- E-mailThomas.Spengler@uib.no
- Phone+47 55 58 98 46
- Visitor AddressGeophysical InstituteAllegaten 705020 BergenRoom229
- Postal AddressPostboks 78035020 BERGEN
- Air-Ice-Sea Interactions in the Marginal Ice Zone
- Jet Stream Dynamics and Variability
- Polar Lows
- Tropical-Extratropical Interactions
- Teleconnections
- Baroclinic and Diabatic Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones
- Heat Lows
- Orographic Slope and Valley Winds
- Flow over and around Topography
Courses:
Introduction to Methods in Weather Forecasting (GEOF321)
Dynamics of the Atmosphere (GEOF326)
Advanced Atmospheric Dynamics (GEOF352)
Mesoscale Dynamics (GEOF328)
Seminar in Atmospheric Sciences (GEOF351)
Polar Meteorology and Climate (AGF-213)
The Arctic Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Local Climate Processes (AGF-350)
Supervision of PhD students:
Kristine Flacké Haualand: Diabatic intensification of baroclinic evolution and the role of surface fluxes. 2016-2020
Leonidas Tsopouridis: Air-sea interaction processes in the Gulf Stream and Kurishio Rregions. 2016-2020
Clemens Spensberger: New approaches to investigate the influence of orographic and dynamic blocking on large-scale atmospheric flow. 2011-2015
Annick Terpstra: Dynamical perspectives on the formation and intensification of polar lows. 2011-2014
Mathew Reeve: Monsoon onset in Bangladesh: reconciling scientific and societal perspectives. 2010-2015
Stefan Keiderling: Jet Dynamics, Evolution, and Forcing. 2013-2017
Qi Kong: Interactions of Cyclones with steep Topography. 2011-2013
Supervision of Master students:
Lars Andreas Selberg: Dynamics and Predictability of extreme winter storm Nina. 2015-2016
Kristine Flacké Haualand: Diabatic intensification of baroclinic evolution. 2015-2016
Ståle Dahl-Eriksen: Influence of SST gradients on cyclones and storm tracks. 2015-2016
Magnus Haukeland: Polar Low Climatology and Impact on Norway: Present and Future. 2015-2016
Musa Ssemujju: Early Season Rainfall in North-East Bangladesh. 2015-2016
Matthias Gottschalk: An idealized study on the influence of the sea ice edge on the development of polar lows. 2015
Ragnhild Nordhagen: Forecast Challenges associated with Cold Pools in Norwegian Valleys. 2013-2014
Linda Green: Influence of Surface Fluxes on Polar Low Development: Idealised Simulations. 2013-2014
Bas Creeze: Polar low detection and tracking. 2013
Trond Thorsteinsson: The development and evaluation of an idealized ocean model for the Bergen Dynamic Model. 2013
Angus Munro: What can flow deformation tell us about Rossby wave breaking in the atmosphere? 2012-2013
Espen Karlsen: Extreme precipitation in Norway: Present and Future Changes based on Regional Climate Simulations. 2012-2013
Stefan Keiderling: Low Level Jet Streams at the Sea Ice Edge - Numerical Simulations using WRF. 2012-2013
Cecilie Villanger: Exteme winds in Norway - an analysis based on observations and reanalyses. 2012-2013
Elin Tronvoll: Cyclone Interaction with the Topography of Greenland: A Catalog of Cyclone Motion. 2011-2012
- 2017. Inversion of potential vorticity density. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 74: 801-807. doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-16-0133.1
- 2017. Polar Low Workshop Summary. Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). 98: ES139-ES142. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0207.1
- 2017. Synoptic Systems interacting with the Rocky Mountain Barrier: Observations and Theories. Monthly Weather Review. 145: 783-794. doi: 10.1175/MWR-D-16-0195.1
- 2017. Upper-Tropospheric Jet Axis Detection and Application to the Boreal Winter 2013/14. Monthly Weather Review. 145: 2363-2374. doi: 10.1175/mwr-d-16-0467.1
- 2016. A Lagrangian climatology of wintertime cold air outbreaks in the Irminger and Nordic seas and their role in shaping air-sea heat fluxes. Journal of Climate. 30: 2717-2737. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0605.1
- 2016. New Tools for Comparing Beliefs about the Timing of Recurrent Events with Climate Time Series Datasets. Weather, Climate, and Society. 8: 493-506. doi: 10.1175/WCAS-D-15-0054.1
- 2016. Comment on "Incorporating the Effects of Moisture into a Dynamical Parameter: Moist Vorticity and Moist Divergence". Weather and forecasting. 31: 1393-1396. doi: 10.1175/WAF-D-16-0067.1
- 2016. Structure of a shear-line polar low. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 143: 12-26. doi: 10.1002/qj.2911
- 2016. High-latitude dynamics of atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions. Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). 97: ES179-ES182. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00302.1
- 2016. Forward and reverse shear environments during polar low genesis over the North East Atlantic. Monthly Weather Review. 144: 1341-1354. doi: 10.1175/MWR-D-15-0314.1
- 2016. Diabatic heating and jet stream shifts: A case study of the 2010 negative North Atlantic Oscillation winter. Geophysical Research Letters. 43: 9994-10,002. doi: 10.1002/2016GL070146
- 2016. Climatology of polar lows over the Sea of Japan using the JRA-55 reanalysis. Journal of Climate. 29: 419-437. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0291.1
- 2015. Aspects of potential vorticity fluxes: Climatology and impermeability. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 72: 3257-3267. doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-14-0196.1
- 2015. Polar lower-latitude linkages and their role in weather and climate prediction. Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). 96: ES197-ES200. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00121.1
- 2015. Analysis of the slope of isentropic surfaces and its tendencies over the North Atlantic. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 141: 3226-3238. doi: 10.1002/qj.2605
- 2015. Rossby waves, extreme fronts, and wildfires in southeastern Australia. Geophysical Research Letters. 42: 2015-2023. doi: 10.1002/2015GL063125
- 2015. Complementing scientific monsoon definitions with social perception in Bangladesh. Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). 96: 49-57. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00144.1
- 2015. Iskantens ekstreme klima. Bergens Tidende. 12-13. Published 2015-03-29.
