Martin Wegmann

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Proficiency & Research Interests

My early research was on the effect of volcanic eruptions on climate during the last 400 years. I investigated the impact of explosive eruptions, such as Tambora in 1815, in general circulation models as examples of extreme external forcing.

Since then, I’ve been working more on the evolution of Arctic and high- to mid-latitude climates over the last 150 years. I combine in-situ, proxy, reanalysis and model data to try to untangle puzzling features and questions. I focus especially on the changing cryosphere and its impact on atmospheric circulation patterns. This includes analysing processes ranging from daily to decadal, and from regional to hemispheric resolution. Recently, I shifted my focus a little bit to seasonal prediction, combining my background of teleconnections, climate forcings and cryosphere-atmosphere feedbacks.

After working for the WMO to coordinate weather and climate research projects and succesfully applying to a high-risk, high-reward Swiss National Science Foundation research grant, I worked as data scientist at EPFL Lausanne, combining interdisciplinary, high-frequency environmental data with machine learning. Right now I am supporting scientists in best-practice open science data management while still doing part-time research.

Besides these scientific foci, I am highly interested in graphic and communication design. In some instances I am able to combine this interest with professional matters, such as talks, posters or figures. I often wonder about how to deliver (my) messages visually, dwelve into graphic design magazines and look out for new font types or color palettes.

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Education & Experience

• Data Steward & Scientific Collaborator
  • Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
  • University of Bern
  • 2023 - present
• Scientific Collaborator & Data Scientist
  • Limnology Center
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
  • 2022 - 2023
• SNSF Funded Researcher
  • Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
  • University of Bern
  • 2020 - 2022
• Junior Professional Officer
  • World Weather Research Division
  • World Meteorological Organization, United Nations, Geneva
  • 2019 - 2020
• PostDoc
  • Paleoclimate Dynamics, Climate Science Division
  • Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven
  • 2018 - 2019
• PostDoc
  • Institute for Environmental Geosciences (formerly LGGE, now IGE)
  • University of Grenoble
  • 2016 - 2017
• PhD
  • Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
  • University of Bern
  • 2012 - 2015
• Student Assistant
  • Institute of Geography, Climatology Group
  • University of Bern
  • 2011 - 2012
• Master of Science
  • Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research
  • University of Bern
  • 2010 - 2012
• Student Assistant
  • Leibniz Institute of Economics Research (RWI), Essen
  • 2009 - 2010
• Bachelor of Science
  • Geography
  • Ruhr University Bochum
  • 2006 - 2009

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Peer Reviewed Publications

• Wegmann, M., Wiersma, P., Bouffard, D., Pasche-Tofield, N., Runnalls, J. & Mariethoz, G. (2025). Filling gaps in high-resolution limnological time series: Applying QuickSampling to LéXPLORE data. In Preparation: Earth System Science Data

• Burgdorf, A., Wegmann, M., Broennimann, S. & Orsolini, Y. (2025). A 175-year perspective of interannual variability of the Indian summer monsoon onset in Mumbai and its drivers. In Preparation: Climate of the Past

• Wegmann, M. & Broennimann, S. (2024). The potential of low-complexity data-driven seasonal climate prediction learned from Single Model Initial-condition Large Ensembles. Submitted: Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography

• Dufour, A., Wegmann, M., Zolina, O. & Gulev, S. (2023). Evidence of water cycle intensification over Siberia from a joint analysis of moisture transport and land hydrology. In Review: Environmental Research Letters

• Thöle, L., & Wegmann, M. (2024). Open climate science is brave climate science. Environmental Research Letters, 19, 122001.

• Ai, X., Thoele, L., Auderset, A., Schmitt, M., Moretti, S., Studer, A., Michel, E., Wegmann, M., Mazaud, A., Bijl, P., Sigman, D., Martinez-Garcia, A., and Jaccard, S.L. (2024): The southward migration of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current enhanced oceanic degassing of carbon dioxide during the last two deglaciations. Communications Earth & Environment 5, 58.

• Wegmann, M. & Jaume-Santero, F. (2023). Artificial intelligence achieves easy-to-adapt nonlinear global temperature reconstructions using minimal local data. Communications Earth & Environment 4, 217.

