Michael Lehning

michael.lehning@epfl.ch +41 21 693 80 81
EPFL ENAC IIE CRYOS
GR A0 392 (Bâtiment GR)
Station 2
CH-1015 Lausanne
+41 21 693 80 81
+41 21 693 63 92
Office: GR A0 392
EPFL > ENAC > IIE > CRYOS
Web site: Web site: https://cryos.epfl.ch
Fields of expertise
Interaction Cryosphere - Atmosphere in particular Snow Processes
Natural Hazards Warning and Forecasting
Turbulence and Boundary Layer Flows over Alpine Terrain
Mountain Hydrology and Permafrost Dynamics
Renewable Energy (Wind and Solar) in the Alps and as Contribution to the Swiss Energy Change Agenda
Natural Hazards Warning and Forecasting
Turbulence and Boundary Layer Flows over Alpine Terrain
Mountain Hydrology and Permafrost Dynamics
Renewable Energy (Wind and Solar) in the Alps and as Contribution to the Swiss Energy Change Agenda
Grants
2010: EU Interreg and Cantonal Funding for application oriented work in Alpine flood forecasting and climate change, P. I.2009: Swiss National Science Foundation: Wind tunnel investigations of shear stress partitioning over plants, P. I.
2009: Swiss National Science Foundation: Field investigations of surface heterogeneity and land-surface exchange in mountains, P. I.
2008: ETH CCES grant Swiss Experiment Main Project Project on new technology and interdisciplinary environmental observation systems, P. I.
2008: HYDROSYS: EU Project on new technology and hydrological consequences of cryosphere degradation in the ALPS, P.I.
2007: SNF REQUIP Terrestrial Laser Scanning System, P.I.
2007: ETH CCES grant EXTREMES on spatial extreme value statistics, Co-P. I.
2006: ETH CCES grant Swiss Experiment Pre-Project, P. I.
2006: Swiss National Science Foundation: Wind tunnel investigation of snow ventilation, P. I.
2005: KTI: Development of high resolution forecasting models of road surface conditions for winter road maintenance, P. I.
2004: AWARE: EU Project on water resources in Alpine catchments with a focus on snow cover processes, P. I.
2003: Swiss National Science Foundation: Small scale investigation of flow, snow drift and surface energy balance, P. I.
2002: Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology: Distributed Computing (GRID) for Natural Hazard Prediction, Co - P. I.
2000: Swiss National Science Foundation: REQUIP: A cold, two phase wind tunnel with natural snow particles, P. I.
1997: Swiss National Science Foundation: Boundary layer wind field and the associated snow transport over high alpine topography, P. I.
1992: Scholarship for foreign studies at UC Davis.
Awards
Bavarian scholarship for highly gifted students (1988 - 1992)Award for the best student paper presentation at a conference of the American Meteorological Society in Charlotte (1995), USA.
Award for extraordinary performance in transfer of scientific knowledge to users, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (2001).
Offer (Ruf) of a full professorship (chair: W3) in environmental physics at the University of Tübingen (2009).
Publications
Infoscience publications
Infoscience
The Impact of Diffusive Water Vapor Transport on Snow Profiles in Deep and Shallow Snow Covers and on Sea Ice
Frontiers in earth Science. 2020-07-16. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2020.00249.The Influence of Mountain-Ridge Scale Snow Precipitation Processes on the Local Snow Distribution
27th IUGG General Assembly, Montréal, Canada, 8-18 july, 2019.Radar measurements of blowing snow off a mountain ridge
The Cryosphere. 2020-06-03. DOI : 10.5194/tc-14-1779-2020.Changes in Climatology, Snow Cover, and Ground Temperatures at High Alpine Locations
Frontiers In Earth Science. 2020-05-12. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2020.00100.Simulation of snow management in Alpine ski resorts using three different snow models
Cold Regions Science And Technology. 2020-04-01. DOI : 10.1016/j.coldregions.2020.102995.Version 1 of a sea ice module for the physics-based, detailed, multi-layer SNOWPACK model
Geoscientific Model Development. 2020-01-10. DOI : 10.5194/gmd-13-99-2020.Stream temperature and discharge evolution in Switzerland over the last 50 years: annual and seasonal behaviour
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 2020-01-10. DOI : 10.5194/hess-24-115-2020.Understanding snow bedform formation by adding sintering to a cellular automata model
