Qiong Zhang Professor

Climate science and society, GE5045, 15 HP 

A course for second-year undergraduate students in the Geoscience program. The course aims to  provide a detailed, quantitive understanding of climate change impacts, underlying causes, uncertainties, and societal adaptation strategies. Topics include the greenhouse effect, sea level change, heatwaves, forest fires, etc. The course emphasises understanding the physical reasons behind these phenomena and the uncertainties in observational data and future projections.

Course schedule

2026, 19 January - 20 March, at SU.

2025, 20 January - 21 March, at SU.

2024, 15 January - 20 March, at SU.  

Earth system model simulations, GE7099, 15 HP

Course description 

The course will teach knowledge of Earth system models, model experiment design, and tools and skills for model output analysis. The students will learn to analyse the model data in different climate scenarios from the past to the future, and focus on understanding the mechanisms behind climate change and climate variability. The learning activities include lectures, research seminars, group exercise and results presentations. The lectures give an introduction on the topics such as future climate change, regional climate, glacial-interglacial transition, abrupt change and land surface processes, etc.  

Course plan 

• Basic knowledge of model and climate forcing 2
• Observational data, reanalysis data and model data  
• CMIP6 model simulations and future climate changes
• Extreme weather and climate events
• Land surface processes

Course scedule

2026, 19 January - 20 March, at SU

ORCID 0000-0002-9137-2883  My research group uses the earth system model EC-Earth to understand climate change and climate variability from the past to the future.   

Climate model simulations with EC-Earth

EC-Earth is a fully coupled high-resolution (~125 km)  Earth system model. Available simulations: Pre-industrial (1850AD), Last millennium (850 -1850 AD) , mid-Holocene (6000 years BP), Last Glacial Maximum (21,000 years BP),  mid-Pliocene (3.2 million years BP) as well as a set of  ‘Green Sahara’ sensitivity experiments under pre-industrial and mid-Holocene climate conditions. We have finished several CMIP6/PMIP4 experiments with EC-Earth 3, as well as a Holocene transient simulation from 8 ka to the present day. If anyone is interested in exploring scientific questions by using these simulation data, please contact me.  

Recent and ongoing research project

• Investigating multi-centennial climate variability using the Earth System Model, 2023-2026, VR
• Investigating multi-centennial climate variability using the Earth System Model, 2023-2026, VR
• Simulating green Sahara with an earth system model, 2018-2022, VR

Current group members (funding source) and research topics

• Katherine Power, PhD student (VR), 2023-2028. Simulating Pliocene climate with EC-Earth.
• Ella Andrews, master student, 2025-2026. Multi-centennial climate variability during the last interglacial.
• Vera Grönvik Hende, master student, 2025-2026, Terrestrial carbon storage responses to interglacial warming in the northern high latitudes.
• Zixuan Han, visiting scientist from Hohai Unviersity, China.
• Erfan Liu, visiting PhD student from Sun Yat-sen University, China. Hydroclimate patterns over the Tibetan Plateau during past 8000 years.

Previous members

• Zhenqian Wang, research scientist, Sep 2023 - June 2025. EC-Earth simulations. Now a post-doc at the university of Copenhagen.
• Tove Hermansson, master student, 2024-2025. Arctic sea-ice variability in last millennium simulations.
• Lin Peng, master student, 2024-2025. Glacial lake outburst floods in the Himalaya. Now a PhD candidate at Exeter University.
• Fernanda Matos, visiting PhD student from AWI, Germany, Aug 2023- Jan 2024. Simulating Pliocene climate with AWI-ESM.
• Peng Zhou, visiting PhD student, April 2023- March 2024. Millennial climate variability in reconstructions and climate model simulations. 
• Fangyuan Lin, visiting PhD student (CSC), 2022-2023. climate variability during the Holocene, compare speleothem records and model data.
• Josefine Axelsson, PhD student (VR) 2019-2024. Monsoon variability revealed by stable water isotopes.
• Ellen Berntell, PhD student (VR) 2018-2023. African monsoon variability.
• Niklas Werner, master student, 2022-2023. Simulating Miocene climate.
• Zhengyao Lu, researcher (Formas mobility), April-June 2022. The impact of solar-farm on climate.
• Ning Cao, visiting postdoc (CSC), 2022. Physical mechanisms of multi-centennial climate variability.
• Thomas Askjaer, master student, 2021-2022. Multi-centennial climate variability, data-model comparison.
• Sonia Meherzi, internship, French Meteorology University, July-August 2021. Climate variability in EC-Earth last millennium simulations.
• Jie Chen, visiting PhD student (CSC), 2019-2021. Variability of Asian monsoon northern boundary. Now associate professor in Lanzhou University, China.
• Qiang Li, scientific programmer (Bolin Centre). 2013-2020. EC-Earth simulations for CMIP6/PMIP4. Now work in the EuroCC National Competence Center Sweden (ENCCS).
• Qiang (Jenson) Zhang, scientific programmer (VR), 2016-2020. Stable water isotope in OpenIFS, EC-Earth simulations.
• Wesley de Nooijer, master student, 2019-2020. Arctic amplification in past warm periods.
• Amet Jeng Sey, master student, 2019-2020. Sahalian rainfall variability and effects on agriculture.
• Kaiqi Chen, visiting PhD student, 2019.12-2020.02. Beijing Normal Univeristy, South Asian monsoon during two interglacials. 
• Yan Zhang, visiting scientist (CSC) 2019-2020. Arctic amplification and extreme weather. Research scientist in National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China.
• Xueyuan Kuang, visiting scientist (CSC) 2019-2020. Asian monsoon variability. Associate professor in Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
• Charlotta Högberg, PhD student (SNSB) 2013-2020. Stable water isotopes measured from Satellite.
• Zixuan Han, visting PhD student (CSC) 2018-2020. Global hydrological cycle. Now lecturer in Hohai University, Nanjing, China.
• Maartje Sanne Kuilman, PhD student (SU faculty fund) 2015-2019. Climate variability and feedbacks in middle atmosphere. Now scientist in ECMWF, Reading, UK.
• Tongmei Wang, Researcher (50% SNSB and 50% SU faculty fund) 2015-2019. Stratospheric water vapor and related atmospheric dynamics and physics.
• Jingling Piao, visiting scientist (STINT), Sep-Nov 2018. Central Asia climate variability. Now research scientist in Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing.
• Jianqiu Zheng, visiting scientist (CSC) 2016-2017. Arctic amplification in Pliocene. Now assistant professor at University of Science and Technology of China.
• Abubakr Salih Babiker, PhD (SU faculty fund) 2010-2015. Sahelian rainfall variability. Now research scientist at IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC) in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Maxime Ballarotta, postdoc (Bolin Centre) 2013-2015. Now research Engineer in Spatial Altimetry & Oceanography, Toulouse, France.