Dr. M. (Miren) Vizcaino

Profile

I am a physicist and climate modeller. I did my PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, where I included and interactive ice sheet component in two climate models. Then I investigated the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation at the University of California at Berkeley. Later, I received a NSF grant to include a Greenland ice sheet model in the CESM model. Then I investigate ice sheet and climate interaction with CESM at the Ice and Climate group of IMAU, Utrecht University. I am a tenure-tracker at the Delft University of Technology since March 2013.

Research themes

• Sea Level, Ice and Climate Change
• Ice and climate

Research

I develop and apply coupled ice sheet and Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models to study key interaction processes between ice sheets and climate (e.g., albedo and elevation feedbacks on melt, effect of meltwater on the ocean circulation, effect of ice sheet topography and area change on the atmospheric circulation and surface energy budget, or coupling between ice sheet surface, elevation and flow). I am a contributor author of the last report of the IPCC. I am involved in the new Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project ISMIP6.

Key publications

• Vizcaino, M., U. Mikolajewicz, F. Ziemen, C. B. Rodehacke, R. Greve, and M. R. van den Broeke (2015), Coupled simulations of Greenland ice sheet and climate change up to AD 2300, Geophysical Research Letters, 42(10)
• Vizcaino, M. (2014), Ice sheets as interactive components of Earth System Models: progress and challenges, Wires Clim Change, 5(4), 557-568
• Lenaerts, J. T. M., D. Le Bars, L. van Kampenhout, M. Vizcaino, E. M. Enderlin, and M. R. van den Broeke (2015), Representing Greenland ice sheet freshwater fluxes in climate models, GRL, 42(15)
• Vizcaíno, M., W. H. Lipscomb, W. J. Sacks, J. H. van Angelen, B. Wouters, and M. R. van den Broeke (2013), Greenland Surface Mass Balance as Simulated by the Community Earth System Model. Part I: Model Evaluation and 1850-2005 Results, Journal of Climate, 26(20)
• Vizcaíno, M., W. H. Lipscomb, W. J. Sacks, and M. van den Broeke (2014), Greenland surface mass balance as simulated by the Community Earth System Model. Part II: 21st century changes, Journal of Climate, 27(1)
• Fyke, J. G., M. Vizcaíno, and W. H. Lipscomb (2014), The pattern of anthropogenic signal emergence in Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance, Geophys. Res. Lett, 41
  
  • In “Science News: Editor’s Choice”: Smith, H. J. (2014), Anthropogenic de-icing on a grand scale, Science, 345(6201)
• In “Science News: Editor’s Choice”: Smith, H. J. (2014), Anthropogenic de-icing on a grand scale, Science, 345(6201)
• Fyke, J. G., M. Vizcaíno, W. Lipscomb, and S. Price (2014), Future climate warming increases Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance variability, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41 
• Vizcaino, M., S. Rupper, and J. Chiang (2010), Permanent El Nino and the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciations: Mechanism and comparison with other hypotheses, Paleoceanography, 25
• Vizcaino, M., U. Mikolajewicz, J. Jungclaus, and G. Schurgers (2010), Climate modification by future ice sheet changes and consequences for ice sheet mass balance, Climate Dynamics, 34(2-3), 301-324
• Vizcaino, M., U. Mikolajewicz, M. Groger, E. Maier-Reimer, G. Schurgers, and A. Winguth (2008), Long-term ice sheet-climate interactions under anthropogenic greenhouse forcing simulated with a complex Earth System Model, Climate Dynamics, 31(6), 665-690

More publications & Complete list

Educational activities

• MSc course Ice, snow and climate change: observation and modelling (CIE4602): course manager and lecturer
• MSc course Climate Change: Science and Ethics (CIE4510/4613): lab coordinator and lecturer
• MOOC “Introduction to Water and Climate” (edX): lecture and exercises on “Ice and climate change”
• GEWEX Summer School, TU Delft, July 2014: coordinator of practical sessions
• SVALI Summer School, Finland, May 2011: lecturer

Projects

I have been awarded three competitive personal grants in the last years:

• 2013-2018 Delft Technology Fellowship, TU Delft, The Netherlands
• 2011-2013 International Incoming Marie Curie Fellowship, FP7, EU. Project: “FutGreenlandice”
• 2009-2011 Small Grant for Exploratory Research, National Science Foundation, USA

Other activities

• Co-chair of the Land Ice Working Group of the Community Earth System Model
• Participant, CMIP6 Ice sheet Model Intercomparision Project ISMIP6 from the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) Program of the WRCP