The Cryosphere. 2019-12-09. DOI : 10.5194/tc-13-3239-2019.UAV based photogrammetry for snow height determination with GNSS/INS assisted aerial control
2019-10-05Downscaling of gridded wind fields using Deep Learning methods
2019-10-05Preferential Deposition of Snow and Dust Over Hills: Governing Processes and Relevant Scales
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. 2019-07-27. DOI : 10.1029/2018JD029614.Solarstrom aus den Bergen ersetzt Atomkraftwerke
AlpEnforce Sommertagung, 12 TWh Strom aus Gebirgs-PV-Anlagen, ETH Zurich, 2019-06-18.Cohesion-Induced Enhancement of Aeolian Saltation
Geophysical Research Letters. 2019-05-28. DOI : 10.1029/2019GL082195.Spatiotemporal dynamics of snow erosion, deposition and horizontal mass flux
Journal of Glaciology. 2019-04-01. DOI : 10.1017/jog.2019.3.NUMERICAL WEATHER MODELS FOR RESOURCE ASSESSMENT OF ALPINE WIND POWER
EnergieForschungsGespräche 2019, Disentis, Switzerland, 23.01-25.01.2019.The bright side of PV production in snow-covered mountains
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2019-01-07. DOI : 10.1073/pnas.1720808116.Precipitation and Radiosonde Measurements Over the Southern Ocean During the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition
27th IUGG General Assembly, Montreal, Canada, July 8-18, 2019.Precipitation over the Southern Ocean: learning from measurements during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition
ACE-DATA workshop, Lausanne, Switzerland, 14-15 October 2019.Precipitation during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition: multi-sensor observations and Polar-WRF model evaluation
2019 Polar CORDEX Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark, 7-9 October, 2019.Precipitation over the Southern Ocean: comparison of several ship-based measurement techniques during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition
EGU General Assembly 2019, Vienna, Austria, 7-12 April.Local radiation maxima in snow-covered mountains and its influence on PV winter production
AGU Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, US, December 9-13, 2019.How well do we understand the influence of drifting and blowing snow in extreme environments?
AGU Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, December 9-13, 2019.Detailed simulations of spatial snow accumulation patterns and near surface snow properties in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica
AGU Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, December 9-13, 2019.Medienanlass zur Wolken- und Schneemesskampagne von SLF, ETHZ u.a. in Davos Wolfgang.
2019.Potential and uncertainty of wind energy in the Swiss Alps
Lausanne, EPFL, 2019. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-9350.The Importance of Near-Surface Winter Precipitation Processes in Complex Alpine Terrain
Journal of Hydrometeorology. 2019. DOI : 10.1175/JHM-D-18-0055.1.Large wind farms can destroy stratocumulus clouds-evidence from large eddy simulations.
AGU Fall Meeting 2018, Washington DC, December 10-14, 2018.Trends in Swiss river discharge and temperatures under climate change: observations and simulations
On the suitability of the Thorpe-Mason model for calculating sublimation of saltating snow
Cryosphere. 2018-11-09. DOI : 10.5194/tc-12-3499-2018.How Are Turbulent Sensible Heat Fluxes and Snow Melt Rates Affected by a Changing Snow Cover Fraction?
Frontiers In Earth Science. 2018-10-22. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2018.00154.Improvement of Wind Power Assessment in Complex Terrain: The Case of COSMO-1 in the Swiss Alps
Frontiers In Energy Research. 2018-10-16. DOI : 10.3389/fenrg.2018.00102.Representation of Horizontal Transport Processes in Snowmelt Modeling by Applying a Footprint Approach
Frontiers In Earth Science. 2018-10-08. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2018.00120.Spatial variability in snow precipitation and accumulation in COSMO–WRF simulations and radar estimations over complex terrain
The Cryosphere. 2018-10-04. DOI : 10.5194/tc-12-3137-2018.Investigation of a wind-packing event in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica
Cryosphere. 2018-09-14. DOI : 10.5194/tc-12-2923-2018.Charting the course: A possible route to a fully renewable Swiss power system
Energy. 2018-08-15. DOI : 10.1016/j.energy.2018.08.018.Polarforscher in der Schweiz
2018-06-19.Is the Thorpe and Mason model valid for drifting and blowing snow?
