CURRICULUM VITAE
Sergej S. Zilitinkevich
Date and place of birth
13.04.1936, St. Petersburg, Russia
Citizenships
Russian and Swedish
Affiliation and address
Director of Research, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Helsinki
Research Professor, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)
Address: FMI, PO Box 503, 00101 Helsinki, Finland. Tel +358-9-1929-4678
Fax +358-9-1929-4103, E-mail sergej.zilitinkevich@fmi.fi
Education and grades
Graduated from Physical Faculty, Leningrad State University, USSR (1959)
PhD: Leningrad Hydrometeorological Institute (1962)
Dr Sci: PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Acad. Sci. USSR (1968)
Professor of Geophysics: Presidium of Acad. Sci. USSR (1972)
Professor of Meteorology: Uppsala University, Sweden (1997)
Professional record
2008Finland: Research Professor, Finnish Meteorological Institute; Research Director,
Dept of Physics, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Helsinki
2004Norway: Part-time Professor, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre
2004-2007
Finland: Professor, Marie Curie Chair of Boundary-layer Physics, University of
Helsinki and Finnish Meteorological Institute
1998-2003
Sweden: Professor and Chair of Meteorology, Uppsala University (since 2003
Prof. Emeritus)
1991-1997
Germany: Visiting Professor and project director/coordinator, Max Planck Institute of
Meteorology / Hamburg University, Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine
Research, GKSS Research Centre
1990-1990
Denmark: Visiting Professor, RISØ National Laboratory
1959-1990
Russia: Main Geophysical Observatory, Institute of Lake Research,
Institute of Oceanology (Director of Leningrad Branch), Russian State
Hydrometeorological University (Professor)
Publications and participation in conferences
8 books, 170 peer-reviewed papers, 3.7 invited lectures per year at international conferences in
the last decade
Supervision 20 PhD / Dr Sci candidates in meteorology, oceanography, space research; 4 of
whom became full professors
Lecturing Designed 7 different courses within meteorology, oceanography, geophysics and
science management at universities in Russia, Germany, Sweden and Finland; delivered a dozen
short courses at international summer schools
Membership (selected)
 Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal Committee, European Geoscience Union, 2002-2009
 Editorial Boards of Environmental Fluid Mechanics (international, established in 2000,
2000-2006); Geography, Environment, Sustainability (international, established in 2008);
International Journal of Geophysics (since 2008), Bulgarian Geophysical Journal (20002009), Ukrainian Hydro-meteorological Journal (2004-2008)
 Co-ordination Board of NERC Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling (UK, 2002-2007)
 Research Council of Russian State Hydrometeorological University (Russia, since 2008)
 Board of C-G Rossby International Meteorological Inst. (Sweden, 1998-2003)
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Convener of Session AW2.1 “Atmospheric Boundary Layers”, Annual Meetings of the
European Meteorological Society (since 2005)
Referee of European Research Council (ERC) Peer Review (since 2009)
Honours and awards
Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal 2000 (European Geoscience Union)
Member of Academia Europaea (Earth and Cosmic Sciences, since 2002)
Member of Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Geosciences, since 2009)
Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (UK)
Distinguished Professor of BWW Society / IAPGS, USA
Marie Curie Chair of Boundary-Layer Physics (EU-Commission, 2004-2007)
Holder of ERC advanced grant PBL-PMES (EU-Commission, 2009-2013)
RESEARCH PROFILE
Top-10 papers of Sergej Zilitinkevich (Appendix A) develop the physical concepts of bulk
planetary boundary layer (PBL) resistance and heat/mass transfer laws; diagnostic and
prognostic PBL height equations; and the energetics of turbulence in extremely stable
stratification. Citation index of these works equals to 727 (according to ISI Web of Knowledge).
ISI Web of Knowledge shows 1394 citations of 88 papers of Sergej Zilitinkevich (SZ),
with the average citation per item 15.84 and the h-index 20. His total citation, accounting for
books and other publications disregarded by ISI, exceeds 2000. SZ is the single or 1st author in
80% of his publications. In recent years his citation rapidly increased (Figure 1) and reached 111
per year in 2009 (a pronounced value in view of rather small PBL-physics community).
