Prof. Sonia I. Seneviratne
Research interests
- Land-climate interactions, soil moisture dynamics, and climate-relevant vegetation processes
- Climate change and extreme events, droughts, hot extremes
- Climate feedbacks and memory effects
- Interface between water, energy and biogeochemical cycles
- Climate and land surface modelling, new approaches to model validation
- Evaluation of land datasets, field measurements
- Land water and energy budgets
Awards and Distinctions
2014-2019: ERC Consolidator Grant (DROUGHT-HEAT project)
2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017: external page Highly cited researcher (Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics)
2013: external page James B. Macelwane Medal, American Geophysical Union
2013: external page Fellow, American Geophysical Union
2012: Editor's Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Geophysical Research Letters, American Geophysical Union
2003-2004: external page NCCR Climate postdoctoral fellowship
Publications
Selected publications
Padron, R., L. Gudmundsson, B. Decharme, A. Ducharne, D.M. Lawrence, J. Mao, D. Peano, G. Krinner, H. Kim, and S.I. Seneviratne (2020): Observed changes in dry-season water availability attributed to human-induced climate change. Nature Geoscience, 13, 477-481.(external page link; ETH news)
Beusch, L., L. Gudmundsson, S. I. Seneviratne, 2020: Emulating Earth system model temperatures with MESMER: from global mean temperature trajectories to grid-point-level realizations on land. Earth System Dynamics, 11, 139-159 (external page link)
Thiery, W., A. J. Visser, E. M. Fischer, M. Hauser, A. L. Hirsch, D. M. Lawrence, Q. Lejeune, E. L. Davin, S I. Seneviratne, 2020: Warming of hot extremes alleviated by expanding irrigation. Nature Communications, 11, 290 (external page link; ETH news)
Vogel, M. M., J. Zscheischler, R. Wartenburger, D. Dee, S. I. Seneviratne, 2019: Concurrent 2018 hot extremes across Northern Hemisphere due to human-induced climate change. Earth’s Future, 7, 692-703 (external page link)
Humphrey V., Zscheischler J., Ciais P., Gudmundsson L., Sitch S., S. I. Seneviratne, 2018: Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate to observed changes in terrestrial water storage. Nature, 560, 628-631 (external page link, ETH news)
Seneviratne, S.I., S.J. Phipps, A.J. Pitman, A.L. Hirsch, E.L. Davin, M.G. Donat, M. Hirschi, A. Lenton, M. Wilhelm, B. Kravitz, 2018: Land radiative management as contributor to regional-scale climate adaptation and mitigation. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/s41561-017-0057-5 (external page link; ETH News)
Seneviratne, S.I., M. Donat, A.J. Pitman, R. Knutti, and R.L. Wilby, 2016: Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets. Nature, 529, 477-483, doi:10.1038/nature16542. (external page link; ETH News; external page NZZ; external page Tagesanzeiger; external page Blick; external page Daily Mail; external page Japan Times)
Thiery, W., E.L. Davin, S.I. Seneviratne, K. Bedka, S. Lhermitte, and N.P.M. van Lipzig, 2016: Hazardous thunderstorm intensification over Lake Victoria. Nature Communications, 7, 12786. (external page link; ETH News)
Guillod, B.P., B. Orlowsky, D.G. Miralles, A.J. Teuling, and S.I. Seneviratne, 2015: Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall. Nature Communications, 6, 6443. (external page link; ETH Life)
Seneviratne, S.I., M. Donat, B. Mueller, and L.V. Alexander, 2014: No pause in the increase of hot temperature extremes. Nature Climate Change, 4, 161-163. (external page link; external page Reuters; external page The Economist; external page SRF2 Wissenschaftsmagazin; external page CBC; external page Climate Central)
Davin, E.L., S.I. Seneviratne, P. Ciais, A. Olioso, and T. Wang, 2014: Preferential cooling of hot extremes from cropland albedo management. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci., 111(27), 9757-9761, doi:10.1073/pnas.1317323111 (external page link; ETH News; external page Spiegel; external page Nature News).
Greve, P., B. Orlowsky, B. Mueller, J. Sheffield, M. Reichstein, and S.I. Seneviratne, 2014: Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land. Nature Geoscience, 7, 716-721, doi: 10.1038/NGEO2247. (external page link; ETH News; external page Phys.org; external page 20 Minuten; external page Washington Post (online); external page Nature Geoscience News and Views)
Seneviratne, S.I., M. Wilhelm, T. Stanelle, B.J.J.M. van den Hurk, S. Hagemann, A. Berg, F. Cheruy, M.E. Higgins, A. Meier, V. Brovkin, M. Claussen, A. Ducharne, J.-L. Dufresne, K.L. Findell, J. Ghattas, D.M. Lawrence, S. Malyshev, M. Rummukainen, and B. Smith, 2013: Impact of soil moisture-climate feedbacks on CMIP5 projections: First results from the GLACE-CMIP5 experiment. Geophys. Res. Lett., 40 (19), 5212-5217 (external page link).
