Markus Reinert, M.Sc.

Hi, I'm Markus, a Ph.D. student in Physical Oceanography in the Estuarine and Coastal Ocean Processes group at IOW. I'm interested in the role of the ocean in the Earth's climate system.

My latest paper

Read my most recent paper at DOI: 10.1029/2023MS003721!

This Open Access paper published on 2 October 2023 in JAMES, the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, describes

High-resolution simulations of the plume dynamics in an idealized 79°N Glacier cavity using adaptive vertical coordinates.

Plumes are strong, turbulent ocean currents. At marine-terminating glaciers like the 79° North Glacier, plumes are responsible for melting glacier fronts and ice shelves. We developed a high-resolution model of the glacier fjord to study the dynamics of these currents in detail. We found that they can behave quite differently than previously thought, which puts classical modeling approaches into question. A better approach may be the use of adaptive model grids. We show how they perform under an ice shelf and suggest this modeling technique to improve the representation of ice–ocean interactions. This can help to refine predictions of sea level rise.

Read the full story in: Markus Reinert, M. Lorenz, K. Klingbeil, B. Büchmann, H. Burchard (2023). High-resolution simulations of the plume dynamics in an idealized 79°N Glacier cavity using adaptive vertical coordinates. JAMES. DOI: 10.1029/2023MS003721

My last research cruise

From 17 to 28 April 2023, I joined the cruise EMB316 on research vessel Elisabeth Mann Borgese to the central Baltic Sea. Find some photos and information on the cruise in the blog entry at the SWOT-AdAC website.

My current project

The Arctic is one of the areas most affected by climate change, so the Arctic is the topic of my current research.  I want to understand how Greenland's glaciers are melted by the ocean water below their ice tongues.  My main tool for this are high-resolution numerical simulations with GETM, the General Estuarine Transport Model.  My research is part of the project GROCE (Greenland ice sheet–ocean interaction) and associated to the project TRR 181: Energy Transfers in Atmosphere and Ocean.

So far, we've created an idealized 2D model of a glacier fjord in Greenland. We used this model to study the dynamics of the ocean currents melting the glacier. Furthermore, we showed how an adaptive model grid enables a high resolution in the places where it is needed. Our results have been published in:

Markus Reinert, Marvin Lorenz, Knut Klingbeil, Bjarne Büchmann, Hans Burchard (2023). High-resolution simulations of the plume dynamics in an idealized 79°N Glacier cavity using adaptive vertical coordinates. JAMES. DOI: 10.1029/2023MS003721 (open access)

This study builds on our earlier work, where we used a 1D ocean turbulence model (GOTM) to study the vertical structure and entrainment of meltwater plumes under floating ice tongues and ice shelves:

Hans Burchard, Karsten Bolding, Adrian Jenkins, Martin Losch, Markus Reinert, Lars Umlauf (2022). The Vertical Structure and Entrainment of Subglacial Melt Water Plumes. JAMES. DOI: 10.1029/2021MS002925 (open access)

My publications on extreme sea level and storm surge

Jean-Baptiste Roustan, Lucia Pineau-Guillou, Bertrand Chapron, Nicolas Raillard, Markus Reinert (2022). Shift of the storm surge season in Europe due to climate variability. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-12356-5 (open access)

Markus Reinert, Lucia Pineau-Guillou, Nicolas Raillard, Bertrand Chapron (2021). Seasonal shift in storm surges at Brest revealed by extreme value analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. DOI: 10.1029/2021JC017794

All publications and presentations

See my full publication list as well as the list of my past conference talks and poster presentations.