Visualize It! CEN displays visualizations at the Geomatikum

Rocks On The Earth´s Surface

Scientific Contact: Prof. Jens Hartmann, CEN
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN

Capturing the winds

Scientific Contact: Dr. Matthias Brueck, MPI-M und Daniel Klocke, DWD
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN

How warm is it within a cyclone?
Color shadings show the air temperature two meters above the surface. The warmest spot appears to be in the center of the cyclone. Far cooler is the landmass of Sicily in the upper part of the picture. Small cold areas above the Sea are caused by cold air transported towards the surface from thunderstorms. Using high-resolution modelling and similar visualizations, the forecast of tropical cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea can be enhanced.

Scientific Contact: Guido Cioni, MPI-M
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN

The Gulf Stream warms Europe
Canada’s Northeast and Germany lie at about the same latitude, yet our climate is far milder. The reason: driven by winds and modified by the Earth rotation, the warm Gulf Stream meanders from the American east coast towards Europe. Over its course to Europe it slowly gives away to the atmosphere the warmth the ocean received around the equator. The Gulf Stream therefore provides for our moderate climate.

Scientific Contact: Dr. Nuno Serra, CEN
Visualisierung: Dr. Felicia Brisc

Salt distributed by the Gulf Stream
The colors show how salty the upper water layer of the Atlantic Ocean is. The Gulf Stream (thicker lines) sharply divides the ocean in two halves: to the north the water is fresh, cold and dense; in the south it has higher salinity, it is warmer and lighter. The different density of the water is determining the flow direction and intensity of the Gulf Stream and its vortices. As a warm ocean current, it has a large influence on our mild climate.

Scientific Contact: Dr. Nuno Serra, CEN
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc

Heat release makes water ‘heavier’
The colors show the temperature of a water layer with a certain density. In the north it is located closer to the surface (~500 meters), in the south deeper at around 2500 meters. Above, there is warmer and therefore lighter water. This flows from south to north. Along the shore of Norway (right) it gives away its warmth, becomes denser and heavier and flows back to the south at deeper levels. Currents like this strongly affect our climate and determine the global ocean currents.

 Scientific Contact: Dr. Nuno Serra
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc

Interior view of a typhoon
In November 2013, one of the most severe typhoons since weather records began occurred. “Haiyan" was formed from a tropical depression and swept across the Philippines, the South China Sea and Vietnam. It reached wind speeds up to 315 kilometers per hour. The colors show the wind speeds in the low pressure area. By means of visualizations such as this one, scientists are able to analyze the formation and development of the typhoon accurately.

Scientific Contacts: Dr. Frauke Feser, HZG und Martina Schubert-Frisius, GERICS
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN

Melting Ice
White sea ice covers the Arctic Ocean. The picture shows its extent in September 2016. But the ice shrinks dramatically, as the colored marks show: The green line marks the average extent of 1980-1999, the yellow line the 2000-2010 extent and the red line represents September 2012. The decline of the arctic ice is an important indicator for the progression of human-made global warming.

Scientific Contact: Dr. Lars Kaleschke, CEN / MPI-M
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN

The meaning of the small scale
The total amount of water in the atmosphere, as visualized in this picture, depends on both the temperature and the circulation. Air rising from the surface tends to be relatively enriched in water (blue), and air descending from the upper atmosphere is depleted in water (brown), but also temperature influences how much water can be suspended in the atmosphere before condensing and falling to the surface. This can be seen by the fact that as one moves through the image, from the tropics to the poles the colors become progressively browner. Hence the total amount of water in the atmosphere is both a tracer of circulations and a measure of temperature, and perhaps the most important indicator of the state of the atmosphere. The picture shows even small differences in structure in very high resolution. Only recently have models become powerful enough to capture the global distribution of these fine-scale structures. What happens on these small scale influences where storms form, which then perturb the larger-scale atmosphere and circulation systems, and thus the weather and climate far away.

Scientific Contact: Prof. Bjorn Stevens, MPI-M und Daniel Klocke, DWD
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN

Tropical Storms in the Mediterranean Sea
Cyclones exhibiting tropical features occasionally happen in the Mediterranean Sea. They can bring heavy rainfalls and strong winds over 150 kilometers per hour and can hardly be predicted – that is making them dangerous. With high-resolution models like the one used here the forecast can be enhanced. In the center of the cyclone a cloud-free region appears: the eye. Here the lowest pressure is usually measured.

Scientific Contact: Guido Cioni, MPI-M
Visualization: Dr. Felicia Brisc, CEN