We study the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans and the interactions between them. We aim to improve our understanding of variations in the present and past climates, and the governing dynamic and thermodynamic mechanisms that drive them. We also strive to mediate between theoretical and applied geophysical practices, by developing tools and methods for applications such as bias reduction in climate models, interpretation of paleo records, and quantification of variations of the tropical rain belt.

Open positions are available for graduate students and postdocs.

Research Methods: 

We use climate models at varying complexity of the atmospheric and oceanic components. These include idealized models of the atmosphere and oceans amenable to mathematical analysis, an intermediate-complexity general circulation model with parameterized Ekman ocean energy transport (Afargan-Gerstman and Adam, 2020), a hierarchy of global ocean  models coupled to CESM1 (Hsu et al. 2022), comprehensive climate models (CESM2), the variable resolution Ocean Land Atmosphere Model (OLAM), as well as the analysis of modern climate models participating in the climate models intercomparison project (CMIP). We also aim to anchor the research in observations. To handle the large variety of observational and modeling datasets, we use the GOAT (Geophysical Observation Analysis Tool) data management tool.

 

Research Studants: 

Dr. Amita Kumar (Postdoc)
Research: Improving sub-seasonal forecasts in the Eastern Mediterranean by implementing idealized coupled ocean-atmosphere processes in numerical weather prediction models.  

 

Dr. Ignasi Vallés Casanova (Postdoc)
Research: Effect of Sharan dust on tropical Atlantic variability

 

Sreerag Sudheendran  (Ph.D. Candidate)
Research: Understanding the Ocean’s role in the seasonal cycle of the ITCZ

 

Shubham Pachpor (Ph.D. Candidate, co-advised by Ehud Strobach and Nadav Lensky)
Research: Effect of the Sea of Galilee on local meteorology.

 

Maya Shourky (M.Sc.) 
Research: Using Lagrangian back trajectories to identify the origin of ENSO heat anomalies.

 

Ofer Cohen (M.Sc)
Research: Importance of coupled processes to sub-seasonal forecasting in the eastern Mediterranean.  

 

Contact Information:

  Ori.Adam@mail.huji.ac.il | Group website

The research group deals with interactions between meteorological and hydrological systems on local to global scales and looking at the past, present and future. The main emphasis is rain, surface runoff and floods, but other directions (hydrological, geomorphological, agricultural and environmental) are also covered (typically in collaboration with other researchers).

The group's research includes: understanding dominant processes and factors in the creation of extreme rainstorms leading to floods, surface runoff modeling, stream flow, floods and soil erosion; The time-space structure of rainstorms and the statistical characteristics of rain intensities; remote sensing of precipitation; development of flood warning systems; urban hydrology; climate changes and their impact on the precipitation regime, streamflow and floods; the effect of climate change on heat waves, droughts, and the development of pest populations; reconstruction of the past precipitation regime; and more.

The research approaches in the group include: development and application of models to analyze and understand systems and processes and to examine hypotheses; development and application of "weather generators" to create synthetic records with appropriate statistical properties as input to models; development, application and interpretation of machine learning models to obtain new insights on hydrological processes and more.

Research Methods:

The main research methods are the development and application of process-based models, stochastic models and machine learning models; analysis of remote sensing data (radar and satellite) and model data for spatial and temporal characterization of hydrometeorological phenomena; advanced statistical methods for frequency analysis. Databases developed in the group include calibrated rain data from meteorological radar from the 1990s until today, high-resolution meteorological models for multi-precipitation storms. In addition, there are many global and regional databases in the field of hydrometeorology.

 

Research Studants:

Talia Rosin (post-doc)
Pelagiya Belyakova (post-doc)
Omri Porat (PhD)
Elyakom Vadislavsky (PhD)
Ayana Neta (PhD in the Faculty of Agriculture, with Shai Morin and Adam Lampert)
Ziv Mor (PhD, With Nadav Lensky)
Raz Nussbaum (MSc)
Yaniv Goldschmidt (MSc, with Francesco Marra)
Atar Bar (MSc, with Tamir Kamai)
Omri Levin (MSc)
Yifat Kimchi (MSc)

 

Contact Information:

Efrat Morin | 02-6584669 | efrat.morin@mail.huji.ac.il| Room 308 south

Research Interests:

