currents in climate change. [1] He was one of the lead authors of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. [1]

Contents

Public role

Rahmstorf is a co-founder of the blog Real Climate, which has been described by Nature as one of the top-5 science blogs in 2006, [2] and included among the 15 best environmental websites by Time in 2008. [3] He also co-founded the German blog KlimaLounge. [4] KlimaLounge won the 3rd prize of the science blog award of 2013. [5] He is a frequent contributor of articles on climate and climate change/global warming in the popular press, some of which are internationally syndicated via Project Syndicate. [6] He writes a regular column in the German environmental magazine Zeo2, [7] and has published the children's science book Wolken, Wind und Wetter (Clouds, Wind, and Weather) on weather and climate. [8] [9] The book was selected as Environmental Book of the Month for January 2012 by the Deutsche Umweltstiftung. [10] In addition, it was later voted Environmental Book of the Year 2012. [11]

Rahmstorf has commented on climate change and climate policy on TV and radio. [12] [13] [14] He was portrayed as one of the world's 10 leading climate scientists by the Financial Times in 2009. [15] The ARD presented a portrait of Rahmstorf in their prime news magazine Tagesthemen when he received the Deutscher Umweltmedienpreis (German Environmental Media Award) in 2007. [16]

Work

The University of Flensburg found that among all climate scientists from Germany, Rahmstorf published the largest number of studies which ranked amongst the most-cited in the scientific literature during the years 1994–2013. [17] Rahmstorf was a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) from 2004 till 2013. [18]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

An overview of Rahmstorf's publications can be found at his Google Scholar profile.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Niño–Southern Oscillation</span> Physical oceanography

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics. The warming phase of the sea temperature is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña. The Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component, coupled with the sea temperature change: El Niño is accompanied by high air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific and La Niña with low air surface pressure there. The two periods last several months each and typically occur every few years with varying intensity per period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean current</span> Directional mass flow of oceanic water generated by external or internal forces

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, shoreline configurations, and interactions with other currents influence a current's direction and strength. Ocean currents are primarily horizontal water movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thermohaline circulation</span> Part of large-scale ocean circulation

Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes. The adjective thermohaline derives from thermo- referring to temperature and -haline referring to salt content, factors which together determine the density of sea water. Wind-driven surface currents travel polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling en route, and eventually sinking at high latitudes. This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters upwell in the North Pacific. Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth's oceans a global system. The water in these circuits transport both energy and mass around the globe. As such, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of the Earth.

Rossby waves, also known as planetary waves, are a type of inertial wave naturally occurring in rotating fluids. They were first identified by Sweden-born American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby. They are observed in the atmospheres and oceans of Earth and other planets, owing to the rotation of Earth or of the planet involved. Atmospheric Rossby waves on Earth are giant meanders in high-altitude winds that have a major influence on weather. These waves are associated with pressure systems and the jet stream. Oceanic Rossby waves move along the thermocline: the boundary between the warm upper layer and the cold deeper part of the ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dansgaard–Oeschger event</span> Rapid climate fluctuation in the last glacial period.

Dansgaard–Oeschger events, named after palaeoclimatologists Willi Dansgaard and Hans Oeschger, are rapid climate fluctuations that occurred 25 times during the last glacial period. Some scientists say that the events occur quasi-periodically with a recurrence time being a multiple of 1,470 years, but this is debated. The comparable climate cyclicity during the Holocene is referred to as Bond events.

<i>RealClimate</i> Blog on climatology

RealClimate is a commentary site (blog) on climatology. The site's contributors include climate scientists whose goal is to provide a response to developing stories and a context they feel is sometimes missing in mainstream commentary on climate science and climate change. The forum is moderated, and is restricted to scientific topics to avoid discussion of political or economic implications of the science. RealClimate was launched on 10 December 2004 by nine climate scientists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate sensitivity</span> Change in Earths temperature caused by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations

Climate sensitivity is a measure of how much Earth's surface will cool or warm after a specified factor causes a change in its climate system, such as how much it will warm for a doubling in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. In technical terms, climate sensitivity is the average change in global mean surface temperature in response to a radiative forcing, which drives a difference between Earth's incoming and outgoing energy. Climate sensitivity is a key measure in climate science, and a focus area for climate scientists, who want to understand the ultimate consequences of anthropogenic global warming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich event</span> Large groups of icebergs traverse the North Atlantic.

