Earth Systems Diagnostics

We characterize the state and dynamics of the earth system in order to understand and better predict its future evolution under human influence.

Working Area

How is climate variability likely to change in the future? And what aspects of these changes are a direct result of human influence and, therefore, predictable? What uncertainties remain in our projections of cli-mate change and other earth system variables? Must we expect the unexpected? And how are extreme (weather) events likely to develop in the future? These are some of the questions that our working group seeks to answer through the analysis of instrumental and paleo-proxy observations.

Methods

Our research requires knowledge of the earth system of preindustrial periods and of longer time-periods than those covered by instrumental observations. We thus rely on natural environmental archives such as marine sediment cores or ice-cores. My interdisciplinary research group combines and develops new methodologies from the fields of physics, statistics and geosciences to enhance the use of paleo-environmental archives records for quantitative earth system research.