My group studies coupled physical and chemical processes, that control deformation and evolution of rocks and soils. Most of our studies involve fluid flow in porous media coupled with chemical and mechanical deformation of the matrix. We focus on how relatively small-scale processes (at the pore, grain, or asperity scale) control basic large-scale geological phenomena. Some of the physical processes we study pertain to rapid, often catastrophic, deformation: soil-liquefaction, the physics of friction, and the physics of dry and fluid-induced landslides and earthquakes. Other processes we study occur on geological time scales: coupled brittle - ductile deformation, gas migration through sediments, the creation of pockmarks on the ocean floor, and karst-cave formation. I work at the boundary between physics and geology, using mainly theoretical and numerical tools. To study grain-fluid systems, we have written a unique coupled granular-fluid code. I also use network and other numerical models. 

Ongoing projects:

1. Karst cave formation by cooling of hydrothermal flows.

2. Earthquake physics – with and without fluids. 

3. Seismically-induced soil liquefaction. 

4. Dynamic earthquake triggering. 

5. Ductile-brittle coupling: Fault formation due to lower crustal flow. 

Research Methods

Our work is usually constrained by observations: to understand the physics of a system of interest and I collaborate also with field geologists and experimentalists who provide an empirical foundation to the theoretical work.

 

Research Studants 

Pritom Sarma (PhD. Studant)

Rawi Dawood (PhD. Studant)

Daniel Caspi (PhD. Studant)

Contact Information

Einat Aharonov | Room 311 South | 972-2-65-84670 | einatah@mail.huji.ac.il

 

Ground water hydrology, Israel water resources

Research Studants 

Ohad Shalom (PhD. Studant)

Elad Benzur (PhD. Studant)

Hallel Lutzky (PhD. Studant)

Contact Information

Haim Gvirtzman | haim.gvirtzman@mail.huji.ac.il

Magnetic minerals are virtually everywhere. They exist in dust, soils, sediments, rocks, organsims, and even extraterrestrial materials. Magnetic minerals are also extremely useful. Thanks to their ability to store magnetic memory and their sensitivity to changes in ambient conditions, they are a fundamental source of information on our planet.

The ultimate goal of our research at the paleomagentic laboratory is utilizing the wealth of magnetic information stored in natural magnetic materials in a broad range of applications in wide research fields including geology, geophysics, environmental research, and archaeology.

Currently, our group is conducting some paleo- and rock- magnetic surveys in different environments. To name a few: Pleistocene-Holocene Dead Sea sediments, Plio-Pleistocene Golan Heights volcanic sequence, Triassic rocks in Machtesh Ramon, Cambrian rocks in Eilat complex, marine sedimentary cores, cave speleothems, Wonderwerk cave in South Africa, Tel-Megiddo, Tel-Hazor, and a large number of archaeological sites in Israel.

Research methods

In the The Paleomagnetic Lab we use advanced anlytic tools. Visit our website for more information 

Research Studants 

Erez Hassul (PhD. Studant)

Lior Bar (MSc. Studant) 

Tomer Moshe (MSc. Studant) 

Contact Information 

Ron Shaar | ron.shaar@mail.huji.ac.il

My research focuses on global climate change and the use of isotope geochemistry to understand climatic and atmospheric processes. I am interested in the parameters and mechanisms that control paleotemperature proxies; in particuler, my group develops and uses the novel proxy carbonate clumped isotopes. We examine biological parameters that affect clumped isotopes and develop its use in new archive materials; we study the effect of non equilibrium processes on clumped isotopes and oxygen isotopes. We apply clumped isotpes to reconstruct paleotemperature and paleo-rainfall in different time periods during the Cenzoic. I am also interested in the use of isotopes to understand the modern carbon cycle and the effect of the biosphere of atmospheric chemistry.

What is clumped isotopes geochemistry?

Analysis of an isotopic composition is a measurement of the relative abundance of a heavy, rare, isotope within a group of molecules. The term ‘clumped isotopes’ refers to the natural abundance of molecules containing two heavy isotopes, such as ¹³C¹⁸O¹⁶O, and is a measure of the preference of two heavy isotopes to clump together into a chemical bond. This preference is temperature dependent with the isotopes distributed randomly among all molecules at very high temperatures and are clustered together into a more ordered system at low temperatures.