- 2015. An initialization method for idealized channel simulations. Monthly Weather Review. 143: 2043-2051. doi: 10.1175/MWR-D-14-00248.1
- 2015. Idealised simulations of polar low development in an Arctic moist-baroclinic environment. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 141: 1987-1996. doi: 10.1002/qj.2507
- 2014. Testing a flexible method to reduce false monsoon onsets. PLoS ONE. 9. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104386
- 2014. A new look at deformation as a diagnostic for large-scale flow. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 71: 4221-4234. doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-14-0108.1
- 2013. Reflection of Barotropic Rossby Waves in Sheared Flow and Validity of the WKB Approximation. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 70: 2170-2178. doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-12-0315.1
- 2012. Hva er egentlig monsunen? Klima. 3.
- 2012. FLOHOF 2007: an overview of the mesoscale meteorological field campaign at Hofsjokull, Central Iceland. Meteorology and atmospheric physics (Print). 116: 1-13. doi: 10.1007/s00703-010-0118-4
- 2012. Potential vorticity attribution and causality. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 69: 2600-2607. doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-11-0313.1
- 2011. The Norwegian IPY-THORPEX. Polar Lows and Arctic Fronts during the 2008 Andøya Campaign. Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). 92: 1443-1466. doi: 10.1175/2011BAMS2901.1
- 2011. Dynamics of Heat Lows over elevated terrain. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 137: 250-263. doi: 10.1002/qj.737
- 2011. How does rain affect surface pressure in a one-dimensional framework? Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. 68: 347-360. doi: 10.1175/2010JAS3582.1
- 2010. The Modulation of the Subtropical and Extratropical Atmosphere in the Pacific Basin in Response to the Madden Julian Oscillation. Monthly Weather Review. 138: 2761-2779. doi: 10.1175/2010MWR3194.1
- 2009. Thermally driven Flows at an asymmetric valley exit: Observations and Model Studies at the Lech Valley exit. Monthly Weather Review. 137: 3437-3455. doi: 10.1175/2009MWR2779.1
- 2009. Comments on "Dry-Season Precipitation in Tropical West Africa and Its Relation to Forcing from the Extratropics". Monthly Weather Review. 137: 3149-3150. doi: 10.1175/2009MWR2942.1
- 2009. Multi-event analysis of the westerly Greenland tip jet based upon 45 winters in ERA-40. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 135: 1999-2011. doi: 10.1002/qj.488
- 2008. The dynamics of heat lows over flat terrain. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 134: 2157-2172. doi: 10.1002/qj.342
- 2005. The Dynamics of Heat Lows in Simple Background Flows. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 131: 3147-3166. doi: 10.1256/qj.04.177
- 2002. The Prediction of low-level convergence lines over northeastern Australia. Australian meteorological magazine. 51: 13-23.
More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)
SUBMITTED ARTICLES:
C. Michel, A. Terpstra and T. Spengler, 2018: Polar Low Climatology for the Nordic Seas basedon the ERA-Interim Reanalysis. J. Clim., accepted
Egger, J., and T. Spengler, 2018: Non-Uniqueness of Attribution in Piecewise Potential VorticityInversion. J. Atmos. Sci., accepted
Profile
I am a meteorologist focusing on the combination of theory, observations, and modelling. I have specialized on a variety of scales ranging from meso, synoptic, to large-scale flow and participated in several field campaigns addressing meso-scale atmospheric flow and atmosphere-ocean interactions. Since 2015, I am the director of the NFR funded Norwegian Research School on Changing Climates in the Coupled Earth System (CHESS). I was coordinator and head of the field campaign ALLGEX and part of the organizational team of FLOHOF. My specific research interests are devoted to interaction processes between different space and time scales, addressing wave mean flow interactions and the dynamical impact of smaller scale processes. I am currently leading research focusing on high impact weather in the Arctic, e.g., Polar lows and topographically initiated wind events with an increasing interest on atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions. In 2012 I was elected as a member of the International Commission for Dynamic Meteorology and lead the organization of an international workshop on atmosphere-ocean-ice interaction, which was held in Norway in 2015. I was awarded the prize for best lecturer of the academic year 2012/2013 at the Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bergen and nominated for the IAMAS early career scientist medal in 2013. Since 2015 I am elected as chair of the Atmospheric Working Group of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC).
Employment history
2014–today Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway: Professor for Dynamic Meteorology
Jul-Dec 2015 School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK: Visiting Research Scientist
2010–2014 Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway: Associate Professor for Dynamic Meteorology
2009–2011 Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA Postdoctoral: Research Associate
Feb 2009 Monash Weather and Climate, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia: Visiting Scientist
2008-2009 Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland: Postdoctoral Research Assistant
2005–2008 Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland: Doctoral Research Assistant
2004-2005 Meteorological Institute Munich, University of Munich, Germany: Research assistant
Professional Organisations
2011–today International Commission on Dynamic Meteorology (ICDM) of the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS)
2013–today Atmospheric Working Group (AWG) of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), since 2015 Chair of the AWG
Awards and Nominations
2013 Best Lecturer at the Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bergen
2013 Nominee for the IAMAS Early Career Science Medal