2018-04. EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Vienna, Austria, April 4-13, 2018. p. 16587.The European mountain cryosphere: a review of its current state, trends, and future challenges
The Cryosphere. 2018-03-01. DOI : 10.5194/tc-12-759-2018.Des avalanches d'un nouveau type
2018-01-29.The impact of snow on solar PV production
Weekly Seminar at the Swiss Snow and Avalanche Research Institute (SLF/WSL), Davos, Switzerland, 2018-01-17.Modelling the arctic snowpack properties in Svalbard using SNOWPACK
2018Revisiting the Thorpe-Mason model for calculating sublimation of saltating snow
Polar 2018, Davos, Switzerland, June 2018.Dataset on PV Production in Snow Covered Mountains
2018.From the Clouds to the Ground - Snow Precipitation Patterns in Complex Terrain
POLAR2018, Davos, Switzerland, 19 June 2018.Local surface mass balance processes in East Antarctica
Polar2018, Davos, Switzerland, June 2018.Local snow transport and surface evolution processes in East Antarctica
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, Washington DC, December 2018.Wind Tunnel Experiments: Influence of Erosion and Depositionon Wind-Packing of New Snow
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE. 2018. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2018.00004.Snow farming: conserving snow over the summer season
CRYOSPHERE. 2018. DOI : 10.5194/tc-12-385-2018.Near-surface ventilation as a key for modeling the thermal regime of coarse blocky rock glaciers
PERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL PROCESSES. 2018. DOI : 10.1002/ppp.1978.Hydrological response of two high altitude Swiss catchments to energy balance and temperature index melt schemes
POLAR SCIENCE. 2018. DOI : 10.1016/j.polar.2018.06.007.Wind-packing of snow: How do wind crusts form?
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8628.Small-scale spatio-temporal dynamics of snowmelt and its influence on runoff generation in a high Alpine catchment
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8559.Investigation of snow melt dynamics and boundary layer processes over a melting snow surface
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8529.From the clouds to the ground - Effects of flow-precipitation interactions on snow distribution in complex alpine terrain
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8636.Toward a systematic integration of optical remote sensing for inland waters studies
EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8622.Interactions between drifting snow and surface dynamics
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8513.Snowpack runoff formation processes during rain-on-snow events
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8197.Numerical Experiments of Atmospheric Boundary Layer flows
Lausanne, EPFL, 2018. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8409.The bright side of snow cover effect on PV production - How to lower the seasonal mismatch between electricity supply and demand in a fully renewable Switzerland
European Geophysical Union, Vienna, Austria, 23.-28.04.2017.Complementing hydropower with PV and wind: Optimal energy mix in a fully renewable Switzerland
EGU, Vienna, Austria, 2017.Optimization of photovoltaic potential and its integration in Switzerland using genetic algorithm and optimal power flow
A Swiss electrical model
The bright side of snow cover effects on PV production - How to lower the seasonal mismatch between electricity supply and demand in a fully renewable Switzerland
EGU General Assembly 2017, Vienna, Austria, 8-13.April 2017.Wind tunnel experiments: saltation is necessary for wind-packing
Journal Of Glaciology. 2017. DOI : 10.1017/jog.2017.53.Impact of Extreme Land Surface Heterogeneity on Micrometeorology over Spring Snow Cover
Journal Of Hydrometeorology. 2017. DOI : 10.1175/Jhm-D-17-0074.1.Influence of slope-scale snowmelt on catchment response simulated with the Alpine3D model
Water Resources Research. 2017. DOI : 10.1002/2017WR021278.Wind tunnel observations of weak and strong snow saltation dynamics
Journal Of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface. 2017. DOI : 10.1002/2016Jf004111.Upscaling the evolution of snow microstructure
Lausanne, EPFL, 2017. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-7996.Ecological response of tree saplings to simulated climate change along an elevational gradient (CLIMARBRE)
Lausanne, EPFL, 2017. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-8021.A close-ridge small-scale atmospheric flow field and its influence on snow accumulation
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 2017. DOI : 10.1002/2016JD026258.How do Stability Corrections Perform in the Stable Boundary Layer Over Snow?
