Scientific Officer
Forecast, Evaluation, Climate Intelligence
Summary:
Erik is a Scientific Officer at the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) working on monitoring Essential Climate Variables using satellite observations. His responsibilities include the operation and further development of satellite monitoring activities, with a particular focus on oceans, sea ice and terrestrial cryosphere. As part of the Climate Intelligence Team, he also contributes to C3S climate reporting activities such as the Climate Bulletin and the European State of the Climate report.
Professional interests:
Satellite remote sensing, ocean and cryosphere research, ice sheet processes, machine learning, science communication.
Career background:
- 2025: Researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research with a focus on advancing satellite altimetry observations over ice sheets.
- 2020-2025: Researcher and PhD student at TU Dresden with a focus on ice sheet monitoring using satellite multispectral imaging and deep learning. Research stay at the German Aerospace Center. Research expeditions to the Central Arctic, Greenland and East Antarctica.
- 2016- 2019: MSc in Geodesy at TU Dresden with a thesis on ice sheet altimetry.
External recognitions
Awards
- Graham Cogley Award, issued by the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences, 2023.
- Virtual Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation Award, issued by the European Geoscience Union, 2021.
Membership and external duties
- Board member in the German National Committee of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientist (APECS), 2020-2025. Co-Chair from 2021-2024.
- Elected member of the Student Council Geosciences, TU Dresden, 2014-2015.
- 2025
- Torsten Kanzow, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Mölg, Mirko Scheinert, Matthias Braun, Hans Burchard, Francesca Doglioni, Philipp Hochreuther, Martin Horwath, Oliver Huhn, Maria Kappelsberger, Jürgen Kusche, Erik Loebel, Katrina Lutz, Ben Marzeion, Rebecca McPherson, Mahdi Mohammadi-Aragh, Marco Möller, Carolyne Pickler, Markus Reinert, Monika Rhein, Martin Rückamp, Janin Schaffer, Muhammad Shafeeque, Sophie Stolzenberger, Ralph Timmermann, Jenny Turton, Claudia Wekerle, Ole Zeising (May 2025) The system of atmosphere, land, ice and ocean in the region near the 79N Glacier in northeast Greenland: synthesis and key findings from the Greenland Ice Sheet–Ocean Interaction (GROCE) experiment, The Cryosphere n. "5", pp. 1789-1824. DOI: 10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025
- Erik Loebel, Celia A. Baumhoer, Andreas Dietz, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath (January 2025) Calving front positions for 42 key glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet: a sub-seasonal record from 2013 to 2023 based on deep-learning application to Landsat multi-spectral imagery, Earth System Science Data. DOI: 10.5194/essd-17-65-2025
- Sofie Hedetoft, Olivia Bang Brinck, Ruth Mottram, Andrea M. U. Gierisch, Steffen Malskær Olsen, Martin Olesen, Nicolaj Hansen, Anders Anker Bjørk, Erik Loebel, Anne Solgaard, Peter Thejll (June 2025) Mélange or landfast ice: What controls seasonal calving at Greenland outlet glaciers?. DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-2025-1907
- 2024
- Erik Loebel, Celia A. Baumhoer, Andreas Dietz, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath (February 2024) Calving front positions for 19 key glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula: a sub-seasonal record from 2013 to 2023 based on a deep learning application to Landsat multispectral imagery. DOI: 10.5194/essd-2023-535
- Erik Loebel, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert, Julia Sohn, Konrad Heidler, Charlotte Liebezeit, Xiao Xiang Zhu (July 2024) Calving front monitoring at a subseasonal resolution: a deep learning application for Greenland glaciers, The Cryosphere. DOI: 10.5194/tc-18-3315-2024
