Earth System Complexity

The Earth System Complexity group at AWI is focused on understanding interactions between large-scale components of the Earth, like the ice sheets and ocean circulation, boreal forest and permafrost. We strive to increase our understanding of the relevant processes driving dynamics within these systems on long timescales, using numerical models and paleo data analysis.

Some publications

Bochow, N., Poltronieri, A., Robinson, A., Montoya, M., Rypdal, M. and Boers, N.: Overshooting the critical threshold for the Greenland ice sheet, Nature, 622, 528–536, doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06503-9, 2023.

Swierczek‐Jereczek, J., Robinson, A., Blasco, J., Alvarez‐Solas, J. and Montoya, M.: Time‐scale synchronisation of oscillatory responses can lead to non‐monotonous R‐tipping, Scientific Reports, 13, 2104, doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28771-1, 2023.

Moreno-Parada, D., Alvarez-Solas, J., Blasco, J., Montoya, M., and Robinson, A.: Simulating the Laurentide Ice Sheet of the Last Glacial Maximum, The Cryosphere, 17, 2139–2156, doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2139-2023, 2023.

Some tools we use

Yelmo ice sheet model: a higher-order continental-scale ice sheet model

Robinson, A., Alvarez-Solas, J., Montoya, M., Goelzer, H., Greve, R., and Ritz, C.: Description and validation of the ice-sheet model Yelmo (version 1.0), Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 2805–2823, doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2805-2020, 2020.

See also https://github.com/palma-ice/yelmo

CLIMBER-X climate model: a fast Earth system model (fESM) capable of long timescale simulations

Willeit, M., Ganopolski, A., Robinson, A., and Edwards, N. R.: The Earth system model CLIMBER-X v1.0 – Part 1: Climate model description and validation​​​​​​​​​​​​​​, Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 5905–5948, doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5905-2022, 2022.

FastIsostasy: a regional glacial isostatatic adjustment model

Swierczek-Jereczek, J., Montoya, M., Latychev, K., Robinson, A., Alvarez-Solas, J., and Mitrovica, J.: FastIsostasy v1.0 – An accelerated regional GIA model accounting for the lateral variability of the solid Earth, EGUsphere \[preprint], doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2869, 2023.

See also https://github.com/JanJereczek/FastIsostasy.jl