Prof. Dr. Mirjana Sakradzija

Professor of Physical Geography and Land-Atmosphere Coupling

Research and Teaching Unit Physical Geography and Earth System Interactions

Office address:

Luisenstraße 37

Room A 205

80333 Munich

Office hours:

By appointment via email.

My background is in physics, meteorology and environmental modelling, driving my research focus on the role of atmospheric processes in land-atmosphere interactions. I strive to understand how small-scale and fast processes, such as atmospheric turbulence and clouds, interact with the processes at the land surface to influence larger scales and long-term interactions and feedbacks. My teaching involves the science of soils, land use, climatology, high-impact weather and advanced data analysis.

Research interests

Inter-process interactions in the Earth System with a focus on land surface, turbulence and convective clouds; Observations and modelling of turbulence, convection and clouds; Modelling of the atmospheric boundary layer at horizontal resolutions from hectometers to tens of kilometers; Model bias in summer temperature, humidity, precipitation; Stochastic parameterizations; Statistical ensembles

Research projects (active)

2023 – 2027 Scale-aware modeling of the ABL and its impact on deep convection (SCALABLe), the fourth phase of the Hans Ertel Centre for Weather Research

2024 – 2028 Land-Atmosphere Feedback Initiative (LAFI)

Summer Semester 25

  • Soils and Global Cycles of Matter, lectures
  • Soil Functions and Land Use, seminar
  • Advanced Physical Geography - Climatology, co-lecturer
  • Main Seminar on High-Impact Weather

Winter Semester 24/25

  • Advanced Data Analysis, lectures
  • Data Analysis and Uncertainties, exercises
  • Project Seminar: Uncertainties in Observations of the Earth System

Summer Semester 24

  • Soil Functions and Land Use, seminar
  • Main Seminar on Hot-Spots of Climate Change with a focus on Extreme Weather Events
  • Project Seminar: Uncertainties in Observations of the Earth System

Previous

  • 2020/21 Parameterizing moist processes in atmospheric models, lectures, Universität Hamburg
  • 2016 – 2018 Parameterizing moist processes in atmospheric models, exercises, Universität Hamburg

EDUCATION

2011 – 2015 PhD at the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg; "A stochastic parameterization of shallow cumulus convection for high-resolution numerical weather prediction and climate models”

2000 – 2006 Studies of Physics, Meteorology and Environmental Modelling, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia; Diploma thesis: “Asymmetrical scheme for the convective boundary layer with constant or varying upward mixing rates”

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

2020 – 2023 Research-area director: Model Development - Atmospheric Boundary Layer, Deutscher Wetterdienst and Goethe University Frankfurt, Offenbach, Germany

  • Program Management of the Hans Ertel Centre for Weather Research (HErZ)
  • Co-supervision of the Hans-Ertel research group “The Atmospheric Boundary Layer in Numerical Weather Prediction” at the Goethe University Frankfurt
  • Member of the steering committee of the Field Experiment on submesoscale spatio- temporal variability in Lindenberg (FESSTVaL) - aiding the development of observation strategy and coordination of modelling activities
  • Limited-area and regional modelling at convection-permitting resolutions; idealized and realistic Large-Eddy Simulations (LES)

Research topics: Mechanisms through which the surface Bowen ratio determines the properties of a cloudy Boundary Layer; Identification and classification of coherent turbulent structures using Doppler Lidars; Effects of realistic land cover types on the Convective Boundary Layer in LES

2015 – 2020 Postdoc, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg Fundamental research and numerical modelling of clouds and convection in the atmosphere using LES and convection-permitting models; development of a stochastic parameterization of clouds and its implementation into NWP and climate models

2009 – 2011 Director, South Environment and Weather Agency LTD, Belgrade, Serbia Atmospheric modelling for research purposes and applied meteorology; scientific projects related to ecosystem management, forecasting of winter road conditions and numerical weather forecasting

2009 Weather Forecasting, Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia, Belgrade

2007 – 2008 Broadcast Meteorologist, Radio-TV Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, part-time

2006 – 2008 Physics teacher, Elementary school “Milos Crnjanski”, Novi Sad, Serbia

  • Steering committee member of the Hans Ertel Centre for Weather Research, Germany (since 2020)

  • Member of the core team of Land-Atmosphere Feedback Initiative, LAFI (since 2024)