Challenge #142

Travelling back in time to understand the future.

Sea floors and ice sheets tell the researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute a lot about the climate of the past. They also use computer models to calculate what the climate might look like in the future.

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If you want to know how the climate crisis will develop in the future and what can be done about it, you have to look far back into the past. Because natural mechanisms have been changing the Earth's climate for millions of years. What drives natural fluctuations, such as the alternation of ice ages and interglacial periods? What role do the changes in the ocean circulation play in this? What triggered particularly abrupt climate changes in earlier times? And what can be learned from this for the man-made climate crisis? Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute are investigating the natural drivers of the Earth's climate, reconstructing various climate states, and making forecasts for future developments. To do this, they analyze natural climate archives such as coral, ice cores, and marine sediments, which reveal a lot about earlier climate conditions. They then use computer models to create virtual images of the Earth system and calculate possible development paths for the future.

Image: Martin Künsting