Research
Research Foci
Our main fields of research are
- Impact of regional climate change on terrestrial hydrology
- Dynamical and statistical downscaling of meteorological fields
- Fully coupled and compartment crossing regional atmospheric and hydrological modeling
- Modeling and observation of joint water- and energy fluxes
- Use of commercial microwave links (CMLs) for precipitation quantification
- Geostatistical merging of hydrometeorological variables
Research Regions
Our prime interest are climate sensitive regions, particularly flood- and drought prone regions. Our current activities focus on
- Middle Europe, especially Bavaria, the Alpine Space and the Mediterranean region
- the Near and Middle East and
- South, West and East Africa
Projects
Current projects
Finished projects (selection)
Selected Publications
Dash, S., Maity, R., Maity, S. S., and Kunstmann, H.: Population exposure to compound climate extremes: global analysis to identify continent wise age group disparities in a warming world, npj Nat. Hazards, 1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-025-00145-9, 2025.
Eisenacher, S., Fluhrer, A., Bliefernicht, J., Short Gianotti, D. J., Kunstmann, H., and Jagdhuber, T.: Lightning Density and Its Coupled Covariates Within the Continental United States, Earth and Space Science, 9, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EA004207, 2025.
Glawion, L., Polz, J., Kunstmann, H., Fersch, B., and Chwala, C.: Global spatio-temporal ERA5 precipitation downscaling to km and sub-hourly scale using generative AI, npj Clim Atmos Sci, 1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01103-y, 2025.
Guug, S., Sy, S., Quansah, E., Bliefernicht, J., Neidl, F., Steinbrecher, R., Ayamba, M., Frempong, A., Davies, P., Spangenberg, I., Oussou, F. E., Diallo, B. A., Salack, S., Hackman, K., Amekudzi, L. K., Ogunjobi, K., and Kunstmann, H.: Methane emissions from rice cultivation in West Africa and compensation options from nature reserve forests, Environ. Res. Lett., 4, 44050, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adc28c, 2025.
Hingerl, L., Bliefernicht, J., Guug, S., Sy, S., Neidl, F., Jagdhuber, T., and Kunstmann, H.: Comparative analysis of land–atmosphere interactions across three contrasting ecosystems in the West Sudanian Savanna, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 102751, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2025.102751, 2025.
Nadolski, L., Bliefernicht, J., Petrovic, D., Rauch, M., Sy, S., Guug, S., Steinbrecher, R., Neidl, F., Hingerl, L., and Kunstmann, H.: Exploring and closing the energy balance of eddy covariance measurements along a land use gradient in the West African Sudanian savanna, Front. Water, 1393884, https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2024.1393884, 2024.