Cryospheric Evolution of Northern Hemisphere
My dissertation outline comprises an approach to investigate rapid climate transitions in the past on orbital timescales.
The research goals are to identify and study timing and causes of cryosphere-climate switches in the past. In particular, I am interested in inception, termination and evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet. I want to study the sensitivity of the climate to internal and external forcing with focus on the dynamics of the system.
I will investigate physical mechanisms that respond to changes in orbital configuration and tectonic settings. The work will naturally involve a thorough study of the impacts of pCO2 variations as well as atmosphere-ocean-sea ice-ice sheet interactions as factors for rapid glacial - interglacial transitions in the Cenozoic and the future.
I will undertake a modeling study to address these questions. The model used will be the GENESIS GCM v3 (cf. Thomson and Pollard, 1997), that can be coupled asynchronously to an ice-sheet model.
In this regard, I focus on the analysis of the climatic and cryospheric evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
The work aims explicitly at comparing model results with proxy records.
In addition, the results of this study may provide better insights in bi-polar glaciation mechanisms.
The following publications are published or in press >>
Lake El'gygytgyn drilling project
The international (USA, Germany, Russia, Austria) Lake El'gygytgyn drilling project in northeast Russia, Siberia tries understand the evolution of Arctic climate change from the warmth of the middle Pliocene ~3.6 Ma (at the time of impact) to the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation a million years later, at millennial scale resolution.
In this regard, the project ties in my dissertation outline and main questions formulated. I will try to answer questions related to climatic and cryospheric evolution of the Northern Hemisphere (see above) which are also of relevance to the Lake E project. Direct model-data comparison is feasible.
Lake El'gygytgyn Drilling Project >>
Pliocene Modeling intercomparison project and PLISMIP
The Pliocene modeling intercomparison project (PlioMIP) is a large internationally coordinated attempt to simulated the Pliocene with a broad range of independent models. PlioMIP is a component of the new PMIP3 initiative. PlioMIP has multi-agency support in the U.S. and numerous participants from the international community. The project helps enable the systematic study of GCMs for a warm period in Earth history that roughly parallels climate predictions for the end of this century.
In support of Robert DeConto (UMass Amherst) and Dave Pollard (Penn State University), I will manage the runs for the GENESIS GCM. Results generated from the PlioMIP will be incorporated in the upcoming IPCC report AR5.
In collaboration with the University of Leeds, I have co-initiated an international ice-sheet intercompariosn project with the aim to reconstruct ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica in the Pliocene Warm Period. It is called the Pliocene Ice Sheet Intercomparison Project (PLISMIP).
PlioMIP and PLISMIP projects >>
Climate Dynamics AND Extremes - High Resolution Proxies
This research interest originates from my MSc work back in Switzerland at the Climatology and Meteorology Research Group in collaboration with the NCCR Climate and Oeschger Center for Climate Research >>
Spatial and temporal high resolution climate reconstructions (monthly to seasonal) of the last two millennia are of particular interest to me. A multi-proxy approach is capable to link reconstructions of climatic dynamics, as e.g. SLP fields, to extreme events with impacts on the socio-economic sphere. Among others, documentary evidence can serve as a reliable proxy for investigations of impacts of climatic extremes.
The following publication is published >>