What is the role of convective organisation on future extreme rainfall?
About the project or challenge area
Convection is a key process behind many of our extreme weather events, such as heavy downpours, thunderstorms, hail and lightning. The degree of convective organisation strongly impacts the distribution of rainfall and the risk of flooding, with high degrees of organisation often associated with more extreme rainfall. Understanding how convection and its organisation will change in the future with global warming is critical both for informing mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In this project, the student will apply novel metrics to quantify convective organisation in cutting-edge high-resolution convection-permitting climate simulations over the UK and South Africa, providing new insights into how convective storms may change with implications for flooding. Comparisons with observations and against more traditional coarser climate models will also be made to assess the added value of the high-resolution simulations.
This is a partner project proposed by the UK Met Office. The Met Office will provide support as follows: 1. Co-supervision of the student by Dr Will Keat and Professor Lizzie Kendon, from the high resolution climate modelling team 2. Providing access to the high-resolution climate model data 3. Hosting a visit to the Met Office during the MScR.
Why choose this project?
You will have the opportunity to work alongside scientists at the Met Office, analysing cutting-edge climate simulations. You will gain an understanding of convective processes and their role in organisation, and develop Python programming skills as you develop the analysis.
About you
Experience in programming with Python. An understanding of convection and its representation in numerical models would be beneficial.
How to apply
All students can apply using the button below, following the Admissions Statement (PDF, 188kB). Please note that this is an advertised project, which means you only have to complete Section A of the Research Statement.
This project is not funded, for further details please use this link.
Before applying, we recommend getting in touch with the project's supervisors. If you are interested in this project and would like to learn more about the research you will be undertaking, please use the contact details on this page.
Supervisor
Your supervisor for this project will be Dr Rachel James, School of Geographical Sciences. You can contact her at +44 117 928 9954 or email rachel.james@bristol.ac.uk.
Supervisor
Your co-supervisor for this project will be Professor Dann Mitchell in the School of Geographical Sciences. You can contact him at +44 117 954 5978 or email d.m.mitchell@bristol.ac.uk.
Find out more about your prospective research community
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