Ricke Lab
Kate Ricke is an Associate Professor at UC San Diego (UCSD), with appointments at both Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS). She an interdisciplinary climate scientist who combines methods from the physical climate sciences, including Earth System Modeling and analysis of environmental observations, with methods from decision theory and risk analysis. Her work focuses on a range of climate policy topics—including climate geoengineering and international human migration pressures of climate change—with a consistent theme of characterization of the strategic implications of regionally heterogeneous climate outcomes and quantification of decision-relevant uncertainties.
- Jessica S. Wan, John T. Fasullo, Nan Rosenbloom, Chih-Chieh Chen, Katharine Ricke.“Targeted marine cloud brightening weakens subsequent El Niño.” Science Advances.
- McCarthy, O.S., Conklin, E., Ricke, K., Sparks, R.T. and Smith, J.E.“Evaluating the predictive capacity of coral reef resilience assessments.” Scientific Reports.
- Saenger, M., Lutsko, N. J., Polonik, P., & Ricke, K.“Emulating natural climate variability with InVERT (Internal Variability Emulator for Regional Temperature).” Geophysical Research Letters.
- Bastien-Olvera, B.A., Aburto-Oropeza, O., Brander, L.M., Cheung, W.W., Emmerling, J., Free, C.M., Granella, F., Tavoni, M., Verschuur, J. and Ricke, K.“Accounting for ocean impacts nearly doubles the social cost of carbon.” Nature Climate Change.
- Polonik, P., Burney, J. and Ricke, K.“Emulation of the climate response to greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions from high‐and low‐income nations.” Geophysical Research Letters.
- Bastien-Olvera, B.A., Aburto-Oropeza, O., Favoretto, F., Amaya, D.J., Urbano, E.P., Brander, L.M. and Ricke, K.“A warming ocean threatens mangrove restoration targets and deepens global inequities in ecosystem service losses.” Environmental Research: Climate.
- Polonik, P., Ricke, K. & Burney, J.“Estimating the impacts of climate change: reconciling disconnects between physical climate and statistical models.” Climatic Change.
- Bellamy, R., Asayama, S., Buck, H.J., Irvine, P. and Ricke, K.“Starting dialogues on climate change.” Dialogues on Climate Change.
- Wan, J. S., Chen, C. C. J., Tilmes, S., Luongo, M. T., Richter, J. H., Ricke, K.“Diminished efficacy of regional marine cloud brightening in a warmer world.” Nature Climate Change.
- Polonik, P., Ricke, K., Reese, S., Burney, J.“Air quality equity in US climate policy. ” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Shah, S. H., O’Lenick, C. R., Wan, J. S., Ramos-Valle, A., Ash, K. D., Wilhelmi, O. V., …Ricke, K. ... & Williams, C. L.“Connecting physical and social science datasets: challenges and pathways forward. ” Environmental Research Communications.
- Ricke, K., Harding, A.“How may solar geoengineering impact global prospects for climate change mitigation?” Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
- Ricke, K., Wan, J., Saenger, M., Lutsko, N.“Hydrological Consequences of Geoengineering the Climate.” Annual Reviews in Earth and Planetary Science.
- Ricke, K.“Solar geoengineering research should get real.” Nature.
- Ricke, K. L., McCord, G. C.“Tackling extreme poverty around the world need not impede climate action.” Nature.
- Bluhm, R., Polonik, P., Hemes, K.S., Sanford, L.C., Benz, S.A., Levy, M.C., Ricke, K.L., Burney, J.A.“Disparate air pollution reductions during California’s COVID-19 economic shutdown.” Nature Sustainability.
- Mettiäinen, I., Buck, H.J., MacMartin, D.G., Ricke, K.L. “‘Bog here, marshland there’: Tensions in co-producing scientific knowledge on solar geoengineering in the Arctic.” Environmental Research Letters.
- Aldy Joseph E., Felgenhauer Tyler, Pizer William A., Tavoni Massimo, Belaia Mariia, Borsuk Mark E., Ghosh Arunabha, Heutel Garth, Heyen Daniel, Horton Joshua, Keith David, Merk Christine, Moreno-Cruz Juan, Reynolds Jesse L., Ricke Katharine, Rickels Wilfried, Shayegh Soheil, Smith Wake, Tilmes Simone, Wagner Gernot, Wiener Jonathan B.“Social science research to inform solar geoengineering.” Science.
- Dove, Z., Horton, J., Ricke, K.“The middle powers roar: Exploring a minilateral solar geoengineering deployment scenario. ” Futures.
- Polonik, P., Ricke, K., Burney, J.“Paris Agreement’s Ambiguity About Aerosols Drives Uncertain Health and Climate Outcomes.” Earth's Future.
- Ricke, K., Ivanova, D., McKie, T., Rugenstein, M.,“Reversing Sahelian Droughts.” Geophysical Research Letters 48, e2021GL093129. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093129.
- Harding, A.R., Ricke, K., Heyen, D., MacMartin, D.G., Moreno-Cruz, J.“Climate econometric models indicate solar geoengineering would reduce inter-country income inequality.” Nature Communications.
- Rickels, W., Quaas, M.F., Ricke, K., Quaas, J., Moreno-Cruz, J., Smulders, S.“Who turns the global thermostat and by how much?” Energy Economics.