The same tendency is seen in Figure 2 showing dynamics of his invited lectures at the
variety of international interdisciplinary conferences.
120
8
110
7
100
6
Invited lectures
90
Citations
80
70
60
50
40
30
5
4
3
2
20
1
10
0
0
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
Year
Figure 1. Citation in the last decade after
Web of Knowledge
Figure 2. Invited lectures in the last decade
The increasing interest in PBL and turbulence from the neighbouring-field communities is
only natural. Currently used PBL schemes are based on the traditional theories and do not keep
pace with rapidly improving spatial resolution and accuracy of the state of the art atmospheric,
oceanic and other environmental models. In the Earth system PBLs play the role of coupling
agents between the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, and separate models show
essentially higher quality than model chains coupled through current PBL schemes. This calls for
advancing the PBL theory and parameterization.
PBL models developed by SZ underlie parameterizations of the PBL height and mean
structure, air-water turbulent fluxes, and mean turbulent and thermal structure of lakes – in state
of the art operational models of air pollution (Swedish Defence Research Establishment, Danish
Meteorological Institute), wind-energy and wind-load (Genoa University, Italy), water
ecosystem (Tartu University, Estonia), and lake thermodynamics (German Weather Service;
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Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute – Rossby Centre RCA-model; GKSS
Research Centre – CLM-model), thus contributing to a range of interdisciplinary neighbouring
fields. By giving guidance on ABL theory and modelling, SZ has contributed (in Finland and
beyond) to the development of the operational NWP system HIRLAM / ALADIN, in particular,
to the creation of Finnish Wind Atlas (www.windatlas.fi) and the use of observations from the
boreal forest zone for HIRLAM validation in winter conditions with stable stratification.
Works of SZ covering a variety of research fields are included in textbooks (e.g., Z Sorbjan
Structure of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer, 1989; JR Garratt The Atmospheric Boundary
Layer, 1992; EB Kraus & JA Businger Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction, 1994; LH Kantha and
CA Clayson Small Scale Processes in Geophysical Fluid Flows, 2000), and comprise an
essential part of university courses of Boundary Layer Meteorology (e.g. at University of
Helsinki; Russian State Hydrometeorological University, Ukrainian State Environmental
University, San Jose State University, USA) and by this means provide a societal impact.
Over the last 5 years SZ has published 21 peer-reviewed papers in international journals
(see Appendix B). The basic achievement of this period are: 1) Discovery and theory of longlived stable (LS) and conventionally neutral (CN) PBLs – affected by the free flow stability
through non-local effects of internal waves and coherent structures (Zilitinkevich and Esau, 2005
[1], 2007 [12]; Zilitinkevich et al., 2007 [10]). These now entered the terminology and are
recognised as key elements of Polar climate system (Zilitinkevich and Esau, 2009 [18]). 2)
Solution to old problem of energetics critical Richardson number in turbulence closure theory
(Zilitinkevich et al., 2007 [11], 2008 [16]) – through analyses of turbulent potential energy, TPE,
its exchanges with turbulent kinetic energy, TKE, and the conservation law for total energy,
TTE=TKE+TPE [instead of traditional sole use of TKE – blindly following Kolmogorov (1941),
which was limited to the neutral stratification, where TPE=0]. 3) Non-local theory of convective
PBLs: explaining the basically deterministic nature of coherent structures, their generation and
interaction with turbulence (Elperin et al, 2006 [8]; authors in alphabetic order); and obtaining
non-local heat/mass transfer laws through statistical and deterministic treatment of real
turbulence and structures, respectively (Zilitinkevich et al., 2006 [7]).
