Faculty

Research Group Haimberger

Research Topic

Changes in coupled polar energy and water budgets

Research Interest

While everyone can observe the dramatic warming of the polar region, we feel it is important to quantify also the changes in the energy and water budgets in this region. The warming is the result of a complex interplay between changing global transports in both atmosphere and ocean as well as between changes of the surface properties in the polar region. Due to the reduced ice and snow extent, the surface albedo as well as the planetary albedo are decreasing, which leads to further warming. The decreased sea ice extent leads to enhanced energy exchange between ocean and atmosphere. The increased melting of ice sheets as well as sea ice leads to lower salinity of the polar surface waters, which may influence both susceptibility to freezing and also the large scale oceanic transports. Vastly improved reanalyses of atmosphere, ocean and land surface have recently become available, which allow more advanced energy budget diagnostics, which in turn can help understand the physics of polar climate change as well as validate climate models.

  Cryosphere & Climate

Dr. Leopold Haimberger

Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Vienna

Website

Team

  • Michael Mayer (Dr.), Senior Scientis (University of Vienna)
  • Susanna Winkelbauer (Dr), PostDoc (University of Vienna)
  • Hamish Prince (Dr), PostDoc (University of Vienna)
  • Shirin Marand (BSc), Master student (University of Vienna)
Team

Michael Mayer (Dr.)

Team

Susanna Winkelbauer (Dr.)

Projects

  • 2025-2028: CMEMS onctract ref 24254L03-COP-GLORAN-MER-IP-4000 – work on oceanic transports
  • 2025-2028: ESA contract ref 4000147586/I/25-LR (Ocean Surface Heat Flux) – work on global and regional air-sea fluxes
  • 2024-2027: ESA contract ref 4000145298/24/I-LR (MOTECUSOMA) – work on Earth’s Energy Imbalance
  • 2020–2024 FWF P33177 “A consistent framework for quantifying global energy budgets”
  • 2022-2024 Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) 21003-COP-GLORAN Lot 7: “Validation and Intercomparison of Global Reanalyses for Ocean Currents and Transports” (implemented at b.geos
  • 2020-2022 A consistent framework for quantifying global energy budgets (FWF P33177)
  • 2019-2021 Intercomparison And Ocean Indicators For The High Latitudes (Subcontractor on 114-R&D-GLORAN-CMEMS LOT 8)
  • 2018-2021 Copernicus Early Upper Air Data Service (C3S 311c Lot2)
  • 2016-2018: Variability and change of arctic energy and fresh water budgets (FWF P28818)
  • 2014-2018: Evaluation of Ocean Syntheses (ESSEM COST Action ES1402)
  • 2014-2016: EU-FP7 grant ERA-CLIM2
  • 2011-2013: EU 7FP grant ERA-CLIM

Selected Publications

  • Winkelbauer, S., Mayer, M. & Haimberger, L. Validation of key Arctic energy and water budget components in CMIP6. Clim Dyn (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-024-07105-5
  • Mayer, M., Tsubouchi, T., Winkelbauer, S., Larsen, K. M. H., Berx, B., Macrander, A., Iovino, D., Jónsson, S., and Renshaw, R.: Recent variations in oceanic transports across the Greenland–Scotland Ridge, in: 7th edition of the Copernicus Ocean State Report (OSR7), edited by: von Schuckmann, K., Moreira, L., Le Traon, P.-Y., Grégoire, M., Marcos, M., Staneva, J., Brasseur, P., Garric, G., Lionello, P., Karstensen, J., and Neukermans, G., Copernicus Publications, State Planet, 1-osr7, 14, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-1-osr7-14-2023, 2023.
  • Mayer, M., Tsubouchi, T., von Schuckmann, K., Seitner, V., Winkelbauer, S., Haimberger, L., (2022). Atmospheric and oceanic contributions to observed Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean Heat Content variations 1993-2020. In: Copernicus Ocean State Report, Issue 6, Journal of Operational Oceanography, 15:sup1, s119–s126; DOI: 10.1080/1755876X.2022.2095169
    Winkelbauer, S., Mayer, M., and Haimberger, L.: StraitFlux – Precise computations of Water Strait fluxes on various Modelling Grids, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2883, 2024.
  • Winkelbauer, S, Mayer, M, Seitner, V, Zsoter, E, Zuo, H & Haimberger, L 2022, ‘Diagnostic evaluation of river discharge into the Arctic Ocean and its impact on oceanic volume transports’, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Jg. 26, S. 279–304. doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-279-2022
  • Polyakov, I. V., M. Mayer, S. Tietsche, and A. Y. Karpechko, 2022: Climate Change Fosters Competing Effects of Dynamics and Thermodynamics in Seasonal Predictability of Arctic Sea Ice. J. Climate, 35, 2849–2865, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0463.1.
  • Mayer, M., Tietsche, S., Haimberger, L., Tsubouchi, T., Mayer, J., & Zuo, H. (2019). An improved estimate of the coupled Arctic energy budget. Journal of Climate, 32(22), 7915-7934.
  • Mayer, M., L. Haimberger, M. Pietschnig, and A. Storto (2016), Facets of Arctic energy accumulation based on observations and reanalyses 2000-2015, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, doi:10.1002/2016GL070557.
  • Young, P. J., Butler, A. H., Calvo, N., Haimberger, L., Kushner, P. J., Marsh, D. R., … & Rosenlof, K. H. (2013). Agreement in late twentieth century Southern Hemisphere stratospheric temperature trends in observations and CCMVal‐2, CMIP3, and CMIP5 models. Geophys. Res. Atmospheres, 118(2), 605-613.
  • Mayer, M. and Haimberger, L., 2012. Poleward Atmospheric Energy Transports and Their Variability as Evaluated from ECMWF Reanalysis Data, J. Climate, 25(2), pp.734–752.
  • A. Grant, Brönnimann, S. and Haimberger, L., 2008, Recent Arctic warming structure contested, Nature, doi: 10.1038/nature07257

Memberships