Oliver W. Frauenfeld

Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University
PhD, University of Virginia, 2003

Specialties [top]

Synoptic climatology; surface/atmosphere interactions; permafrost dynamics

Recent Highlights and Upcoming Expeditions [top]

• October 2007: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was named to receive the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with former Vice President Al Gore. Frauenfeld contributed to the most recent IPCC report, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, serving as co-author for Chapter 4, "Observations: Changes in snow, ice and frozen ground."
• February 2007: Frauenfeld contributed to the IPCC report, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.
• August 2006: Served as session chair for the special sessions "Permafrost Hydrology" and "Climate, and Environmental Controls of the Cryosphere" at the Asian Conference on Permafrost in Lanzhou, China
• Summer 2006: Frauenfeld traveled across the Tibetan Plateau on the new Tibetan Railroad, surveying the effects of the railroad's construction on the underlying permafrost. He also visited meteorological stations on the plateau to assess the site characteristics and establish the suitability and quality of the station observations for climate research.
• March 2006: Convened (with R. Mahmood) and Chaired, special sessions "Land Cover/Land Use Change I and II" at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Chicago, Illinois
• January 2006: Received the Climate Specialty Group 2006 John Russell Mather Paper of the Year award from the Association of American Geographers for "A Distinctly Interdecadal Signal of Pacific Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction," published in Journal of Climate in 2005 (see NSIDC Scientist Receives Paper of the Year Award)
• Published invited book chapter on climate models' predictive skill of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and related atmospheric teleconnections

Current Research [top]

• Exploring changes in the distribution of both seasonally and perennially frozen ground caused by climate variability
• Investigating climate-related consequences of land-cover and land-use change on the Tibetan Plateau, where environmental change affects more than half of the world's population

Current Projects [top]

Changes in Freeze-Thaw Cycle and Permafrost Dynamics, and their Hydrological Implications over the Russian Arctic Drainage Basin

The Contribution of Land-Surface Processes to Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau

Interactions Between Frozen Ground in the Russian Arctic and Atmospheric Circulation

Activities [top]

Member, American Meteorological Society

Member, Committee on Applied Climatology, American Meteorological Society

Member, Association of American Geographers (Climate Specialty Group and Cryosphere Specialty Group)

Member, American Geophysical Union

Member, U.S. Permafrost Association

U.S. National Coordinator, Permafrost Young Researchers Network

Associate Editor, Climate Research

Reviewer for Annals of Glaciology; Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research; Atmosphere-Ocean; Climate Research; Geophysical Research Letters; Global and Planetary Change; Hydrological Processes; International Journal of Climatology; Journal of Applied Meteorology; Journal of Climate; Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres; Earth Surface); and Polar Geography

Publications [top]

2008

Bojariu, R., R. Garcia-Herrera, L. Gimeno, T. Zhang, and O. W. Frauenfeld. 2008. Cryosphere-atmosphere interaction related to NAO variability and change. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1146: 50–59, doi:10.1196/annals.1446.018.

Ma, L., T. Zhang, Q. Li, O. W. Frauenfeld, and D. Qin. 2008. Evaluation of ERA-40, NCEP-1, and NCEP-2 reanalysis air temperatures with ground-based measurements in China. Journal of Geophysical Research 113, D15115, doi:10.1029/2007JD009549.

2007

Frauenfeld, O. (contributing author), et al. 2007. Chapter 4, Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice, and Frozen Ground. In Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. S. Solomon et al., 337-384. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Frauenfeld, O. W., T. Zhang, and J. L. McCreight. 2007. Northern Hemisphere freezing/thawing index variations over the 20th century. International Journal of Climatology 27(1): 47-63, doi:10.1002/joc.1372.

2006

Chudinova, S. M., O. W. Frauenfeld, R. G. Barry, T. Zhang, and V. A. Sorokovikov. 2006. Relationship between air and soil temperatures and periodicities in the permafrost regions of Russia. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, doi:10.1029/2005JF000342.

2005

Frauenfeld, O. W., R. E. Davis, and M. E. Mann. 2005. A distinctly interdecadal signal of Pacific Ocean-atmosphere interaction. Journal of Climate 18(11): 1709–1718, doi:10.1175/JCLI3367.1.

Frauenfeld, O. W., T. Zhang, and M. C. Serreze. 2005. Climate change and variability using European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis (ERA-40) temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Geophysical Research 110, doi:10.1029/2004JD005230.

Zhang, T., O. W. Frauenfeld, M. C. Serreze, et al. 2005. Spatial and temporal variability in active layer thickness over the Russian Arctic Drainage Basin. Journal of Geophysical Research 110: D16101, doi:10.1029/2004JD005642.

2004

Frauenfeld, O. W., T. Zhang, R. G. Barry, and D. Gilichinsky. 2004. Interdecadal changes in seasonal freeze and thaw depths in Russia. Journal of Geophysical Research 109, doi:10.1029/2003JD004245.

Michaels, P. J., P. C. Knappenberger, O. W. Frauenfeld, and R. E. Davis. 2004. Trends in precipitation on the wettest days of the year across the contiguous USA. International Journal of Climatology 24(15): 1,873-1,882, doi:10.1002/joc.1102.

2003

Frauenfeld, O. W., and R. E. Davis. 2003. Northern Hemisphere circumpolar vortex trends and climate change implications. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, doi:10.1029/2002JD002958.

2002

Frauenfeld, O. W., and R. E. Davis. 2002. Midlatitude circulation patterns associated with decadal and interannual Pacific Ocean variability. Geophysical Research Letters 29(24), doi:10.1029/2002GL015743.

Michaels, P. J., P. C. Knappenberger, O. W. Frauenfeld, and R. E. Davis. 2002. Revised 21st century temperature increases. Climate Research 23: 1-9.

2000

Frauenfeld, O. W., and R. E. Davis. 2000. The influence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation events on the Northern Hemisphere 500 hPa circumpolar vortex. Geophysical Research Letters 27: 537-540.

Search for more articles by Oliver Frauenfeld in Google Scholar.

Related Resources[top]

Cooperative Institute for Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

Oliver Frauenfeld's Web site at Texas A&M University