This results in an isotopic parameter, ∆₄₇, that can record the temperature in which these bonds were formed. ‘Clumped isotopes’ measurements are currently applied for ¹³C-¹⁸O bonds in CO₂ molecules that are extracted either from carbonate minerals or from the atmosphere. In carbonates ‘clumped isotopes’ are used to determine the formation temperature of the mineral with most applications associated with reconstruction of past climatic conditions. In atmospheric CO₂ it is used as a tracer for partitioning and quantifying the different CO₂ sources and sinks of the global carbon cycle.

Research Studants 

Ahinoam Assor (MSc. Studant)

Yael Tal (MSc. Studant)

Contact Information 

Hagit Affek |  Hagit.Affek@mail.huji.ac.il | 972-2-6584654

The combination of experimental petrology and thermodynamic modeling provides powerful insights into the igneous and metamorphic processes by which Earth and other planets evolved.  My research involves the development of experimental techniques together with modeling of the experimental data to constrain the nature of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments through the study of synthetic analogs. 

The topics I am currently involved with:

Melt and fluid compositions in equilibrium with mantle material. Aqueous fluids play an important role in melting and metasomatism of the Earth’s mantle; I study the role of volatiles (H₂O, CO₂, etc.) in dehydration/hydration and melting processes in the mantle.

The evolution of meteorite groups. Samples delivered to the Earth as meteorites provide us with a unique opportunity to study the timing and the processes by which our solar system formed and evolved.  I combine both experimental and analytical methods to understand the formation conditions of different groups of meteorites.

Research Studants 

Dr. Amit Meltzer (Post-doc)

Stav Gitler  (PhD. Studant)

Husam Tufjaji (MSc. Studant)

Michael Piven (MSc. Studant)

Contact Information 

Ronit Kessel | ronit.kessel@mail.huji.ac.il 

We work to discover why droughts, pluvials, and climate extremes happen. We also work to elucidate the nature of climate across geologic time and on exoplanetary atmospheres. Our tools include data from the recent and distant past, climate models, and the best statistical techniques for the problem in front of us

Research Studants 

Niels Brall

Accoavel Sobolev

Thomas Pliemon

Namrah Habib

Contact Information 

 

Dr. Nathan Steiger | Room 303 North | nathan.steiger@mail.huji.ac.il

 

Our environment is shaped by the interaction between water and rock. This interaction has a crucial impact on a range of diverse processes, such as the way landscapes develop and erode, the spread of contaminants in groundwater, and the storage of carbon dioxide in subsurface reservoirs. In my group, we study these processes using a combination of cutting edge lab technology, state-of-the-art modeling, and field work. Current research projects include:

• Developing new methods for carbon storage
• Mitigating contaminant transport in aquifers
• Quantifying weathering in carbonate rocks

Students in my team are part of a dynamic research program that is pioneering new projects at the interface between hydrology, geology, and geochemistry. Scholarships are available for creative and talented candidates with backgrounds in Earth Sciences and Natural Sciences. 

Research Students 

Moshe Eliyahu (Lab manager) 

Dr. Rolando Carbonari (Post-doc) 

Roni Grayevsky (PhD Studant) 

Tomer Ben-David (MSc Studant) 

Hadar Kravitz (MSc Studant) 

 

Contact Details 

Simon Emmanuel | simon.emmanuel@mail.huji.ac.il 

Moshe Eliyahu | moshe.eliyahu4@mail.huji.ac.il 

The laboratory is designed for preparing samples for analysis in a particle accelerator. The samples are collected from various locations around the world. So far, we have prepared samples from places such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Egypt, Jordan, Mongolia, China, Nepal, the USA, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and of course, Israel

Research Students

Alona Kozmenko

Hagar Nachmias

Gali Schreiber

Neta Weissman

Contact Us

 

Ari Matmon (head researcher) – arimatmon@mail.huji.ac.il

Yona Geller (lab manager) – yona.geller@mail.huji.ac.il

Room 1006

 

Earth Surface Geochemistry

Research Studants 

Daniel Freedberg (MSc studant)

Contact Details

 

Netta Shalev | netta.shalev@mail.huji.ac.il

 

As a marine biogeochemist, my interest revolves around the interactions between organisms and their environment, with emphasis on trace metal bioavailability to phytoplankton and redox transformations. I am intrigued by the fact that microorganisms, striving to acquire nutrients and protect themselves from external stressors, actively modify their chemical milieu and in turn influence the biogeochemical cycles of trace and major elements in the ocean. I study fundamental processes and mechanisms by combining field and laboratory measurements and experiments.

