Moritz Günther

Moritz Günther is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, working within the Director's Research Group (CDY) in the Department of Climate Dynamics. His research focuses on understanding the physical mechanisms behind surface temperature patterns and their implications for climate feedback and sensitivity.

He completed his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (2020-2024) with distinction (summa cum laude), specializing in climate responses to different forcing mechanisms. Günther holds an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Medical Physics from the University of Halle.

• Department: Climate Dynamics
• Research Group: Director's Research Group (CDY)
• Office: Room B315
• Contact: +49 40 41173-176

His research examines critical questions about Pacific Ocean temperature patterns under climate change, investigating whether the current strong Western Pacific warming will continue or transition to Eastern Pacific warming. Günther has made significant contributions to understanding the 'pattern effect' in climate responses, particularly comparing responses to CO₂ forcing versus volcanic aerosol forcing.

Günther's publications reveal a strong focus on climate feedback mechanisms, with particular attention to how stratospheric processes influence tropospheric circulation and surface temperature patterns. His interdisciplinary background in medical physics is evident in earlier work on causal networks in physiology and sleep apnea research.

As a researcher in the Joint Max-Planck/Weizmann Postdoctoral Program (since September 2024), Günther continues to investigate fundamental questions about climate sensitivity and the mechanisms driving regional temperature patterns that ultimately determine how much Earth will warm in response to greenhouse gases.