- Veit Helm, Alireza Dehghanpour, Ronny Hänsch, Erik Loebel, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert (September 2024) AWI-ICENet1: a convolutional neural network retracker for ice altimetry, The Cryosphere. DOI: 10.5194/tc-18-3933-2024
- 2023
- Erik Loebel, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert, Julia Sohn, Konrad Heidler, Charlotte Liebezeit, Xiao Xiang Zhu (May 2023) Calving front monitoring at sub-seasonal resolution: a deep learning application to Greenland glaciers. DOI: 10.5194/tc-2023-52
- Angelika Humbert, Veit Helm, Niklas Neckel, Ole Zeising, Martin Rückamp, Khan Shfaqat Abbas, Loebel Erik, Dietmar Gross, Rabea Sondershaus, Ralf Müller (May 2023) Precursor of disintegration of Greenland's largest floating ice tongue. DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7094
- Veit Helm, Alireza Dehghanpour, Ronny Hänsch, Erik Loebel, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert (June 2023) AWI-ICENet1: A convolutional neural network retracker for ice altimetry. DOI: 10.5194/tc-2023-80
- Heidler K., Mou L., Loebel E., Scheinert M., Lefevre S., Zhu X.X. (October 2023) A Deep Active Contour Model for Delineating Glacier Calving Fronts, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3296539
- Zuhr A.M., Loebel E., Muchow M., Dennis D., Von Albedyll L., Kruse F., Kassens H., Grabow J., Piepenburg D., Brandt S., Lehmann R., Jessen M., Krüger F., Kallfelz M., Preußer A., Braun M., Seehaus T., Lisker F., Röhnert D., Scheinert M. (October 2023) Insights into German polar research during POLARSTUNDE, Polarforschung. DOI: 10.5194/polf-91-73-2023
- Humbert A., Helm V., Neckel N., Zeising O., Rückamp M., Khan S.A., Loebel E., Brauchle J., Stebner K., Gross D., Sondershaus R., Müller R. (October 2023) Precursor of disintegration of Greenland's largest floating ice tongue, Cryosphere. DOI: 10.5194/tc-17-2851-2023
- 2022
- Julia Christmann, Erik Loebel, Martin Rückamp, Angelika Humbert (March 2022) On modelling of calving front positions at KNS, southwest Greenland. DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5430
- Konrad Heidler, Lichao Mou, Erik Loebel, Mirko Scheinert, Sébastien Lefèvre, Xiao Xiang Zhu (September 2022) Deep Active Contour Models for Delineating Glacier Calving Fronts, IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, pp. 4490-4493. DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS46834.2022.9884819
- Loebel E., Scheinert M., Horwath M., Heidler K., Christmann J., Phan L.D., Humbert A., Zhu X.X. (October 2022) Extracting Glacier Calving Fronts by Deep Learning: The Benefit of Multispectral, Topographic, and Textural Input Features, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2022.3208454
- Loebel E., von Albedyll L., Mourot R., Nicola L. (October 2022) Let’s talk fieldwork: early-career scientists sharing practical knowledge about polar fieldwork, Polarforschung. DOI: 10.5194/polf-90-29-2022
- Nicola L., Loebel E., Zuhr A.M. (October 2022) Money makes our world go round - funding landscape for polar early-career scientists in Germany, Polarforschung. DOI: 10.5194/polf-90-81-2022
- Angelika Humbert, Veit Helm, Niklas Neckel, Ole Zeising, Martin Rückamp, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Erik Loebel, Dietmar Gross, Rabea Sondershaus, Ralf Müller (September 2022) Precursor of disintegration of Greenland's largest floating ice tongue. DOI: 10.5194/tc-2022-171
- 2021
- Erik Loebel, Mirko Scheinert, Julia Christmann, Konrad Heidler, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert (March 2021) Automated extraction of calving front locations from multi-spectral satellite imagery using deep learning: methodology and application to Greenland outlet glaciers. DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4528
- 2020
- Erik Loebel, Veit Helm, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath (October 2020) Validierung satellitengestützter Oberflächenhöhen und Höhenänderungsraten in Nordostgrönland unter Verwendung von digitalen Geländemodellen.