Keno Riechers

When I studied Physics, I kept thinking about how to combine my passion for solving equations and physical reasoning with a task that I found reasonable, meaningful, and socially relevant. Thus, climate science was, and continues to be, the perfect fit for me.

I did my PhD in a project called 'Tipping Points of the Earth System'. My role was to explore the Dansgaard-Oeschger events, a series of tipping events that occurred during the last glacial cycle and comprised abrupt changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). On a fundamental level, these past tipping events provide evidence that the Earth's climate is generally capable of changing in a highly non-linear and abrupt manner. The insights gained by studying past abrupt climatic changes may inform the assessment of the future risk of tipping and, in some cases, feed back directly into model development by serving as benchmarks: a 'good' climate model should be able to reproduce the tippings of the past.

In my new position at the MPI, I seek to exploit the ICON model for a careful examination of suggested tipping mechanisms for selected climate tipping elements. By doing so, I hope to contribute to reducing the prevailing uncertainty about climate tipping points.

• Riechers, K., Gottwald, G., Boers, N.: Glacial Abrupt Climate Change as a Multiscale Phenomenon Resulting from Monostable Excitable Dynamics. Journal of Climate, 37, 2741–2763. (2024)
  DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-23-0308.1
• Riechers, K., Gorjão, L.R., Hassanibesheli, F., Witthaut, D., Lind, G.P., Boers, N.: Stable stadial and interstadial states of the last glacial’s climate identified in a combined stable water isotope and dust record from Greenland. Earth System Dynamics, 14, 593–607. (2023)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-593-2023
• Riechers, K., Mitsui, T., Boers, N., Ghil, M.: Orbital insolation variations, intrinsic climate variability, and Quaternary glaciations. Climate of the Past, 18, 863–893. (2022)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-863-2022
• Riechers, K., Boers, N.: Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies. Climate of the Past, 17, 1751–1775. (2021)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1751-2021
• Riechers, K., Hueck, K., Luick, N., Lompe, T., Moritz, H., (2017). Detecting Friedel oscillations in ultracold Fermi gases. European Physical Journal D. 71, 232.
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-80275-6

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  Morr, A., Riechers, K., Leonardo Rydin Gorjão, L.R., Boers, N.,: Anticipating critical transitions in multi-dimensional systems driven by time- and statedependent noise. Submitted to Physical Review Research. (2024)
  DOI (arXiv preprint): https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.16773

• Slattery, J., Sime, L.C., Muschitiello, F., Riechers, K.: The Temporal Phasing of Rapid Dansgaard–Oeschger Warming Events Cannot Be Reliably Determined. EGUsphere [preprint]. (2023)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2496

• Myrvoll-Nilsen, E. Riechers, K., Rypdal, M.W. & Boers, N.: Comprehensive uncertainty estimation of the timing of Greenland warmings in the Greenland ice core records. Climate of the Past, 18, 1275–1294. (2022)
  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1275-2022