Seneviratne, Sonia I., Prof.

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Research interests

• Land-climate interactions, soil moisture and vegetation processes
• Climate feedbacks and memory effects
• Climate change and extreme events, droughts, hot extremes
• Interface between water, energy and biogeochemical cycles
• Climate and land surface modelling
• Model-data intercomparison, new approaches to model validation
• Evaluation of land datasets (LandFlux-EVAL)
• Field measurements (SwissSMEX project; Rietholzbach catchment site)

Publications

Selected recent publications

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. [Full IPCC SREX Report, Chapter 3; SREX web site]
->Some media reports and background information on the IPCC SREX report: ETH Klimablog: IPCC-Sonderbericht zu Änderungen in Klimaextremen; NZZ: Weltklimarat warnt vor Extremwettern; Die Zeit: Extrem vorsichtig; SciDevNet: IPCC predicts rise in extreme climate events; ETH Life Interview: Wir haben nicht bei Null begonnen, We did not start from scratch; ETH Klimablog: Rigorose Qualitätskontrollen beim neusten IPCC-Sonderbericht; Environmental Health Perspectives: Managing the Risks of Extreme Weather: IPCC Special Report; IPCC SREX Video

IPCC, 2012: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation - Summary for Policymakers [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, 24pp. (in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish)

Seneviratne, S.I., and R.D. Koster, 2012: A revised framework for analyzing soil moisture memory in climate data: Derivation and interpretation. J. Hydrometeorology, 13, 404-412, doi: 10.1175/JHM-D-11-044.1. (pdf)

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. (pdf; link; News and Views; ETH Life article)

Davin, E.L, R. Stöckli, E.B. Jaeger, S. Levis, and S.I. Seneviratne, 2011: COSMO-CLM²: a new version of the COSMO-CLM model coupled to the Community Land Model. Climate Dynamics, 37, 1889-1907, doi: 10.1007/s00382-011-1019-z. (pdf)

Jaeger, E.B., and S.I. Seneviratne, 2011: Impact of soil moisture-atmosphere coupling on European climate extremes and trends in a regional climate model. Climate Dynamics, 36 (9-10), 1919-1939, doi: 10.1007/s00382-010-0780-8. (pdf)

Mueller, B., S.I. Seneviratne, C. Jimenez, T. Corti, M. Hirschi, G. Balsamo, P. Ciais, P. Dirmeyer, J.B. Fisher, Z. Guo, M. Jung, F. Maignan, M.F. McCabe, R. Reichle, M. Reichstein, M. Rodell, J. Sheffield, A.J. Teuling, K. Wang, E.F. Wood, and Y. Zhang, 2011: Evaluation of global observations-based evapotranspiration datasets and IPCC AR4 simulations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L06402, doi:10.1029/2010GL046230 (pdf)

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. (pdf)

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. (pdf; link; ETH life article)

Jung, M., M. Reichstein, P. Ciais, S.I. Seneviratne, J. Sheffield, M.L. Goulden, G. Bonan, A. Cescatti, J. Chen, R. de Jeu, A.J. Dolman, W. Eugster, D. Gerten, D. Gianelle, N. Gobron, J. Heinke, J. Kimball, B.E. Law, L. Montagnani, Q. Mu, B. Mueller, K. Oleson, D. Papale, A.D. Richardson, O. Roupsard, S. Running, E. Tomelleri, N. Viovy, U. Weber, C. Williams, E. Wood, S. Zaehle, K. Zhang, 2010: Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply. Nature, 467, 951-954. doi:10.1038/nature09396. (pdf; link)

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

Full list of publications

Lectures

Land-Climate Interactions (MSc)

Rietholzbach Field Course (MSc)

Research Projects

(see also our research pages)

ESA Soil moisture CCI, 2012-2014

EU-FP7 EMBRACE, 2011-2015

EU-FP7 DROUGHT-R&SPI, 2011-2014

ETH CHIRP2, 2012-1015

SNF Sinergia Carbo-Count CH, 2012-2014

NRP61 DROUGHT-CH, 2010-2012

EU-FP7 CARBO-Extreme, 2009-2013

NCCR-Climate Phase III, 2009-2012

SwissSMEX (SNF), 2008-2011

MAIOLICA (CCES), 2008-2012

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

EU-FP6 CECILIA, 2006-2009

Scientific Service

IPCC SREX report (2009-2012, Coordinating Lead Author)

ECMWF Scientific Advisory Committee (2012-)

ILEAPS Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) (2008-)

GEWEX Data and Assessment Panel (GDAP) (2008-)

GEWEX GLASS Panel (2008-)