• Churakova, O.V., Porter, T.J., Zharkov, M.S., Fonti, M.V., Barinov, V.V., Tainyk, A.V., Kirdyanov, A.V., Knorre, A.A., Wegmann, M., Myglan, V.S., Siegwolf, R.T.W. & Saurer, M. (2023). Climate impacts on tree-ring stable isotopes across the Northern Hemispheric boreal zone. Science of the Total Environment, 870, 161644.

• Sasgen, I., Salles, A., Wegmann, M., Wouters, B., Fettweis, X., Noel, B. & Beck, C. (2022). Arctic glaciers record wavier circumpolar winds. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 249-255.

• Wegmann, M., Orsolini, Y., Weisheimer, A., Van den Hurk, B., & Lohmann, G. (2021). Impact of Eurasian autumn snow on the winter North Atlantic Oscillation in seasonal forecasts of the 20th century. Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 1245-1261.

• Balting, D., Ionita, M., Wegmann, M., Helle, G., Schleser, G., Rimbu, N., Freund, M., Heinrich, I., Caldarescu, D. & Lohmann, G. (2021). Large-scale climate signals of a European oxygen isotope network from tree rings. Clim. Past, 17, 1005-1023.

• Wegmann, M., Rohrer, M., Santolaria-Otin, M. & Lohmann, G. (2020). Eurasian autumn snow link to winter North Atlantic Oscillation strongest for Arctic warming periods. Earth Syst. Dynam., 11, 509-524.

• Orsolini, Y., Wegmann, M., Dutra, E., Liu, B., Balsamo, G., Yang, K., de Rosnay, P., Zhu, C., Wang, W., & Senan, R. (2019). Evaluation of snow depth and snow-cover over the Tibetan Plateau in global reanalyses using in-situ and satellite remote sensing observations. The Cryosphere, 13, 2221-2239.

• Wegmann, M., Dutra, E., Jacobi, H.W. & Zolina, O. (2018). Spring snow albedo feedback over Northern Eurasia: Comparing in-situ measurements with reanalysis products. The Cryosphere, 12(6), 1887-1898

• Wegmann, M., Orsolini, Y. & Zolina, O. (2018). Warm Arctic - cold Siberia: comparing the recent and the early 20th-century Arctic warmings. Environmental Research Letters, 13, 025009.

• Wegmann, M., Orsolini, Y., Dutra, E., Bulygina, O., Sterin, A. & Broennimann, S. (2017). Eurasian snow depth in long-term climate reanalyses. The Cryosphere, 11(2), 923-935.

• Wegmann, M., Broennimann, S. & Compo, G.P. (2017). Tropospheric circulation during the early twentieth century Arctic warming. Climate Dynamics, 48, 2405.

• Broennimann, S., Malik, A., Stickler, A., Wegmann, M., Raible, C. C., Muthers, … & Schmutz, W. (2016). Multidecadal variations of the effects of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation on the climate system. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 15529-15543.

• Raible, C. C., Broennimann, S., Auchmann, R., Brohan, P., Froelicher, T. L., Graf, … & Wegmann, M. (2016). Tambora 1815 as a test case for high impact volcanic eruptions. Earth system effects. WIREs Clim Change, 7, 569-589.

• Wegmann, M., Orsolini, Y., Vazquez, M., Gimeno, L., Nieto, R., Bulygina, O., Jaiser, R., Handorf, D., Rinke, A, Dethloff, K. & Broennimann, S. (2015). Arctic moisture source for Eurasian snow cover variations in autumn. Environmental Research Letters, 10(5), 054015.

• Wegmann, M., Broennimann, S., Bhend, J., Franke, J., Folini, D., Wild, M., & Luterbacher, J. (2014). Volcanic Influence on European Summer Precipitation through Monsoons: Possible Cause for Years without Summer. Journal of Climate, 27(10), 3683-3691.

• Auchmann, R., Arfeuille, F., Wegmann, M., Franke, J., Barriendos, M., Prohom, M., … & Broennimann, S. (2013). Impact of volcanic stratospheric aerosols on diurnal temperature range in Europe over the past 200 years: Observations versus model simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 118(16), 9064-9077.

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Posters & Presentations

This is an incomplete list of posters and presentations that I have created over time.

• Wegmann, M. (2024). How to plug holes in Lake Geneva. Pint of Science Bern 2024.

• Wegmann, M. & Jaume-Santero, F. (2024). From Climate to Weather Reconstruction with inexpensive Neural Networks. EGU General Assembly 2024.

