Dr Sebastian Engelstaedter

Sebastian Engelstaedter is a trained geologist with a Diplom (equivalent to Masters) degree from the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena (Germany). After working for a agricultural services company in Germany he started a D.Phil. at the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford studying the role of atmospheric processes in controlling the emission and transport of desert dust. At OUCE Sebastian is responsible for services related to climate computations including the maintenance of the department's climate datasets and assisting researchers in their climate data processing tasks. He teaches courses on climate computing and the analysis of large datasets (DTP programme). Sebastian develops web-based applications featuring analysis and plotting capabilities for large climate data sets such as CMIP5 (Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5).

For more than a decade Sebastian has been interested in the processes that link the atmosphere and the surface in desert environments with a focus on the dust cycle (emission, transport and deposition of of mineral dust). Airborne mineral dust plays an important role in the climate system due to its impact on the Earth's radiation budget and its impact on biogeochemical processes in terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems (e.g., iron and phosphate fertilisation). His research combines the analysis of ground-based, airborne and remotely sensed observations and numerical model simulations on regional to global scales. Sebastian has been involved in various projects including DIRTMAP (Dust Indicators and Records of Terrestrial and Marine Palaeoenvironments), BoDEx (Bodele Dust Experiment), AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses), Fennec - The Saharan Climate System, DO4Models (Dust Observations for Models) and CLARIFY (CLouds and Aerosol Radiative Impacts and Forcing).