Research News
The mathematical model developed by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht detects also hitherto undiscovered cyclones from the past. Photo: Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht
More information:
www.helmholtz.de/hzg-wirbelstuerme
Climate Change: Fewer Tornados above the North Atlantic
Polar tornados or polar depressions could occur more rarely in the coming decades. In addition, the areas of origin of polar depressions could move further north in future. This was found out by scientists around Prof. Dr Hans von Storch and Dr Matthias Zahn from the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht by using mathematical models and global atmospheric data from the time between 1948 and 2006. Matthias Zahn traces the decline in polar tornados back to the fact, that due to global warming the extremely cold air above the polar water surface heats up faster than the ocean below. This results in a lower temperature difference between water and air, which is the driving force behind such tornados, says Matthias Zahn. Due to disintegration of the Arctic ice mass, regions further north will be without ice more often in future and thus polar depressions can develop there as well.
