Gerhard Kramm

Gerhard Kramm (born July 9, 1946, Cologne, Germany) is an American Research Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His work is mainly focused on physics of the planetary boundary layer, atmospheric turbulence and its impact upon atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric radiation, cloud physics, micro- and mesoscale numerical modeling.
Background
Education
Kramm earned a B.E. in Industrial Engineering at University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Germany, in 1973, a B.S. and a M.S, in Meteorology at University of Cologne, Germany, in 1975 and 1980, respectively He earned a Ph.D. in meteorology at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, in 1994. Within the framework of his doctoral thesis he investigated the exchange of ozone and highly reactive nitrogen species between the atmosphere and the biosphere.
Career
From 1980 to 1985 he worked as a research and teaching assistant at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Department of Theoretical Meteorology.
From 1985 to 1988 he worked as a research scientist at the Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH at Ottobrunn, Germany (during that time the joint research and test center for the German air and space industry) where he was mainly engaged in mesoscale meteorological modeling and super computing.
From 1988 to 1997 he worked as a research scientist at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Atmospheric Environ¬mental Research at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
From 1998 to 1999 he was a visiting lecturer at University of Potsdam, Germany, where he taught micrometeorology.
From 1999 to 2001 he worked as a research associate at the Materialforschungs- und Prüfungsanstalt für das Bauwesen Leipzig e.V., Germany, mainly engaged in fire safety research.
In 2001 he joined the Atmospheric Science Group of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).
Since 2003 Kramm has served as an associate faculty at the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, UAF, where he has taught atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric radiation, physics of the atmospheric boundary layer, and turbulence.
In summer 2007 Kramm served as the lead instructor of the Science Teacher Education Program (STEP) 2007 on Global Climate Change. This program was funded by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Research
Kramm studies "theoretical aspects of atmospheric sciences, in particular physics of the planetary boundary layer, atmospheric turbulence and its impact upon atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric radiation, cloud physics, micro- and mesoscale numerical modeling, and climate change." has a citation h index of 11 and i10 index of 27 with his publications having been cited 974 times (by October 2012).
Editorial boards
Since 2005 Kramm has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Calcutta Mathematical Society. In February 2012, he joined the Editorial Board of the Datasets Papers in Atmospheric Sciences. This journal is part of Datasets International, a division of Hindawi Publishing Corporation. It is a peer-reviewed, open access journal devoted to the publication of dataset papers in all areas of atmospheric sciences.
Climate change
According to the US Senate Minority Report entitled Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007, Kramm has expressed skepticism about global warming.
In his Community Perspective issued by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on January 25, 2009, Kramm argued that the three recommendations of Hansen et al. (2008) for a decrease of the atmospheric CO2 concentration to a level of 350 ppm by volume, as already discussed in their article "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?", are politically motivated. He continued that even the IPCC does not claim such a decrease in the atmospheric CO2 concentration is feasible. IPCC scenarios that assume a reduction of human-caused CO2 emissions during the 21st century to pre-1990 levels show that the atmospheric CO2 concentration will tend to a so-called equilibrium concentration of about 550 ppmV, where equilibrium means that the total (natural plus anthropogenic) CO2 emission equals the total CO2 uptake by vegetation and oceans. Inferred from the paper "On the recognition of fundamental physical principles in recent atmospheric-environmental studies" in which a global budget equation for long-lived atmospheric trace gases like CO2 was offered, Kramm argued that the three actions Hansen and colleagues recommended to reduce the atmospheric CO2 concentration are scientifically unsound.
Selected publications
Kramm has a commendable citation index ranking with published papers in peer-reviewed journals and books.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., 2012: Comments on the paper "Earth's energy imbalance and implications" by J. Hansen, M. Sato, P. Kharecha, and K. von Schuckmann.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., 2011: Scrutinizing the atmospheric greenhouse effect and its climatic impact. Natural Science 3, 971-998.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., 2010: On the meaning of feedback parameter, transient climate response, and the greenhouse effect: Basic considerations and the discussion of uncertainties. The Open Atmospheric Science Journal 4, 137-159.