- Katharine L Ricke, Laurent Drouet, Ken Caldeira, and Massimo Tavoni.“Country-level social cost of carbon.” Nature Climate Change.
- Douglas G. MacMartin, Katharine L. Ricke, and David W. Keith.“Solar geoengineering as part of an overall strategy for meeting the 1.5 C Paris target.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.
- Ricke, K.L., Millar, R.J., MacMartin, D.G. “Constraints on global temperature target overshoot.” Scientific Reports.
- Rebecca Albright, Lilian Caldeira, Jessica Hosfelt, Lester Kwiatkowski, Jana K. Maclaren, Benjamin M. Mason, Yana Nebuchina, Aaron Ninokawa, Julia Pongratz, Katharine L. Ricke, Tanya Rivlin, Kenneth Schneider, Marine Sesboüé, Kathryn Shamberger, Jacob Silverman, Kennedy Wolfe, Kai Zhu & Ken Caldeira.“Reversal of ocean acidification enhances net coral reef calcification.” Nature.
- Garth Heutel, Juan Moreno-Cruz and Katharine Ricke.“Climate Engineering Economics.” Annual Review of Resource Economics.
- Katharine L Ricke Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, Jacob Schewe, Anders Levermann and Ken Caldeira.“Policy thresholds in mitigation.” Nature Geoscience.
- Lester Kwiatkowski, Katharine L Ricke and Ken Caldeira.“Atmospheric consequences of disruption of the ocean thermocline.” Environmental Research Letters.
- Katharine L Ricke and Ken Caldeira.“Maximum warming occurs about one decade after a carbon dioxide emission.” Environmental Research Letters.
- Katharine L Ricke and Ken Caldeira.“Natural Climate Variability and Future Climate Policy.” Nature Climate Change.
- Katharine L Ricke, James Orr, Kenneth Schneider and Ken Caldeira.“Risks to coral reefs from ocean carbonate chemistry changes in recent earth system model projections.” Environmental Research Letters.
- Katharine L Ricke, Juan B Moreno-Cruz and Ken Caldeira.“Strategic incentives for climate geoengineering coalitions to exclude broad participation.” Environmental Research Letters.
- Katharine L Ricke, Daniel J Rowlands, William J Ingram, David W Keith, and M Granger Morgan.“Effectiveness of stratospheric solar-radiation management as a function of climate sensitivity.” Nature Climate Change.
- Juan B Moreno-Cruz, Katharine L Ricke and David W Keith.“A simple model to account for regional inequalities in the effectiveness of solar radiation management.” Climatic Change.
- Katharine L Ricke, Myles R Allen and M Granger Morgan.“Regional climate response to solar-radiation management.” Nature Geoscience.
- David G Victor, M Granger Morgan, Jay Apt, John Steinbruner, and Kate Ricke.“The Geoengineering Option.” Foreign Affairs.
Current
- Marissa Saenger, Scripps PhD student (2021–)
- Claire Liu, Scripps PhD student (2024–)
- Jared Brzenski, Scientific Programmer (2025–)
- Jay Keshava, UCSD Undergraduate (2025–)
- Eesha Rangani, GPS MPP student researcher (2025–)
- Jared Farley, Scripps Postdoctoral Researcher (2026–)
Prior
- Jessica Wan, Scripps PhD student (2020–2025)
- Pascal Polonik, Scripps PhD student, GPS postdoc (2018–2025)
- Bernardo Bastien-Olvera, Scripps Instiutional Postdoc (2022–2024)
- Katya Sumwalt, UCSD Undergraduate (2023–2024)
- Madison Beltran , UCSD Undergraduate (2023–2024)
- Amaya Singleton, Scripps SURF student and University of Arizona Undergraduate (2021–2022)
- Detelina Ivanova, Scientific Programmer (2019–2021)
- Keita Kadokura, Scripps MS student (2019–2021)
- Victoria Lawless, GPS MPP student researcher (2020–2021)
- Jacob Moul, UCSD Undergraduate (2019–2020)
- Marena Lin, GPS Postdoc (2019–2020)
- Morgan Block, Scripps MAS student fellow (2019–2020)
Jul 2026 — More on weakening super El Niños on cnn.com
Jul 2026 — Ricke Lab work on El Niño and marine cloud brightening is covered in Wired
Jul 2026 — Marissa Saenger is featured in a Scripps Student Spotlight
Feb 2026 — Bernie and Kate's blue social cost of carbon work is covered by Eos
Jan 2026 — ABC News covers Bernie Bastien-Olvera and Kate's new Nature Climate Change paper
Dec 2024 — Kate Ricke speaks about solar geoengineering in BBC Panorama episode
Jul 2024 — More on Jess and Kate's new study on targetted marine cloud brightening
Jun 2024 — The Guardian covers Jessica Wan's new study in Nature Climate Change
Feb 2023 — Kate writes a World View for Nature : "Solar geoengineering is scary..."
Apr 2022 — Jessica Wan wins NDSEG fellowship
Nov 2021 — Kate talks geoengineering with Wired
Sep 2021 — Kate Ricke wins NCAR Early Career Faculty Innovator award
Mar 2021 — National Academies report Reflecting Sunlight published
Dec 2020 — Pascal Polonik wins AGU OSPA Award for his Fall Meeting talk
Apr 2019 — Kate Ricke wins Andrew Carnegie Fellowship