Seneviratne, S.I., N. Nicholls, D. Easterling, C.M. Goodess, S. Kanae, J. Kossin, Y. Luo, J. Marengo, K. McInnes, M. Rahimi, M. Reichstein, A. Sorteberg, C. Vera, and X. Zhang, 2012: Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pp. 109-230. [external page Full IPCC SREX Report, external page Chapter 3] (ETH Klimablog: Das IPCC SREX in Kürze, Qualitätskontrolle im IPCC SREX; ETH Life Interview: Deutsch, English; external page IPCC SREX Video; Media articles: external page SciDevNet, external page NZZ, external page Die Zeit, external page Environmental Health Perspectives)
IPCC, 2012: Summary for Policymakers. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-19. (in external page English, external page Arabic, external page Chinese, external page French, external page Russian, and external page Spanish)
Mueller, B., and S.I. Seneviratne, 2012: Hot days induced by precipitation deficits at the global scale. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci., 109 (31), 12398-12403, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1204330109. (external page link; ETH Life article; external page TagesAnzeiger; external page Los Angeles Times; external page Research Highlight in Nature Geoscience)
Seneviratne, S.I., 2012: Historical drought trends revisited. Nature, 491, 338-339. (external page link)
Hirschi, M., S.I. Seneviratne, V. Alexandrov, F. Boberg, C. Boroneant, O.B. Christensen, H. Formayer, B. Orlowsky, and P. Stepanek, 2011: Observational evidence for soil-moisture impact on hot extremes in southeastern Europe. Nature Geoscience, 4, 17-21, doi:10.1038/ngeo1032. (external page link; external page News and Views; ETH Life article)
Seneviratne, S.I., T. Corti, E.L. Davin, M. Hirschi, E.B. Jaeger, I. Lehner, B. Orlowsky, and A.J. Teuling, 2010: Investigating soil moisture-climate interactions in a changing climate: A review. Earth-Science Reviews, 99, 3-4, 125-161, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.02.004. (external page link)
Teuling, A.J., S.I. Seneviratne, R. Stöckli, M. Reichstein, E. Moors, P. Ciais, S. Luyssaert, B. van den Hurk, C. Ammann, C. Bernhofer, E. Dellwik, D. Gianelle, B. Gielen, T. Grünwald, K. Klumpp, L. Montagnani, C. Moureaux, M. Sottocornola, and G. Wohlfahrt, 2010: Contrasting response of European forest and grassland energy exchange to heatwaves. Nature Geoscience, 3, 722-727, doi:10.1038/ngeo950. (external page link; ETH life article)
Seneviratne, S.I., D. Lüthi, M. Litschi, and C. Schär, 2006: Land-atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe. Nature, 443, 205-209. (external page link; external page suppl.info.; external page editor's summary)
Invited Presentations
List of invited and solicited presentations (selected)
Research Projects
(see also our research pages)
external page EU-H2020 4C project, 2019-2023
external page Copernicus C3S_511-Quality Assessment of ECV Products, 2017-2021
external page EU-H2020 CRESCENDO, 2015-2020
ERC Consolidator Grant "DROUGHT-HEAT", 2014-2019
external page EU-FP7 EUCLEIA, 2014-2016
external page ESA Soil moisture CCI, 2012-2014 (Phase 1), 2015-2017 (Phase 2)
external page EU-FP7 EMBRACE, 2011-2015
external page EU-FP7 DROUGHT-R&SPI, 2011-2015
ETH CHIRP2, 2012-2015
SNF Sinergia Carbo-Count CH, 2012-2015
external page NRP61 DROUGHT-CH, 2010-2013
external page EU-FP7 CARBO-Extreme, 2009-2013
external page NCCR-Climate Phase III, 2009-2012
SwissSMEX (SNF), 2008-2011
MAIOLICA (CCES), 2008-2012
external page NCCR-Climate Phase II (SwissRe-funded project), 2007-2009
external page EU-FP6 CECILIA, 2006-2009
Scientific Service
Selected service contributions
external page Coordinating Lead Author, IPCC 6th Assessment Report (2018-2021)
external page Co-chair of World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Extremes Grand Challenge (2015-present)
external page Lead Author, IPCC 1.5°C Special Report (2017-2018)
external page Co-chair of WCRP GEWEX Scientific Steering Group (2014-present)
external page ECMWF Scientific Advisory Committee (2012-present)
external page Coordinating Lead Author, IPCC SREX report (2009-2012)
external page ILEAPS Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) (2008-2013)
external page WCRP GEWEX Data and Assessment Panel (GDAP) (2008-2013)
external page WCRP GEWEX GLASS Panel (2008-2013)
Curriculum Vitae
2016- Full Professor, ETH Zurich
2013-2016 Associate Professor, ETH Zurich
2007-2012 Assistant Professor, ETH Zurich
2005-2007 Senior research scientist, ETH Zurich
2003-2004 Visiting research associate, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt (MD), USA
1999-2002 PhD thesis, ETH Zurich (Award: 04/2003)
1998-1999 Visiting scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge (MA), USA
1995-1999 MSc in Environmental Sciences (Major: Atmospheric Physics), ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1992-1995 BSc in Biology ("Attestation de Pré-licence"), University of Lausanne, Switzerland