List of 10 most significant papers
Zilitinkevich, S.S., 1972: On the determination of the height of the Ekman boundary layer. Boundary-Layer
Meteorol., 3, 141-145 (160 citations1)
Zilitinkevich, S.S., 1975: Comments on "A model of the dynamics of the inversion above a convective boundary
layer". J. Atmos. Sci., 32, 991-992 (98 citations)
Zilitinkevich, S.S., 1975: Resistance laws and prediction equations for the depth of the planetary boundary layer. J.
Atmos. Sci., 32, 741-752 (95 citations)
Shakura, N.I., Sunyaev, R.A., and Zilitinkevich, S.S., 1978: On the turbulent energy transport in accretion discs.
Astron. Astrophys., 62, 179-187 (92 citations)
Zilitinkevich, S.S., and Deardorff, J.W., 1974: Similarity theory for the planetary boundary layer of time-dependent
height. J. Atmos. Sci., 31, 1449-1452 (55 citations)
Zilitinkevich, S.S., 1989: Velocity profiles, resistance laws and dissipation rate of mean flow kinetic energy in a
neutrally and stably stratified planetary boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol., 46, 367-387 (54
citations)
Zilitinkevich, S., and Mironov, D.V., 1996: A multi-limit formulation for the equilibrium depth of a stably stratified
boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol., 81, 325-351 (52 citations)
Zilitinkevich, S.S, Gryanik V.M., Lykossov, V.N., and Mironov, D.V., 1999: Third-order transport and nonlocal
turbulence closures for convective boundary layers. J. Atmos. Sci., 56, 3463-3477 (44 citations)
Zilitinkevich, S., and Calanca, P., 2000: An extended similarity-theory for the stably stratified atmospheric surface
layer. Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 126, 1913-1923 (41 citations)
Zilitinkevich, S.S., and Baklanov, A., 2002: Calculation of the height of stable boundary layers in practical
applications. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 105, 389-409 (36 citations)
List of peer-reviewed publications over the last 5 years (2005-2010)
Zilitinkevich S.S., and Esau I.N., 2005: Resistance and heat/mass transfer laws for neutral and stable planetary
boundary layers: old theory advanced and re-evaluated. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 131, 1863-1892.
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Hereafter, the number of citations is indicated according to ISI Web of Knowledge on June 2010.
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Zilitinkevich S., Esau I. and Baklanov A., 2005: Atmospheric boundary layers in storms: advanced theory and
modelling applications. Advances in Geosciences. 2, 47-49.
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Hunt, J.C.R., Grachev, A.A., Esau, I.N., Lalas, D.P., Akylas, E., Tombrou, M., Fairall, C.W.,
Fernando, H.J.S., Baklanov, A., and Joffre, S.M., 2005: The effect of large eddies on the convective
heat/mass transfer over complex terrain: advanced theory and its validation against experimental and LES
data. Croatian Meteorological Journal, 40, 20-26.
Baklanov, A., Mestayer, P., Clappier, A., Zilitinkevich, S., Joffre, S., Mahura, A. and Nielsen, N.W., 2005: On
parameterizations of urban atmosphere sublayer in meteorological models. Atmospheric Chemistry and
Physics Discussion, 5, 12119-12176.
L’vov V.S., Pomyalov, A., Procaccia I., and Zilitinkevich, S.S., 2006: Phenomenology of wall bounded Newtonian
turbulence. Phys. Rev., E 73, 016303 1-13.
Esau, I.N., and Zilitinkevich, S.S., 2006: Universal dependences between turbulent and mean flow parameters in
stably and neutrally stratified planetary boundary layers. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 13, 135-144
(www-nonlin-processes-geophys.net/13/135/2006).
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Hunt, J.C.R., Grachev, A.A., Esau, I.N., Lalas, D.P., Akylas, E., Tombrou, M., Fairall, C.W.,
Fernando, H.J.S., Baklanov, and A., Joffre, S.M., 2006: The influence of large convective eddies on the
surface layer turbulence. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 132, 1423-1456.
Elperin T., Kleeorin N., Rogachevskii I. and Zilitinkevich S., 2006: Turbulence and coherent structures in
geophysical convection. Boundary-layer Meteorol. 119, 449-472.
