Yavor Kostov

Ocean/Iceberg Modeller

Yavor Kostov

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Yavor Kostov

Biography

I am originally from Sofia, Bulgaria. I did both my undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States before starting my postdocs in the UK in 2016.

 

EDUCATION

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) – Ph.D. in Climate Physics & Chem. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Supervisor: John Marshall
2016

 

Pomona College (Claremont, California) – B.A., Mathematics  

Complemented with a full-time paid internship (2009) in hardware design and verification
2010

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE PRIOR TO JOINING BAS

Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Exeter
2019-2023

 

Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Oxford
2016-2019

 

Research Assistant at the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.)
2010-2016

 

Modeling El Niño with DDEs – Undergraduate Senior Thesis with Honors, Pomona College, Claremont, California
2010

 

Summer Undergraduate Researcher at the Department of Mathematics, Pomona College
2008

 

Summer Undergraduate Researcher at the Physics Department, Pomona College
2006, 2007

 

 

STUDENT MENTORSHIP & SUPERVISORY ROLES

Sam Cornish, Postgraduate, University of Oxford
Official co-supervision of Sam’s Ph.D. on Arctic Ocean dynamics together with Helen Johnson
2017-2021

 

Emma Beer, Undergraduate, University of Oxford
Summer project on Arctic freshwater content
2016

 

 

EXPERIENCE IN INDUSTRY

Digital Hardware Engineer at ASIC Depot, Sofia, Bulgaria, subsequently bought out by Broadcom
2009

 

 

Research interests

High latitude oceans, ice, and climate

Collaborations

The OCEAN:ICE project co-funded by the EU and UKRI.

Kostov, Y., Holland, P. R., Hogan, K. A., Smith, J. A., Jourdain, N. C., Mathiot, P., Olivé Abelló, A., Fleming, A. H., and Meijers, A. J. S. (2025) Modelled dynamics of floating and grounded icebergs, with application to the Amundsen Sea, Accepted for publication in The Cryosphere. EGUsphere [preprint], DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2423.

Boland, E.J., Kostov, Y., and Jones, D.C. (2025) Local and Remote Drivers of Liquid Freshwater Export through Denmark Strait, Submitted to JGR: Oceans, [preprint] DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.176004605.56936362/v1.

Abelló, A. O., P.Mathiot, N. C. Jourdain, Y. Kostov, et al. (2025) Iceberg grounding enhances the release of freshwater on the Antarctic continental shelf. JGR: Oceans, 130, e2025JC022857. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JC022857.

Kostov, Y., Messias, M.-J., Mercier, H., Marshall, D. P., and Johnson, H. L. (2024) Surface factors controlling the volume of accumulated Labrador Sea Water, Ocean Science, 20, 521–547, doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-521-2024.

Kostov, Y., Messias, MJ., Mercier, H., Johnson, H.L., Marshall, D.P. (2022) Fast mechanisms linking the Labrador Sea with subtropical Atlantic overturning. Climate Dynamics. 60,2687–2712. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06459-y

Cornish, S.B., H.L. Johnson, R.D.C. Mallett, J. Dörr, Y. Kostov, and A.E. Richards (2022) Rise and fall of sea ice production in the Arctic Ocean’s ice factories. Nature Communications. 13, 7800 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34785-6

Kostov, Y., Johnson, H.L., Marshall, D.P. et al. Distinct sources of interannual subtropical and subpolar Atlantic overturning variability. (2021) Nature Geoscience. 14, 491–495. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00759-4

L.M. Polvani, A. Banerjee, R. Chemke, E.W. Doddridge, D.Ferreira, A. Gnanadesikan, M.A. Holland, Y. Kostov, J. Marshall, W.J.M. Seviour, S. Solomon, and D.W. Waugh (2021) Interannual SAM modulation of Antarctic sea ice extent does not account for its long-term trends, pointing to a limited role for ozone depletion, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, 21, e2021GL094871

Cornish, S. B., Kostov, Y., et al. (2020) Response of Arctic Freshwater to the Arctic Oscillation in Coupled Climate Models, Journal of Climate, 33(7), 2533-2555. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0685.1

Rye, C. D., Marshall, J., Kelley, M., Russell, G., Nazarenko, L. S., Kostov, Y., et al. (2020). Antarctic glacial melt as a driver of recent Southern Ocean climate trends. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2019GL086892. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086892

Kostov, Y., Johnson, H.L., Marshall, D.P. (2019) AMOC sensitivity to surface buoyancy fluxes: the role of air-sea feedback mechanisms. Climate Dynamics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-04802-4

J. M. Seviour, F. Codron, D. Ferreira, A. Gnanadesikan, M. Kelley, Y. Kostov, et al. (2019) The Southern Ocean sea surface temperature response to ozone depletion: A multi-model comparison. Journal of Climate, 32(16), 5107-5121.https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0109.1

Muilwijk, Morven, M. Ilicak, S. B. Cornish, S. Danilov, R. Gelderloos, R. Gerdes, V. Haid, T. W. N. Haine, H. L. Johnson, Y. Kostov, et al. (2019) Arctic response to Greenland Sea wind anomalies in a suite of model simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 124. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015101

Kostov, Y., Ferreira, D., Armour, K. C., & Marshall, J. (2018) Contributions of greenhouse gas forcing and the Southern Annular Mode to historical Southern Ocean surface temperature trends. Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 1086–1097.  https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074964

Johnson, H., Cornish, S., Kostov, Y., Beer, E., Lique, C. (2018) Arctic Ocean freshwater content and its decadal memory of sea-level pressure. Geophys. Res. Lett., 45, 4991-5001, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GL076870

Holland, M.M., Landrum, L., Kostov, Y., Marshall, J. (2017) Sensitivity of Antarctic sea ice to the Southern Annular Mode in coupled climate models. Climate Dynamics, 49: 1813.  doi:10.1007/s00382-016-3424-9

Kostov Y., Marshall J, Hausmann U, Armour KC, Ferreira D, Holland MM (2017) Fast and slow responses of Southern Ocean sea surface temperature to SAM in coupled climate models. Clim Dyn, 48: 1595.  doi: 10.1007/s00382-016-3162-z

Kostov, Y., K. C. Armour, and J. Marshall (2014), Impact of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on ocean heat storage and transient climate change, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 2108–2116, doi:10.1002/2013GL058998.

Marshall, J., K. C. Armour, J. R. Scott, Y. Kostov, U. Hausmann, D. Ferreira, T. G. Shepherd and C. M. Bitz (2014) The ocean’s role in polar climate change: asymmetric Arctic and Antarctic responses to greenhouse gas and ozone forcing. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 372, 20130040, doi:10.1098/rsta.2013.0040.

Kostov, Y., R. Morshed, B. Höling, R. Chen and P.B. Siegel (2008) Period-speed analysis of a pendulum. American Journal of Physics, 76 (10), pp 956-962, doi:10.1119/1.2937897.

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

2025

Abelló, Anna Olivé, Mathiot, Pierre, Jourdain, Nicolas C., Kostov, Yavor, Holland, Paul R. ORCIDORCID record for Paul R. Holland, Gascoin, Simon, Rousset, Clement. (2025) Iceberg Grounding Enhances the Release of Freshwater on the Antarctic Continental Shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130 (). 25 pp. 10.1029/2025JC022857

2024

Kostov, Yavor, Messias, Marie-José, Mercier, Herlé, Marshall, David P., Johnson, Helen L.. (2024) Surface factors controlling the volume of accumulated Labrador Sea Water. Ocean Science, 20 (). pp. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-521-2024

 

I have been actively involved in the following multi-institute and international collaborative projects: