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 am the PI of the Couplet project, funded by an advanced grant from
the ERC, on transient climate change in the coupled atmosphere–ocean
system.
- 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 am coordinating a subproject (FAFMIP) of the current 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. I was the PI of a
recently concluded project (UKFAFMIP) funded by a NERC standard grant concerned
with the magnitude, patterns and mechanisms of sea level change and heat uptake
in response to atmospheric forcing. I was a co-investigator of the recently
concluded project (TICTOC) funded by a NERC large grant on the investigation of
ocean temperature and circulation change in observations and models using
passive tracers.
- 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, and in the ice-sheet subproject
(ISMIP6) of the current phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project.
I am a co-investigator in a project led by Robin Smith
funded by a NERC standard grant on modelling past changes in the ice-sheets
in order to constrain projections of the future
using FAMOUS and UKESM coupled to the BISICLES ice-sheet model.
- Development of the FAMOUS Earth
system model. Robin Smith is the manager of FAMOUS.
IT interests and projects
- 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. His work on this is partly supported by
the ERC Couplet, partly by
NCAS-CMS.
Responsibilities
- Line manager for Robin
Smith, who is a research scientist, the manager of the FAMOUS model,
and the member of the UKESM core team
responsible for ice-sheet modelling.
- Line manager for Till
Kuhlbrodt, who is a research scientist and the member of the UKESM core
team responsible for the low-resolution configuration.
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the
Max Planck Institute
for Meteorology.
- Chair of the conventions and standard name committees and member of the
governance panel of the CF metadata convention.
- Participant in the quarterly Met IT research strategy meeting.
Postdoctoral staff
Former PhD students
- 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.
Jonathan Gregory