Boundary Layer Meteorology. 2017. DOI : 10.1007/s10546-017-0262-1.Snow farming: Conserving snow over the summer season
The Cryosphere Discussions. 2017. DOI : 10.5194/tc-2017-93.Interplay between photovoltaic, wind energy and storage hydropower in a fully renewable Switzerland
Energy. 2017. DOI : 10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.092.Simulating the influence of snow surface processes on soil moisture dynamics and streamflow generation in an alpine catchment
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 2017. DOI : 10.5194/hess-21-4053-2017.Fragmentation of wind-blown snow crystals
Geophysical Research Letters. 2017. DOI : 10.1002/2017GL073039.How much can we save? Impact of different emission scenarios on future snow cover in the Alps
Cryosphere. 2017. DOI : 10.5194/tc-11-517-2017.Modelling liquid water transport in snow under rain-on-snow conditions – considering preferential flow
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 2017. DOI : 10.5194/hess-21-1741-2017.Firn Meltwater Retention on the Greenland Ice Sheet: A Model Comparison
Frontiers In Earth Science. 2017. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2017.00003.Impact of climate change in Switzerland on socioeconomic snow indices
Theoretical And Applied Climatology. 2017. DOI : 10.1007/s00704-015-1676-7.Distributed snow and rock temperature modelling in steep rock walls using Alpine3D
Cryosphere. 2017. DOI : 10.5194/tc-11-585-2017.Energy- and momentum-conserving model of splash entrainment in sand and snow saltation
Geophysical Research Letters. 2017. DOI : 10.1002/2016GL071822.Potential contributions of wind power to a stable and highly renewable Swiss power supply
Applied Energy. 2017. DOI : 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.01.085.Stochastic modeling of snow transport and hydrologic response in alpine terrain
Lausanne, EPFL, 2017. DOI : 10.5075/epfl-thesis-7532.How do patchy snow covers affect turbulent sensible heat fluxes? – Numerical analysis and experimental findings
2017. EGU 2017, Vienna, Austria, April 23-28, 2017.Simulating ice layer formation under the presence of preferential flow in layered snowpacks
The Cryosphere. 2016-11-16. DOI : 10.5194/tc-10-2731-2016.Wind tunnel experiments: cold-air pooling and atmospheric decoupling above a melting snow patch
The Cryosphere. 2016-02-29. DOI : 10.5194/tc-10-445-2016.Changes in snow distribution and surface topography following a snowstorm on Antarctic sea ice
Journal Of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface. 2016. DOI : 10.1002/2016Jf003893.Scaling Precipitation Input to Spatially Distributed Hydrological Models by Measured Snow Distribution
Frontiers In Earth Science. 2016. DOI : 10.3389/feart.2016.00108.A new ring‐shaped wind tunnel facility to study wind‐packing of snow.
2016. 14th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland, November 18-19, 2016. p. 1.Wind slab formation in snow: experimental setup and first results.
2016. EGU 2016, Vienna, Austria, April 17-22, 2016.Snowmelt observations at the slope scale and implications for the catchment response using the Alpine3D model
14th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Genève, Suisse, November 19th, 2016.Bodennahe atmosphärische Prozesse und ihre Wirkung auf die hochalpine Schneedecke
Promet. 2016.Wind Energy Potential in Switzerland: Discovering Localized Thermo-topographic Flows and Associated Wind Resource
22nd Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, June 20-24, 2016.Low-cost sensors for distributed surface-atmosphere heat exchange monitoring – a novel component of citizen observatories
Intl. Conference on Citizen Observatories for Water Management, Venice, Italy, June, 7-10 2016.Impact of combined wind and solar energy on the Swiss electricity system
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference, Sion, Switzerland, September 12, 2016.StreamFlow 1.0: an extension to the spatially distributed snow model Alpine3D for hydrological modelling and deterministic stream temperature prediction
Geoscientific Model Development. 2016. DOI : 10.5194/gmd-9-4491-2016.Quantifying Particle Numbers and Mass Flux in Drifting Snow
Boundary-Layer Meteorology. 2016. DOI : 10.1007/s10546-016-0170-9.Sensitivity of Alpine3D modeled snow cover to modifications in DEM resolution, station coverage and meteorological input quantities
Environmental Modelling & Software. 2016. DOI : 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.02.017.Estimating Non-Conductive Heat Flow Leading to Intra-Permafrost Talik Formation at the Ritigraben Rock Glacier (Western Swiss Alps)
Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 2016. DOI : 10.1002/ppp.1911.Reliable Averages and Risky Extremes – Analysis of spatiotemporal variability in solar irradiance and persistent cloud cover patterns over Switzerland
Energy Procedia. 2016. DOI : 10.1016/j.egypro.2016.10.035.Teaching & PhD
Teaching
Environmental Sciences and Engineering