Ongoing and future projects:

• Dust as a source of iron to Trichodesmium, a globally significant phytoplankton
• Bioavailability of iron to phytoplankton

Research Studants 

Dr. Coco Koedooder (Post-doc) 

Dr.  Futing Zhang (Post-doc) 

Anna-Neva Visser (Post-doc) 

Siyuan Wang (PhD Studant)

Contact Details 

Yeala Shaked | yeala.shaked@mail.huji.ac.il

Organic geochemistry and biogeochemistry, stable isotopes, sulfur cycle, organic-inorganic interactions

Research Studants 

PhD Ilya Kutuzov (Post-doc)  

Yafit Schnell Ben-Avraham (PhD Studant)

Hadar Cohen Saadon (PhD Studant)

Chen Davidson (PhD Studant)

Sutapa Patra (PhD Studant)

Vasileia Chatzi (MSc Studant)

Michal Krasna (MSc Studant)

Noam Mizrahi (MSc Studant)

 

Contact Details

Alon Amrani |  alon.amrani@mail.huji.ac.il | Room 204 North | 972-2-65-85477

 

The PredEx lab focuses on improving the ability to predict extreme weather events and their impacts across time and spatial scales, from regional to global and beyond.

Our work addresses the issue of weather and climate predictability from different perspectives, including physical observations, computer modeling, and mathematical/statistical theory.

Research Students

PhD Studants 

Victor Murphy 
My PhD research focuses on enhancing intrinsic predictability in numerical weather prediction by using dynamical system metrics within machine learning and artificial intelligence. The goal is to integrate these metrics into predictive models, thus extending the forecast horizon for long-term weather predictions. I am also working on a research project in the broader department called Systems Thinking in Earth and Environmental Sciences Teaching, which Professor Carynelisa Haspel is coordinating.
Email: victor.murphy@mail.huji.ac.il

Tair Plotnik

André Klif
Analyze sub-seasonal forecast models and/or climate models to better predict the
probability of occurrence of heat waves in the Middle East.
Email: andre.klif@mail.huji.ac.il

MSc Studants 

Efraim Bril
Paleo-climate: climate change in the Levant during the last interglacial period
LinkedIn profile : Efi Bril
Email: efraim.bril@mail.huji.ac.il

Margarita Mazor
Intricate relationship between weather types and the migration patterns of white storks
over the Eastern Mediterranean.
Email: Margarita.Mazor@mail.huji.ac.il 

Yuval Levin
Impact of anthropogenic emissions on the predicted precipitation regime for the Middle East
in the 21st century.
Email: yuval.levin@mail.huji.ac.il

 

Contact Us

assaf.hochman@mail.huji.ac.il |  Room 213 South

Climate Change affects the terrestrial biosphere, while changes in the biosphere feedback and affect the climate system. Understanding these complex interactions is important at these times of Global Change.
Related research in our lab tracks carbon sequestration in soils and wetlands. We measure soil carbon and not only the CO₂ emitted during organic carbon decomposition but also make high-accuracy measurements of O₂ influx. The comparison between these two gases enables better understanding of soil processes.

Previous research projects focus on developing the use of oxygen stable isotopes of phosphate for tracking phosphorus in dust and its biogeochemical cycling in soil. This research is based on field work, remote-sensing and lab work. These approaches could help evaluate the effects of changing climate on the terrestrial phosphorus cycle, which is an important limiting factor for plant growth.

In the last series of projects, we have developed, in collaboration with Prof. Amrani from my institute, an approach to measuring the sulfur isotopes of carbonyl sulfide (COS) and used this to determine its isotopic composition in the atmosphere, plant uptake, and seawater. This is done by sampling in the ocean and forests, and by lab experiments. Our continued research in this field will help to better constrain global-scale photosynthesis and the influence of this gas on Earth's albedo and, hence, climate.

Research students

Guy Sapir (Master) in collaboration with Yoav Rosenberg and Rotem Golan

Michal Karsana (Master) in collaboration with Prof. Alon Amrani

Chen Davidson (PhD) in collaboration with Prof. Alon Amrani

Contact Us

Prof. Alon Angert:

Room 217 south | 02-6584758 | alon.angert@mail.huji.ac.il

Tal Vainer (Lab manager): 

lab.angert@gmail.com