Pfahl, Stephan, Dr.

Senior Scientist in the group Atmospheric Dynamics, headed by Prof. Heini Wernli.

Research interests

• Extreme weather events
• Atmospheric water cycle
• Stable water isotopes
• Paleoclimate

Publications

Submitted articles

• Pfahl S., Madonna E., Boettcher M., Joos H. and Wernli H., 2013. Warm conveyor belts in the ERA-Interim data set (1979-2010). Part II: Moisture origin and relevance for precipitation. J. Climate, submitted.
• Miltenberger A. K., Pfahl S. and Wernli H., 2013. An online trajectory module (version 1.0) for the non-hydrostatic numerical weather prediction model COSMO. Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss. 6, 1223-1257, doi:10.5194/gmdd-6-1223-2013.

Peer reviewed journals

• Martius O., Sodemann H., Joos H., Pfahl S., Winschall A., Croci-Maspoli M., Graf M., Madonna E., Mueller B., Schemm S., Sedlacek J., Sprenger M. and Wernli H., 2012. The role of upper-level dynamics and surface processes for the Pakistan flood in July 2010. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., doi:10.1002/qj.2082, in press.
• Pfahl S. and Wernli H., 2012. Quantifying the relevance of cyclones for precipitation extremes. J. Climate 25, 6770-6780, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00705.1.
• Winschall A., Pfahl S., Sodemann H. and Wernli H., 2012. Impact of North Atlantic evaporation hot spots on southern Alpine heavy precipitation events. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 138, 1245-1258, doi:10.1002/qj.987.
• Pfahl S. and Wernli H., 2012. Quantifying the relevance of atmospheric blocking for co-located temperature extremes in the Northern Hemisphere on (sub-)daily time scales. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L12807, doi:10.1029/2012GL052261.
• Aemisegger F., Sturm P., Graf P., Sodemann H., Pfahl S., Knohl A. and Wernli H., 2012. Measuring variations of δ¹⁸O and δ²H in atmospheric water vapour using two commercial laser-based spectrometers: an instrument characterisation study. Atmos. Meas. Tech. 5, 1491-1511, doi:10.5194/amt-5-1491-2012.
• Sirocko F., Brunck H. and Pfahl S., 2012. Solar influence on winter severity in central Europe. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L16704, doi:10.1029/2012GL052412.
• Pfahl S., Wernli H. and Yoshimura K., 2012. The isotopic composition of precipitation from a winter storm - a case study with the limited-area model COSMO_iso. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 12, 1629-1648, doi:10.5194/acp-12-1629-2012.
• Pfahl S. and Wernli H., 2012. Spatial coherency of extreme weather events in Germany and Switzerland. Int. J. Climatol. 32, 1863–1874, doi:10.1002/joc.2401.
• Pfahl S. and Niedermann N., 2011. Daily co-variations in near-surface relative humidity and temperature over the ocean. J. Geophys. Res. 116, D19104, doi:10.1029/2011JD015792.
• Schäfler A., Dörnbrack A., Wernli H., Kiemle C. and Pfahl S., 2011. Airborne lidar observations in the inflow region of a warm conveyor belt. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 137, 1257-1272, doi:10.1002/qj.827.
• Leimer S., Pohlert T., Pfahl S. and Wilcke W., 2011. Towards a new generation of high-resolution meteorological input data for small-scale hydrologic modeling. J. Hydrol. 402 (3-4), 317-332, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.03.026.
• Wernli H., Pfahl S., Trentmann J. and Zimmer M., 2010. How representative were the meteorological conditions during the COPS field experiment in summer 2007? Meteorol. Z. 19 (6), 619-630, doi:10.1127/0941-2948/2010/0483.
• Pfahl S. and Wernli H., 2009. Lagrangian simulations of stable isotopes in water vapor - an evaluation of non-equilibrium fractionation in the Craig-Gordon model. J. Geophys. Res. 114, D20108, doi:10.1029/2009JD012054.
• Pfahl S., Sirocko F., Seelos K., Dietrich S., Walter A. and Wernli H., 2009. A new windstorm proxy from lake sediments - a comparison of geological and meteorological data from western Germany for the period 1965-2001. J. Geophys. Res. 114, D18106, doi:10.1029/2008JD011643.
• Pfahl S. and Wernli H., 2008. Air parcel trajectory analysis of stable isotopes in water vapor in the eastern Mediterranean. J. Geophys. Res. 113, D20104, doi:10.1029/2008JD009839.
• Xing X., Pfahl S., Mukhopadhyay S., Goldbart P.M. and Zippelius A., 2008. Nematic elastomers: From a microscopic model to macroscopic elasticity theory. Phys. Rev. E 77, 051802, doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.77.051802.

Other

• Pfahl S., 2009. Exploring physical processes related to past climate proxies: lake sediments and stable water isotopes, PhD thesis, University of Mainz.
• Wernli H. and Pfahl S., 2009. Grundlagen des Klimas und extremer Wettersituationen, in Wetter, Klima, Menschheitsentwicklung: Von der Eiszeit bis ins 21. Jahrhundert, edited by F. Sirocko, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, Germany.
• Pfahl S., 2005. Nematische Elastomere - ein mikroskopisches Modell, Diploma thesis, University of Göttingen.