What I do

Scientific research interests and projects

My interests lie in understanding the processes responsible for changes in climate and sea level, as observed and as projected by atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs).

Climate sensitivity and its relationship to ocean heat uptake and the Earth energy budget: their dependence on climate and forcing, the determination and influence of the patterns of surface temperature and other regional climate change, the usefulness and limitations of the forcing–feedback framework. I was PI of the Couplet project on these subjects, funded by the ERC during 2018 to 2024.
Sea-level change: processes of change in AOGCMs, causes of its simulated regional distribution, comparison of simulated change and variability with tide gauges and altimetry. I coordinated a subproject (FAFMIP) of the recent phase (CMIP6) of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, with the aim of investigating the reasons for different AOGCM projections of sea-level change, ocean heat uptake and circulation change.
Ocean heat uptake: how it comes about in AOGCMs, why their results differ, how it relates to the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, what we can deduce from observations of change in the ocean interior.
Changes in ice sheets and their contribution to sea-level change. I am involved in the development of the ice-sheet/shelf modelling component of the UK Earth system model (UKESM).
Development of the FAMOUS AOGCM, and FAMOUS-ice, comprising FAMOUS coupled to the Glimmer or BISICLES ice-sheet models.

One of the authors of the CF metadata convention for climate data, which has been adopted as a standard by many climate centres and international projects.
Contribution to the design of the cf-python package for analysis of climate data. David Hassell, who is a computational scientist, is the developer of cf-python.

Line manager for Robin Smith, who is a research scientist and the coordinator of ice-sheet modelling with UKESM.
Line manager for Till Kuhlbrodt, who is a research scientist and the member of the UKESM core team responsible for the low-resolution configuration.
Chair of the conventions and standard name committees and member of the governance panel of the CF metadata convention.
Participant regular meetings between the Meteorology Department (including NCAS) and DTS about computing for research.

Oliver Browne, who obtained his PhD in September 2009. His thesis is on simulation of the interaction of ice sheets and climate following glacial inception using a coupled AOGCM-icesheet model.
Salvatore Pascale, who obtained his PhD in March 2011. His thesis is concerned with the conjecture of maximum entropy production by the climate system.
Roberto Fernandez Bilbao, who obtained his PhD in February 2017. His thesis is about ocean heat uptake and sea-level change.
Pietro Salvi, who obtained his PhD in 2023 from Imperial College London, supervised by Paulo Ceppi and me. His thesis is about adjustments and feedbacks for different radiative forcing agents.