A Heinrich event is a natural phenomenon in which large groups of icebergs break off from the Laurentide Ice Sheet and traverse the Hudson Strait into the North Atlantic. First described by marine geologist Hartmut Heinrich, they occurred during five of the last seven glacial periods over the past 640,000 years. Heinrich events are particularly well documented for the last glacial period but notably absent from the penultimate glaciation. The icebergs contained rock mass that had been eroded by the glaciers, and as they melted, this material was dropped to the sea floor as ice rafted debris forming deposits called Heinrich layers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abrupt climate change</span>

An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance, and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing, though it may include sudden forcing events such as meteorite impacts. Abrupt climate change therefore is a variation beyond the variability of a climate. Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse, Younger Dryas, Dansgaard-Oeschger events, Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. The term is also used within the context of climate change to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime, possibly as the result of feedback loops within the climate system or tipping points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic meridional overturning circulation</span> System of currents in the Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is part of a global thermohaline circulation in the oceans and is the zonally integrated component of surface and deep currents in the Atlantic Ocean. It is characterized by a northward flow of warm, salty water in the upper layers of the Atlantic, and a southward flow of colder, deep waters. These "limbs" are linked by regions of overturning in the Nordic and Labrador Seas and the Southern Ocean, although the extent of overturning in the Labrador Sea is disputed. The AMOC is an important component of the Earth's climate system, and is a result of both atmospheric and thermohaline drivers.

Ján Veizer is the Distinguished University Professor (emeritus) of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa and Institute for Geology, Mineralogy und Geophysics, of Bochum Ruhr University. He held the NSERC/Noranda/CIFAR Industrial Chair in Earth System Isotope and Environmental Geochemistry until 2004. He is an isotope geochemist; his research interests have included the use of chemical and isotopic techniques in determining Earth's climatic and environmental history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean heat content</span> Thermal energy stored in ocean water

Ocean heat content (OHC) is the energy absorbed and stored by oceans. Between 1971 and 2018, the rise in OHC accounts for over 90% of Earth’s excess thermal energy from global heating. The main driver of this OHC increase was most likely anthropogenic forcing via rising greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, about one third of the added energy had propagated to depths below 700 meters. Ocean heat content and sea level rise are important indicators of climate change. The term is used in oceanography and climatology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tipping points in the climate system</span> Large and possibly irreversible changes in the climate system

In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to large and often irreversible changes in the climate system. If tipping points are crossed, they are likely to have severe impacts on human society. Tipping behaviour is found across the climate system, in ecosystems, ice sheets, and the circulation of the ocean and atmosphere.

Timothy Michael LentonFGS FLS FRSB is Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. In April 2013 he was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. He graduated with a first-class degree in natural sciences from Robinson College, Cambridge in 1994 and completed his PhD under Andrew Watson at the University of East Anglia in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean temperature</span> Physical quantity that expresses hot and cold in ocean water

The ocean temperature varies by depth, geographical location and season. Both the temperature and salinity of ocean water differs. Warm surface water is generally saltier than the cooler deep or polar waters; in polar regions, the upper layers of ocean water are cold and fresh. Deep ocean water is cold, salty water found deep below the surface of Earth's oceans. This water has a very uniform temperature, around 0-3 °C. The ocean temperature also depends on the amount of solar radiation falling on its surface. In the tropics, with the Sun nearly overhead, the temperature of the surface layers can rise to over 30 °C (86 °F) while near the poles the temperature in equilibrium with the sea ice is about −2 °C (28 °F). There is a continuous circulation of water in the oceans. Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes. Warm surface currents cool as they move away from the tropics, and the water becomes denser and sinks. The cold water moves back towards the equator as a deep sea current, driven by changes in the temperature and density of the water, before eventually welling up again towards the surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold blob</span> Cold temperature anomaly North Atlantic surface waters

The cold blob in the North Atlantic describes a cold temperature anomaly of ocean surface waters, affecting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which is part of the thermohaline circulation, possibly related to global warming-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Haug</span> German geologic climatologist

