Thomas Kleinen

Dr. Thomas Kleinen

Contact:
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Bundesstr. 53
20146 Hamburg
Germany

Phone: +49-40-41173-140
Email: thomas.kleinen _at_ zmaw.de

This homepage only exists to provide continuity.
It will not be updated any more. Please check
 http://www.mpimet.mpg.de/en/institut/mitarbeiter/kleinenthomas/index.html
for my current hompage. 		 


Kleinen

Publications 
Research CV
 


News

As of 1/1/2009 I am affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg.

The new address is:
Thomas Kleinen
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Bundesstraße 53
20146 Hamburg
Germany

The new email address is: thomas.kleinen _at_ zmaw.de


Research Interests

Currently I am working in land carbon cycle modelling. Together with Victor Brovkin I am investigating peat accumulation in the high northern latitudes during the Holocene, as well as during previous interglacials.
This investigation is part of the project COIN (Comparison of Interglacials), which is funded by the DFG.
For this project, I am implementing a representation of wetland hydrology, as well as a model of peat accumulation and decomposition into the DGVM LPJ.

Previously, I was a senior research associate at the Climatic Research Unit, where I collaborated with Tim Osborn and Keith Briffa in an investigation of the climate of the little ice age.
We performed a sensitivity study with the GCM HadCM3, which we forced by various candidate mechanisms (negative NAO, decrease in radiative forcing, slowdown of the MOC), in order to find out how the climate produced by these mechanisms compares to palaeodata.

My PhD at the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research was on the detection of critical thresholds in the climate system, as well as the consideration of uncertainty in the integrated assessment of climate change by stochastic methods.

A short list of things I'm interested in:
  • The land carbon cycle
  • Assimilation of palaeodata into GCMs
  • The meridional overturning circulation
  • Nonlinear thresholds in the climate system, in ecosystems or in the socioeconomic system
  • Indicators for thresholds: Quantities, available from measurement data, that allow a prediction of the distance to the threshold
  • Integrated assessment of climate change
  • consideration of uncertainty
  • nonlinear, conceptual models of the climate system
  • stochastic dynamical systems, as applied to the climate system
  • changes in probabilities of extreme events


Curriculum Vitae

Education
2005: PhD in theoretical physics, Potsdam University, Germany.
2000: Diplom in physics, Potsdam University, Germany.

Positions
since 01/01/2009: Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany.
01/01/2008 - 31/12/2008: Research Scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.
01/08/2005 - 31/12/2007: Senior Research Associate, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
01/02/2001 - 31/07/2005: Research Associate, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.

  
       
     
 
  Last change: 06/01/2009