Upcoming Talks

Speaker: Christoph Kinkeldey, HAW Hamburg

Communicating uncertainty remains one of the central challenges in both science and society, especially when dealing with climate data. Scientific visualizations are typically designed for precision and methodological transparency, yet they often fail to reach non-scientific audiences without a background in statistics. Data journalism, by contrast, faces the challenge of conveying uncertain information to readers who often lack formal statistical knowledge. Through narrative framing, clear visual metaphors, and interactive techniques, journalists have developed strategies that balance accuracy with accessibility.

This talk explores what climate communication can learn from these journalistic approaches. Drawing on recent research in visualization and uncertainty communication, I will discuss how storytelling, visual design, and interaction can enhance public understanding of uncertainty without oversimplification. The talk proposes an updated perspective on uncertainty visualization, one that bridges scientific rigor and public engagement to foster trust, interpretability, and more informed discussions about uncertainty.

Speaker: Detlef Lohse, Max Planck Center Twente for Complex Fluid Dynamics Science and Technology / University of Twente

The quantitative understanding of glacial ice melting into the ocean is one of the most outstanding challenges in environmental fluid dynamics. The lack of understanding is on a fundamental level, due to the highly complex multi-scale, multi-physics nature of the problem. The process involves intricate multi-way coupling effects, including thermal convection, salinity, ocean current, and radiation, etc. As ice melts into the surrounding salty water, a decrease in local salt concentration leads to reduced water density, inducing upward buoyant forces and, consequently, upward flow. This flow dynamically interacts with the ice, resulting in a feedback loop of further melting (Stefan problem). Our investigation employs direct numerical simulations with the phase field method. To capture the intricacies of melting dynamics within turbulent flows, we implement a multiple-resolution strategy for salinity and phase field simulations. The versatility of our method is demonstrated through successful applications to diverse melting scenarios, including the formation of melt ponds, melting in Rayleigh-Bénard convection, vertical convection and melting of a cylinder in fresh and salty water, and melting of an Eulerian or Lagrangian ice ball in turbulent flow. In this presentation, we showcase results obtained across these various geometries. This work contributes to advancing our understanding of the complex dynamics involved in glacial ice melting within oceanic environments.

Speaker: David Thompson, Colorado State University

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Speaker: Christian Flachsland, Hertie School

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Speaker: Meeyoung Cha, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP)

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