The Alfred Wegener Institute, Potsdam (www) is the national polar research centre of Germany and conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and at temperate latitudes that are central themes of global system and environmental science. The work of the Research Unit in Potsdam is focused on the natural variability and changes of physical and chemical processes of the atmosphere, as well as the geology and geochemistry of ice margins. This group has internationally the best experience in polar regional climate modelling and is strongly linked to other polar modelling centres.

Annette Rinke is a theoretical climatologist with broad interests in polar atmos-pheric and coupled atmosphere-ocean-ice climate modelling. She is leading the AWI research topic “Atmospheric circulation structures and scenarios of polar climate changes”.

Klaus Dethloff is a physicist with broad interests in nonlinear dynamics and atmospheric and climate physics. He is the head of the atmospheric research department at the AWI research unit Potsdam.