• Wegmann, M. & Broennimann, S. (2024). Bridging paleo-climatology and seasonal climate prediction to explain European summer climate variability. Swiss Global Change Day 2024.

• Wegmann, M. (2024). Künstliche Intelligenz in der Klima-und Wetterforschung: Eine (kleine) Übersicht. Invited Talk: Naturforschende Gesellschaft Oberwallis.

• Wegmann, M. & Churakova, O. (2023). Data Stewards: domain-specific research data management support at UniBE. Coffee Lectures for Science and Medicine at the University of Bern HS 2023.

• Wegmann, M. & Pasche-Tofield, N. (2022). Two very different summers for Lake Geneva as observed by the LéXPLORE platform. Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2022.

• Wegmann, M. & Pasche-Tofield, N. (2022). Two very different summers for Lake Geneva as observed by the LéXPLORE platform. GLEON Conference 2022.

• Sasgen, I., Salles, A., Wegmann, M., Wouters, B., Fettweis, X., Noel, B. & Beck, C. (2022). Arctic glaciers record wavier circumpolar winds. The Cryosphere in a changing climate - A scientific symposium in memory of Koni Steffen.

• Wegmann, M. & Jaume-Santero, F. (2022). Artificial intelligence reconstructs global temperature from scarce local data. Bernese Data Science Day 2022.

• Wegmann, M., Dutra, E., Jacobi, H.W. & Zolina, O. (2019). Spring snow albedo feedback over Northern Eurasia: Comparing in-situ measurements with reanalysis products. IUGG 2019.

• Wegmann, M., Jacobi, H.W. & Zolina, O. (2017). Spring snow albedo feedback in daily data over Russia: Comparing in-situ measurements with reanalysis products. AGU 2016 & ASSW 2017.

• Wegmann, M.,Compo, G. & Broennimann, S. (2016). Tropospheric circulation during the early 20th century Arctic warming. EGU General Assembly 2016.

• Wegmann, M., Orsolini, Y., Vazquez, M., Gimeno, L., Nieto, R., Bulygina, O., Jaiser, R., Handorf, D., Rinke, A, Dethloff, K. & Broennimann, S. (2015). Arctic moisture source for Eurasian snow cover variations in autumn. EGU General Assembly 2015.

• Wegmann, M. & Broennimann, S. (2014). The early vs. the late 20th century Arctic warming: The role of energy and aerosol fluxes in reanalysis driven datasets. EGU General Assembly 2014.

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Secured Funding

• 2020 SNF SPARK Call
  • WINTER: Winter Climate Prediction with Machine Learning

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Selected Publication Metrics

Fig. 1: Amount of publications split by authorship

Fig. 1a: Amount of publications split by authorship

Fig. 2: Citations per year based on Google Scholar metrics

Fig. 3: Location of co-authors based on institute affiliation at time of publication.

Scaling with amount of co-authors per city. One co-author can have multiple affiliations.

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Press & Outreach

Digital versions of news articles about my work:

• Why no monsoon can mean a cold, wet summer

• German: Asche macht Regen

• German: Tropische Vulkane vermiesen uns den Sommer

• Less sea ice, more Siberian snow

• Arctic ice loss brings extra snow in Siberia

• German: Mehr Schnee durch weniger Eis

• German: Warum die Erderwaermung schon jetzt fuer kaeltere Winter sorgt

• German: Starke Gletscherschmelze belegt veraenderte Windstroemung in der Arktis

• Remote connections in the Arctic

• How glaciers record the winds of change

• German: Freier Zugang zu Forschungsdaten ist entscheidend

• Free access to research data is crucial

Outreach activities I am involved in:

• Producer of the LeXPLORE Data Newsletter

Outreach activities I was involved in:

• Former Member of the EGU Climate Division Outreach Team

• Facilitated and executed the 2020 WWRP HIWeather Workshop

• Conceptualized and initiated the S2S AI Forecast Challenge

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Contact

For my publication and metrics, visit my Google Scholar profile and follow me for further updates:

• My ORCiD

• My Google Scholar profile

• My Twitter account

• My current Kardashian index is 0.7. Fortunately, I am not a Science Kardashian…

• I am sharing my personal photos for geoscience communication on IMAGGEO

My email address at my current employer is:

martin.wegmann @ unibe.ch

Updated on 2024-11-13

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