New Emmy Noether Group to Investigate Ocean Currents

A new Emmy Noether junior research group at Heidelberg University's Institute of Earth Sciences will delve into the central questions of climate history. The research team led by Dr. Jörg Lippold will study the history of ocean currents over the last 30,000 years in an attempt to uncover key parameters for understanding future climatic changes. Over the next five years, the German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the project in the amount of over one million euros. "The oceans represent a central component of our planet's climate system. Our approach to exploring future climate change is to investigate the changes in these water masses over time and space to better understand the dynamics of the climate system", explains Lippold. His "Past Ocean Dynamics" group will examine how the ocean currents changed in response to dramatic fluctuations in climate in the transition from the ice age to the interglacial period. Their investigations should provide insight into how past climate events can serve as a "model" for today's melting glaciers in Greenland.