Overview

My research interests are mainly in meteorology, oceanography and climate, with a focus on the tropics.  These include research into fundamental processes through observational data analysis and numerical modelling.  A particular area of interest is the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). 

Current funded research projects

PROMS (Pacific Rainfall Over Millenial Scales). Co-I. Funded by Natural Environment Research Council. The aim of PROMS is to understand the behaviour of the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ; the main rainfall system in the tropical Pacific) over time scales from decadal to centennial and millenial, using atmospheric and climate models, and palaeo-data from sediments from lakes on Pacific islands.

TerraMaris. Lead PI. TerraMaris is a NERC-funded Large Grant, involving UK scientists at UEA, University of Leeds, University of Reading, the Met Office, National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS), and the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM), and Indonesian scientists at BMKG, LAPAN, and BPPT. The aims of TerraMaris are to observed, measure and model the key processes that govern the development of atmospheric convection and rainfall over the Maritime Continent (the islands and seas of Indonesian and surrounding countries, described as the engine room of the global climate system). TerraMaris has an upcoming field campaign, involving research aircraft, land-based meteorological sensors, and oceanographic observations using gliders, due to take place around the island of Java, Indonesia, from November 2021 to March 2022.

BoBBLE (Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment). Co-Lead Principal Investigator (PI), together with Prof. P. N. Vinayachandran of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. BoBBLE is a joint UK-India project funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK, and Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), India, as part of the Drivers of Variability in the South Asian Monsoon Programme. The aims of BoBBLE are to observe, model and understand the coupled ocean-atmosphere processes that impact on rainfall over India and South Asia during the monsoon. The BoBBLE field campaign took place in the Bay of Bengal during summer 2016, based on the Indian research ship R/V Sindhu Sadhana.

ELO (Equatorial Line Observations). Co-Lead PI together  with Dr Piotr Flatau of Scripps Institute of Oceanography, USA. ELO is a joint US-UK project funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, and NERC, UK. The aims of ELO are to observe, model and understand ocean-atmosphere processes that govern tropical weather systems such as the MJO and convectively coupled Kelvin waves. ELO has an upcoming field campaign based in Indonesia that is scheduled for January-May 2019.

Real projections (Robust spatial projections of real-world climate change). Co-investigator. Real projections is a NERC-funded project with University of Exeter, UEA and University of Reading. It will provide quantitative projections of the spatial patterns of future climate change for the real world, through statistical inference techniques combined with the output of climate models and observations.

FORTIS (Tropical Science and Forecaster Training). Co-Investigator (CoI). FORTIS is a Met Office-funded project, with scientists from University of Leeds, UEA, and University of Reading. It will deliver training by a series of workshops to forecasters in the following southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines.

FORSEA (Forecasting in SouthEast Asia). Principal Investigator (UEA). FORSEA is also a Met Office-funded project, with scientists from University of Leeds, UEA and University of Reading. It will deliver process-based evaluation of state-of-the-art high resolution forecasts over southeast Asia, to improve our understanding of weather processes in this region and to feed into improvements in model development and more accurate forecasts.

SCaRP (Simulating Catatstrophic Rainfall-triggered landslides and related sedimentation in the Philippines). Co-Investigator. SCaRP is a NERC and Newton Fund project to determine and quantify the interaction of meteorological drivers and preconditioning factors that lead to landslides and fluvial sedimentation in the Philippines, and to improve prediction of landslide hazards and downstream sedimentation.

• 1985-88. B.A. Natural Sciences (Physics and Theoretical Physics), University of Cambridge.
• 1988-89. M.Sc. Atmospheric Sciences, University of East Anglia. 
• 1990-93. Ph.D. Department of Meteorology, University of Reading.
• 1994-96. Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading.
• 1996-98. Research Scientist II, NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory/CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
• 1998-99. Research Fellow, Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
• 1999-present. Joint faculty position in School of Environmental Sciences and School of Mathematics, University of East Anglia (Lecturer, 1999; Senior Lecturer, 2004; Reader, 2008; Professor, 2015).

Tropical meteorology and oceanography and climate variability