Zilitinkevich, S., Savijärvi, H., Baklanov, A., Grisogono, B., and Myrberg, K., 2006: Forthcoming meetings on
planetary boundary layer theory, modelling and applications. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 119, 591-593.
Zilitinkevich, S., Esau, I. and Baklanov, A., 2007: Further comments on the equilibrium height of neutral and stable
planetary boundary layers. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 133, 265-271.
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Elperin, T., Kleeorin, N., and Rogachevskii, I., 2007: Energy- and flux-budget (EFB) turbulence
closure model for the stably stratified flows. Part I: Steady-state, homogeneous regimes. Boundary-Layer
Meteorol. 125, 167-192.
Zilitinkevich, S., and Esau, I., 2007: Similarity theory and calculation of turbulent fluxes at the surface for the stably
stratified atmospheric boundary layers. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 125, 193-296.
Goulart, A.G., Moreira, D.M., Vilhena, M.T., Degrazia, G.A., and Zilitinkevich, S.S., 2007: A new model for the
CBL growth based on the turbulent kinetic energy equation. Environ. Fluid Mech., 7, 409–419.
Mauritsen, T., Svensson, G., Zilitinkevich, S.S., Esau, I., Enger, L., and Grisogono, B., 2007: A total turbulent
energy closure model for neutrally and stably stratified atmospheric boundary layers, J. Atmos. Sci., 64,
4117–4130.
Baklanov, A., Mestayer, P., Clappier, A., Zilitinkevich, S., Joffre, S., Mahura, A., Nielsen, N.W., 2008: Towards
improving the simulation of meteorological fields in urban areas through updated/advanced surface fluxes
description. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 523-543.
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Elperin, T., Kleeorin, N., Rogachevskii, I., Esau, I., Mauritsen, T., and Miles, M. W., 2008:
Turbulence energetics in stably stratified geophysical flows: strong and weak mixing regimes. Quart. J. Roy.
Met. Soc. 134, 793-799.
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Mammarella, I., Baklanov, A.A., and Joffre, S.M., 2008: The effect of stratification on the
aerodynamic roughness length and displacement height. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 129, 179-190.
Zilitinkevich, S.S., and Esau, I.N., 2009: Planetary boundary layer feedbacks in climate system and triggering global
warming in the night, in winter and at high latitudes. Geography, Environment and Sustainability 1, No. 2,
20-34.
Sofiev M., Sofieva V., Elperin T., Kleeorin N., Rogachevskii I., and Zilitinkevich S.S., 2009: Turbulent diffusion
and turbulent thermal diffusion of aerosols in stratified atmospheric flows. J. Geophys. Res. 114, D18209,
doi:10.1029/2009JD011765
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Elperin, T., Kleeorin, N., L'vov, V., and Rogachevskii, I., 2009: Energy- and flux-budget (EFB)
turbulence closure model for stably stratified flows. Part II: The role of internal gravity waves. BoundaryLayer Meteorol. 133, 139-164. DOI: 10.1007/s10546-009-9424-0
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Elperin, T., Kleeorin, N., and Rogachevskii, I., 2009: Turbulence closure for stably stratified
flows in the atmosphere and the ocean. Ukrainian Hydromet. J. 4, 75-102 (in Russian).
Zilitinkevich, S.S., Esau, I.N., Kleeorin, N., Rogachevskii, I., and Kouznetsov, R.D., 2010: On the velocity gradient
in the stably stratified sheared flows. Part 1: Asymptotic analysis and applications. Boundary-Layer
Meteorol. 135, 505-511.
Kouznetsov, R.D., and Zilitinkevich, S.S., 2010: On the velocity gradient in stably stratified sheared flows. Part 2:
Observations and models. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 135, 513-517.
Zilitinkevich, S.S., 2010: Comments on numerical simulation of homogeneous stably stratified turbulence.
Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 136, 161-164.
Esau, I., and Zilitinkevich, S., 2010: On the role of the planetary boundary layer depth in climate system. Adv. Sci.
Res. 4, 63-69.
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