In order to get to grips with geophysical processes – with slight variations and abrupt change, cascades of dispersions and transformations, turbulence and spontaneity – one nowadays has numerical computer models. In my PhD thesis I investigate several historical moments and epistemological facets in the genealogy of so called General Circulation Models (GCM) in order to put their representational inner workings into perspective, embedding the history of observing, modeling, and predicting states and behaviour of the general (planetary) circulation into a broader context of theoretical, technological, and practical thinking.

During my stay at the Institute I work on a chapter that focuses on the instrumented analysis of climate archives, specifically deep-sea sediment cores. I am interested in the operative role of such proxy data as a "natural" repository and "observational" linkage to constrain numerical experiments of certain deep-time climatic events. By discussing an exemplary simulation of a perceived pre-Quaternary analogue to current, in geohistoric terms quite abrupt climatic change (for experts: the PETM), I investigate the modes of (proxy) representation, time evolution and non-linearity in modeling a climate history of Earth and in setting the scene of the "Anthropocene".