* Kramm, G., Herbert, F., 2009: Similarity hypotheses for the atmospheric surface layer expressed by non-dimensional characteristic invariants - A review. The Open Atmospheric Science Journal 3, 48-79.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., Zelger, M., 2008: On the recognition of fundamental physical principles in recent atmospheric-environmental studies. 4 (1 & 2), 31-55.
* Mölders, N., Kramm, G., 2007: Influence of wildfire induced land-cover changes on clouds and precipitation in Interior Alaska - A case study. Atmospheric Research 84, 142-168.
* Kramm, G., Herbert, F., 2006: Heuristic derivation of blackbody radiation laws using principles of dimensional analysis. J. Calcutta Math. Soc. 2 (2) 1-20.
* Kramm, G., Herbert, F., 2006: The structure functions of the velocity and temperature fields from the perspective of dimensional scaling. Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 76, 23-60.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., 2006: On the correction of eddy fluxes of water vapour and trace gases. J. Calcutta Math. Soc. 2 (1), 29-54.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., Mölders, N., 2004: On the vertically averaged balance equation of atmospheric trace constituents. Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 86, 121-141.
* Mölders, N., Haferkorn, U, Döring, J., Kramm, G., 2003: Long-term numerical investigations on the water budget quantities predicted by the hydro-thermodynamic soil vegetation scheme (HTSVS) - part I: Description of the model and impact of long-wave radiation, roots, snow, and soil frost. Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 84, 115-135.
* Kramm, G., Meixner, F.X., 2000: On the dispersion of trace species in the atmospheric boundary layer: A re-formulation of the governing equations for the turbulent flow of the compressible atmosphere. 52A, 500-522.
* Stockwell, W.R., Kramm, G., Scheel, H.-E., Mohnen, V.A., Seiler, W., 1997: [http://books.google.com/books?idGNr-DZA0xJsC&printsecfrontcover&dq=Forest+Decline+and+Ozone:+A+Comparison+of+Controlled+Chamber+and+Field+Experiments&sourcebl&ots58Wmhtw0rT&sig2C_1WUzb1TfoiCGRbgd3sBD1lDg&hlen&eiVhnKTP6fK4mWsgPzxuyDDg&saX&oibook_result&ctresult&resnum1&ved0CBgQ6AEwAA#vonepage&q&ffalse Ozone Formation, Destruction and Exposure in Europe and United States]. In: Sandermann, Jr., H., Wellburn, A.R., Heath, R.L. (eds.), Forest Decline and Ozone: A Comparison of Controlled Chamber and Field Experiments, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/ New York Vol. 127, pp. 1-38 (invited paper).
* Kramm, G., Beier, N., Foken, T., Müller, H., Schröder, P., Seiler, W., 1996: A SVAT scheme for NO, NO2, and O3 - Model description and test results. Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 61, 89-106.
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., Dollard, G.J., Foken, T., Mölders, N., Müller, H., Seiler, W., Sievering, H., 1995: On the dry deposition of ozone and reactive nitrogen species. 29, 3209-3231.
* Kramm, G.,1995: Zum Austausch von Ozon und reaktiven Stickstoffverbindungen zwischen Atmosphäre und Biosphäre. Dissertation, Fachbereich Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Wissenschafts-Verlag Dr. W. Maraun, Frankfurt/Main, 268 pp. (in German).
* Kramm, G., Dlugi, R., 1994: Modelling of the vertical fluxes of nitric acid, ammonia, and ammonium nitrate in the atmospheric surface layer. J. Atmos. Chem. 18, 319-357.
* Kramm, G., Beheng, K.-D., Müller, H., 1992: Vertical transport of polydispersed aerosol particles in the atmospheric surface layer. In: Schwartz, S.E., Slinn, W.G.N. (eds.), Precipitation Scavenging and Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Processes, Vol. 2 - The Semonin Vol. Hemisphere Publ., Washington/Philadelphia/London, pp. 1125-1141.
Personal life
Kramm and his wife Nicole have no children. His hobbies include ballroom dancing (favorite dances are Argentine Tango, Rumba, Bachata, Cha Cha, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Swing), gardening, playing with his cat, and reading books on history of science, history of the 20th century, and naval history.

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