Gerald H. Haug is a German geologic climatologist, prize winner of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and since 2007 he has a professorship at the ETH Zürich in Switzerland. In 2015 he became director of the Climate Geochemistry Department and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz and since March 2020, he became the new President of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon budget</span> Limit on carbon dioxide emission for a given climate impact

A carbon budget is "the maximum amount of cumulative net global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions that would result in limiting global warming to a given level with a given probability, taking into account the effect of other anthropogenic climate forcers". When expressed relative to the pre-industrial period it is referred to as the Total Carbon Budget, and when expressed from a recent specified date it is referred to as the Remaining Carbon Budget.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is a large system of ocean currents, like a conveyor belt. It is driven by differences in temperature and salt content and it is an important component of the climate system. However, the AMOC is not a static feature of global circulation. It is sensitive to changes in temperature, salinity and atmospheric forcings. Climate reconstructions from δ18O proxies from Greenland reveal an abrupt transition in global temperature about every 1470 years. These changes may be due to changes in ocean circulation, which suggests that there are two equilibria possible in the AMOC. Stommel made a two-box model in 1961 which showed two different states of the AMOC are possible on a single hemisphere. Stommel’s result with an ocean box model has initiated studies using three dimensional ocean circulation models, confirming the existence of multiple equilibria in the AMOC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulrike Lohmann</span> German climate researcher

Ulrike Lohmann is a climate researcher and professor for atmospheric physics at the ETH Zurich. She is known for her research on aerosol particles in clouds.

References

  1. 1 2 Stefan Rahmstorf | Curriculum Vitae
  2. "Top five science blogs". Nature . 442 (9): 9. 2006. Bibcode:2006Natur.442....9.. doi: 10.1038/442009a . PMID   16823420.
  3. Roston, Eric (17 April 2008). "RealClimate". Time . Archived from the original on 21 April 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  4. "KlimaLounge - Über das Blog". SciLogs. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  5. Wissenschaft kommuniziert | Prosit 2014 – Der Wissenschafts-Blog des Jahres 2013 ist gewählt , 2. Januar 2014
  6. "Project Syndicate - Author's Bio". Project Syndicate . Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  7. "Zeo2 - Stefan Rahmstorf" . Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  8. Rahmstorf, Stefan. "Buchtipp: Wolken, Wind & Wetter" . Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  9. "Stefan Rahmstorf "Wolken, Wind und Wetter" - Buchmesse 2011". Hessischer Rundfunk . 29 September 2011. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  10. "Umweltbuch des Monats Januar 2012: "Wolken, Wind & Wetter"". Deutsche Umweltstiftung. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  11. "Umweltbuch des Jahres 2012: "Wolken, Wind & Wetter"". Deutsche Umweltstiftung. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  12. "Klimagipfel: "Die Zeit läuft davon"". Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen . 12 December 2011. Archived from the original on 1 January 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  13. "Das Kyoto-Protokoll galt ja nur für die Industriestaaten". Deutschlandfunk . 12 December 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  14. "Was dem Klima schadet". Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg . 28 November 2011. Archived from the original on 6 February 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  15. de Castella, Tom (20 November 2009). "Top climate scientists share their outlook" . Financial Times . Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  16. "Klimaschutz: Gore und UN-Klimarat mit Friedensnobelpreis ausgezeichnet". ARD . 10 December 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  17. Bernd Sommer (13 March 2014). "Die zehn meistzitierten Klimastudien aus Deutschland der Jahre 1994-2013" (PDF). Universität Flensburg.
  18. "WBGU Advisory Council on Global Change" . Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  19. AGU (2017). "2017 AGU Union Medal, Award, and Prize Recipients Announced".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. PIK (17 February 2010). "Stefan Rahmstorf elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union".
  21. Schiermeier, Quirin; Tollefson, Jeff (12 October 2007). "a Nobel cause". Nature News. doi:10.1038/news.2007.164 . Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  22. "Rahmstorf speech, University of Wales award ceremony". YouTube. 19 July 2007. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
  23. "German Environmental Aid 2007 media award goes to Stefan Rahmstorf". 10 December 2007. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015.
  24. James S. McDonnell Foundation (1999). "Currents of Change".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)