Prof. Sonia I. Seneviratne

Research interests

Research group webpage

 

  • Land-climate interactions, soil moisture dynamics, and climate-relevant vegetation processes
  • Climate change and extreme events, droughts, hot extremes
  • Climate feedbacks and memory effects
  • Interface between water, energy and biogeochemical cycles
  • Climate and land surface modelling, new approaches to model validation
  • Evaluation of land datasets, field measurements
  • Land water and energy budgets  

Awards and Distinctions

2014-2019: ERC Consolidator Grant (DROUGHT-HEAT project)

2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017: external pageHighly cited researcher (Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics)

2013: external pageJames B. Macelwane Medal, American Geophysical Union

2013: external pageFellow, American Geophysical Union

2012: Editor's Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Geophysical Research Letters, American Geophysical Union

2003-2004: external pageNCCR Climate postdoctoral fellowship

Publications

Full list of publications

Selected publications

Padron, R., L. Gudmundsson, B. Decharme, A. Ducharne, D.M. Lawrence, J. Mao, D. Peano, G. Krinner, H. Kim, and S.I. Seneviratne (2020): Observed changes in dry-season water availability attributed to human-induced climate change. Nature Geoscience, 13, 477-481.(external pagelink; ETH news)

Beusch, L., L. Gudmundsson, S. I. Seneviratne, 2020: Emulating Earth system model temperatures with MESMER: from global mean temperature trajectories to grid-point-level realizations on land. Earth System Dynamics, 11, 139-159 (external pagelink)

Thiery, W., A. J. Visser, E. M. Fischer, M. Hauser, A. L. Hirsch, D. M. Lawrence, Q. Lejeune, E. L. Davin, S I. Seneviratne, 2020: Warming of hot extremes alleviated by expanding irrigation. Nature Communications, 11, 290 (external pagelink; ETH news)

Vogel, M. M., J. Zscheischler, R. Wartenburger, D. Dee, S. I. Seneviratne, 2019: Concurrent 2018 hot extremes across Northern Hemisphere due to human-induced climate change. Earth’s Future, 7, 692-703 (external pagelink)

Humphrey V., Zscheischler J., Ciais P., Gudmundsson L., Sitch S., S. I. Seneviratne, 2018: Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate to observed changes in terrestrial water storage. Nature, 560, 628-631 (external pagelink, ETH news)

Seneviratne, S.I., S.J. Phipps, A.J. Pitman, A.L. Hirsch, E.L. Davin, M.G. Donat, M. Hirschi, A. Lenton, M. Wilhelm, B. Kravitz, 2018: Land radiative management as contributor to regional-scale climate adaptation and mitigation. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/s41561-017-0057-5 (external pagelink; ETH News)

Seneviratne, S.I., M. Donat, A.J. Pitman, R. Knutti, and R.L. Wilby, 2016: Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets. Nature, 529, 477-483, doi:10.1038/nature16542. (external pagelink; ETH News; external pageNZZ; external pageTagesanzeiger; external pageBlick; external pageDaily Mail; external pageJapan Times)

Thiery, W.E.L. DavinS.I. Seneviratne, K. Bedka, S. Lhermitte, and N.P.M. van Lipzig, 2016: Hazardous thunderstorm intensification over Lake Victoria. Nature Communications, 7, 12786. (external pagelink; ETH News)

Guillod, B.P., B. Orlowsky, D.G. Miralles, A.J. Teuling, and S.I. Seneviratne, 2015: Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall. Nature Communications, 6, 6443. (external pagelink; ETH Life)

Seneviratne, S.I., M. Donat, B. Mueller, and L.V. Alexander, 2014: No pause in the increase of hot temperature extremes. Nature Climate Change, 4, 161-163. (external pagelink; external pageReuters; external pageThe Economist; external pageSRF2 Wissenschaftsmagazin; external pageCBC; external pageClimate Central)

Davin, E.L., S.I. Seneviratne, P. Ciais, A. Olioso, and T. Wang, 2014: Preferential cooling of hot extremes from cropland albedo management. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci., 111(27), 9757-9761, doi:10.1073/pnas.1317323111 (external pagelink; ETH News; external pageSpiegel; external pageNature News).

Greve, P., B. Orlowsky, B. Mueller, J. Sheffield, M. Reichstein, and S.I. Seneviratne, 2014: Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land. Nature Geoscience, 7, 716-721, doi: 10.1038/NGEO2247. (external pagelink; ETH News; external pagePhys.org; external page20 Minuten; external pageWashington Post (online); external pageNature Geoscience News and Views)

Seneviratne, S.I., M. Wilhelm, T. Stanelle, B.J.J.M. van den Hurk, S. Hagemann, A. Berg, F. Cheruy, M.E. Higgins, A. Meier, V. Brovkin, M. Claussen, A. Ducharne, J.-L. Dufresne, K.L. Findell, J. Ghattas, D.M. Lawrence, S. Malyshev, M. Rummukainen, and B. Smith, 2013: Impact of soil moisture-climate feedbacks on CMIP5 projections: First results from the GLACE-CMIP5 experiment. Geophys. Res. Lett., 40 (19), 5212-5217 (external pagelink).

