Research

My research interests center around fundamental problems in climate and atmospheric dynamics. These problems are motivated by past climates of Earth and by observations of today's Earth, but are also potentially relevant for planetary climates. I combine comprehensive atmosphere-ocean models in a variety of setups with simple climate models, such as energy balance models, to build a hierarchy of models and thereby advance our understanding. Moreover, my research incorporates measurements of today's Earth and climate simulations from the CMIP3 and CMIP5 archive. In particular, my research interest include the following subjects:

• clouds and sea ice as regulators of planetary albedo,
• initiation of Snowball Earth episodes,
• atmospheric dynamics of Snowball Earth episodes.