Hamburg Photon Science Colloquium | Theory, computation, and observations of global warming

by Bjorn Stevens (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Hamburg Germany)

Friday 17 Oct 2025, 14:00 → 15:30 Europe/Berlin

SemR I-III (CFEL, Bldg. 99)

I will introduce the basic theory of global warming, and how our physical understanding has evolved to allow (nearly) a-priori estimates of its magnitude based on a few simple assumptions. The use and character of models will be presented, first as a manifestation of the theory, later as an embedding of the theory to facilitate observational tests, and lastly as a way to relax some of the assumptions needed for more principled calculations.
I will show how more fundamental models are allowing us to go beyond a global picture, and present some of the first observations that allow direct tests of the assumptions and predictions of the basic theory. At the end a few of the frontiers and controversies will be sketched.

Coffee, tea and cake will be served at 1:45 pm.