ERC Advanced Grant for Henk Dijkstra

Professor of Dynamical Oceanography Henk Dijkstra of Utrecht University has been awarded a 2.5 million euros grant from the European Research Council. During the next five years, he will study the probability of a weakening of the Gulf Stream, and the possible consequences.

One of the large uncertainties regarding future climate is the behaviour of the Warm Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. This circulation is very sensitive to changes in freshwater input, due to, for example, the melting of the polar ice sheets. A strong weakening of the Warm Gulf Stream will have enormous consequences for the climate in Western Europe.

Prof. dr. ir. Henk Dijkstra, director of the Centre for Complex Systems Studies (CCSS), investigates complex behaviour in the climate system. He is a specialist in the field of variability of the global ocean circulation. “With this ERC grant we can, with the use of modern mathematical methods from complex systems theory and advanced climate models, determine the probability that a strong weakening will occur over the next decades and what the consequences of such an event will be.”