Inger-Lise Aasen

My name is Inger-Lise Aasen, I am 24 years old, living in Oslo, Norway. I work at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute as a forecaster, and I also work as a TV-meteorologist. I finished my master thesis at the University of Oslo in June this year, and I have been working here since. 

When it comes to research interests, the Arctic climate changes is what I currently work with. I wrote my master thesis on this theme, more specifically changes in the heat budget in the upper Arctic Ocean in recent years. By comparing modern data with a historical data set I found that the Arctic Atlantic Water is now warmer and lies more shallow than in previous years. Models indicate that by the end of this century the cold Halocline Layer, a thick cold layer protecting the sea ice cover from the underlying warm Atlantic Layer, will vanish! This would have large implications for the sea ice cover, since the Arctic Atlantic Water contains enormous amounts of heat. Based on this I'm currently writing an article in cooperation with my master thesis supervisor and co-authors from the NCAR- and HADLEY-centers.

I have also worked with model verification here at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The work included weekly verifications of model forecasts. Systematic errors in the model forecasts were mapped, and modifications in the model were often done to try to solve the problems.