Climate-Relevant Exchange Processes between Atmosphere and Ocean

The Heidelberg Aelotron | © Bernd Jähne - Environmental physicist Bernd Jähne from Heidelberg University is pursuing a new approach to exploring the processes that ensue with the exchange of climatically relevant gases and volatiles between the atmosphere and the ocean. To this end, the scientist will use two imaging measurement procedures for experiments in the Heidelberg Aelotron, a wind-wave tank. The German Research Foundation is financing the project within the Reinhart Koselleck Programme. Funds amounting to approximately 1.2 million euros will be available over a period of five years. The research studies at the Institute of Environmental Physics will be conducted in collaboration with the Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing, which is based at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR). In the words of Prof. Jähne, the mechanisms of small-scale exchange processes on the ocean surface have not been sufficiently well understood to date, despite their significance for global energy and material cycles. With respect to climate change, it is particularly important to find out how CO2 is transferred from the atmosphere into the sea.