Seneviratne, S.I., N. Nicholls, D. Easterling, C.M. Goodess, S. Kanae, J. Kossin, Y. Luo, J. Marengo, K. McInnes, M. Rahimi, M. Reichstein, A. Sorteberg, C. Vera, and X. Zhang, 2012: Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pp. 109-230. [external pageFull IPCC SREX Report, external pageChapter 3] (ETH Klimablog: Das IPCC SREX in Kürze, Qualitätskontrolle im IPCC SREX; ETH Life Interview: Deutsch, English; external pageIPCC SREX Video; Media articles: external pageSciDevNet, external pageNZZ, external pageDie Zeit, external pageEnvironmental Health Perspectives)

IPCC, 2012: Summary for Policymakers. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-19. (in external pageEnglish, external pageArabic, external pageChinese, external pageFrench, external pageRussian, and external pageSpanish)

Mueller, B., and S.I. Seneviratne, 2012: Hot days induced by precipitation deficits at the global scale. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci., 109 (31), 12398-12403, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1204330109. (external pagelink; ETH Life article; external pageTagesAnzeiger; external pageLos Angeles Times; external pageResearch Highlight in Nature Geoscience)

Seneviratne, S.I., 2012: Historical drought trends revisited. Nature, 491, 338-339. (external pagelink)

Hirschi, M., S.I. Seneviratne, V. Alexandrov, F. Boberg, C. Boroneant, O.B. Christensen, H. Formayer, B. Orlowsky, and P. Stepanek, 2011: Observational evidence for soil-moisture impact on hot extremes in southeastern Europe. Nature Geoscience, 4, 17-21, doi:10.1038/ngeo1032. (external pagelink; external pageNews and Views; ETH Life article)

Seneviratne, S.I., T. Corti, E.L. Davin, M. Hirschi, E.B. Jaeger, I. Lehner, B. Orlowsky, and A.J. Teuling, 2010: Investigating soil moisture-climate interactions in a changing climate: A review. Earth-Science Reviews, 99, 3-4, 125-161, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.02.004. (external pagelink)

Teuling, A.J., S.I. Seneviratne, R. Stöckli, M. Reichstein, E. Moors, P. Ciais, S. Luyssaert, B. van den Hurk, C. Ammann, C. Bernhofer, E. Dellwik, D. Gianelle, B. Gielen, T. Grünwald, K. Klumpp, L. Montagnani, C. Moureaux, M. Sottocornola, and G. Wohlfahrt, 2010: Contrasting response of European forest and grassland energy exchange to heatwaves. Nature Geoscience, 3, 722-727, doi:10.1038/ngeo950. (external pagelink; ETH life article)

Seneviratne, S.I., D. Lüthi, M. Litschi, and C. Schär, 2006: Land-atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe. Nature, 443, 205-209. (external pagelink; external pagesuppl.info.; external pageeditor's summary)

Invited Presentations

List of invited and solicited presentations (selected)

Research Projects

(see also our research pages)

external pageEU-H2020 4C project, 2019-2023

external pageCopernicus C3S_511-Quality Assessment of ECV Products, 2017-2021

external pageEU-H2020 CRESCENDO, 2015-2020

ERC Consolidator Grant "DROUGHT-HEAT", 2014-2019

external pageEU-FP7 EUCLEIA, 2014-2016

external pageESA Soil moisture CCI, 2012-2014 (Phase 1), 2015-2017 (Phase 2)

external pageEU-FP7 EMBRACE, 2011-2015

external pageEU-FP7 DROUGHT-R&SPI, 2011-2015

ETH CHIRP2, 2012-2015

SNF Sinergia Carbo-Count CH, 2012-2015

external pageNRP61 DROUGHT-CH, 2010-2013

external pageEU-FP7 CARBO-Extreme, 2009-2013

external pageNCCR-Climate Phase III, 2009-2012

SwissSMEX (SNF), 2008-2011

MAIOLICA (CCES), 2008-2012

external pageNCCR-Climate Phase II (SwissRe-funded project), 2007-2009

external pageEU-FP6 CECILIA, 2006-2009

Scientific Service

Selected service contributions

external pageCoordinating Lead Author, IPCC 6th Assessment Report (2018-2021)

external pageCo-chair of World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Extremes Grand Challenge (2015-present)

external pageLead Author, IPCC 1.5°C Special Report (2017-2018)

external pageCo-chair of WCRP GEWEX Scientific Steering Group (2014-present)

external pageECMWF Scientific Advisory Committee (2012-present)

external pageCoordinating Lead Author, IPCC SREX report (2009-2012)

external pageILEAPS Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) (2008-2013)

external pageWCRP GEWEX Data and Assessment Panel (GDAP) (2008-2013)

external pageWCRP GEWEX GLASS Panel (2008-2013)

Curriculum Vitae

2016- Full Professor, ETH Zurich
2013-2016 Associate Professor, ETH Zurich
2007-2012 Assistant Professor, ETH Zurich
2005-2007 Senior research scientist, ETH Zurich
2003-2004 Visiting research associate, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt (MD), USA
1999-2002 PhD thesis, ETH Zurich (Award: 04/2003)
1998-1999 Visiting scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge (MA), USA
1995-1999 MSc in Environmental Sciences (Major: Atmospheric Physics), ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1992-1995 BSc in Biology ("Attestation de Pré-licence"), University of Lausanne, Switzerland

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