INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Focus on our partnerships - Met Office

& National Centre for Atmospheric

Science (NCAS)

ICAS In the Field

New Academic Research Fellows

Announcing our Prestigious Visitor

programme

Alan Blyth becomes affiliate of US

National Center for Atmospheric

Research

ICAS award winners

Staff:

Peggy Archtert – Research

Fellow

Sophie Cowie – Research Fellow

Ryan Neely – Lecturer in

Observational Atmospheric

Science associated with the

NCAS radar

ICAS Newsletter Issue 2 October 2014

Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science SCHOOL OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENT

www.see.leeds.ac.uk/research/icas/ Twitter@ICASLeeds

Students:

Mohammed Abed

Matt Clark

Oliver Halliday

Adriano Lemos

Marieanne Leong

Lauren Marshall

Michael O’Sullivan

Hannah Pearce

Yvonne Smith

Giorgio Taverna

Jesus Vergara Temprado

Geoffrey Bessardon

WELCOME TO NEW STAFF AND STUDENTS

FOCUS ON OUR PARTNERSHIPS: MET OFFICE

WELCOME TO RYAN NEELY

We are very pleased to welcome a new member of NCAS and ICAS.

Dr Ryan Neely joins us in the new position of Lecturer in Observational Atmospheric Science associated with the NCAS radar.

He was most recently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Advanced Study Program at NCAR, Boulder.

Ryan will contribute to the existing radar group led by Professor Chris Collier and will lead in new areas that are strategically important to NCAS and ICAS.

Ryan's research is geared towards understanding clouds and aerosol processes in the past, present and future climates. He has made significant contributions to the science of lidar instrumentation, Arctic cloud observations and global modelling.

He has recently been involved with a long-term observational programme to investigate clouds and tropospheric properties at Summit, Greenland that utilizes an array of active and passive remote sensing instruments.

The Met Office is

one of our most

important partners

in terms of the

impact of our

research, in

improving the UK’s

weather and climate prediction tools.

ICAS scientists have worked in

collaboration with the Met Office for

many years. Our formal Academic

Partnership was approved in 2010

and now coordinates a range of

research, teaching and staff

development activities.

The Met Office is one of the largest

and most influential national

meteorological services in the world,

with responsibility for providing

weather and climate guidance to the

UK, and globally. The economic

value to the UK economy of these

forecasts is valued in terms of billions

of pounds annually. Much of the

research conducted in ICAS

contributes directly to the

improvement of the models which are

at the heart of the Met Office’s

forecasting capability. Fundamental

“blue skies” research conducted in

ICAS, often bringing together field

measurements and theoretical

models, is used to challenge and

develop the forecast systems. Over

the years we have made significant

contributions to representations of

atmospheric dynamics, physics and

composition in the Met Office models.

The development of a dedicated

forecasting system for high winds at

airports emerged from our joint

programme of work. Recently, the

Leeds-developed GLOMAP model for

aerosol processes has been

integrated into the heart of the Met

Office modelling system, and will

therefore be a key part of the UK’s

prediction systems for climate and air

quality in the coming years.

At Leeds several joint positions have

been established, to develop and

advance various aspects of our joint

programme.

Doug Parker’s post is part-funded by

the Met Office, to coordinate our joint

activities;

Paul Field holds a jointly-funded

chair;

Simon Vosper is a Visiting

Professor;

Cathryn Birch is a Met Office

research scientist based in Leeds;

Ruth Lawford-Rolfe (Manager of

our Climate and Geohazard Services

hub) coordinates the application of

our research within the Met Office;

Steef Böing will join us in February

2015 to take a jointly-funded

fellowship.

Through these joint positions, ICAS

staff regularly advise on, and

contribute to the Met Office’s

strategic science programmes. In

addition to these established posts,

we have supported several staff

exchanges. A number of Met Office

scientists have spent time working in

Leeds with our research groups, as

part of their Continuing Professional

Development, leading to new

publications and research tools. The

Met Office Academic Partnership

(MOAP) also includes the

Universities of Reading, Exeter and

Oxford, with whom we have

developed some wider

collaborations, for instance a national

programme of research into

atmospheric convection.

The Academic Partnership

coordinates the joint provision of

training at postgraduate and

undergraduate levels. In particular,

we now have about 18 PhD CASE

studentships. The Met Office also

provides prizes for student

achievement, and Met Office staff

contribute to our taught programmes.

Within Leeds, the community of

research fellows and PhD students

who are formally collaborating with

the Met Office comprise a “Met Office

Group at the University of

Leeds” (MOGUL) which holds regular

science meetings and discussions.

Look out for future articles

highlighting joint ICAS-Met Office

projects

FOCUS ON OUR PARTNERSHIPS: NATIONAL CENTRE FOR ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE (NCAS)

The National Centre for Atmospheric

Science (NCAS) is the UK’s centre

for atmospheric science and carries

out research programmes in the

areas of;

• The science of climate change,

including modelling and predictions

• Atmospheric composition,

including air quality

• Weather, including hazardous

weather

• Technologies for observing

and modelling the atmosphere

NCAS is one of the Natural

Environment Research Council's

(NERC) research centres, providing

national capability in atmospheric

science research. The Centre

performs directed and multi-

disciplinary research, using state-of-

the-art technologies for observing

and modelling the atmosphere.

Additionally, NCAS provides scientific

facilities for scientists and

researchers across the UK to enable

excellent atmospheric science on a

national scale. These include a world

-leading research aircraft, ground-

based instrumentation, access to

computer models and facilities for

storing and accessing data.

NCAS is not based in one location, it

is a distributed centre made up three

science directorates (climate;

weather; atmospheric composition)

and four services and facilities

distributed across many UK

universities and related institutions.

The main administrative centre of

NCAS is at the University of Leeds.

The Operational Team of NCAS

are situated on the 11th floor of the

North building of SEE and include

Stephen Mobbs (Director) ,

Adrian Kybett (Head of Impact),

Chris Collier (Head of Strategic

Partnerships), James Groves (IT

manager), Nikki Barraclough

(Finance Manager), Ali Gane

(Administration Manager), Felicity

Perry (Communications Manager),

Dan Walker (IT and Database Co-

ordinator), Louise Whitehouse

(Training and Education Manager),

Liz Mylod (Administration

Assistant) and Tamsin Rounding

(Finance Assistant).

NCAS scientists within ICAS are

Alan Blyth (NCAS Director for

Weather Science),

Barbara Brooks (Head of the

Atmospheric Measurement

Facility), Alan Gadian (NCAS

Senior Scientist), WuHu Feng

(NCAS-Climate), Ralph Burton

(NCAS-Weather), Tor Smith

(NCAS-AMF), Kate Faloon (NCAS

-AMF), Lindsay Bennett (NCAS-

AMF), Graham Mann (NCAS-

Climate), Mark Carpenter (NCAS-

FAAM) and Ryan Neely (NCAS-

Weather).

NCAS also have a number of

scientists working in the School of

Chemistry at the University of

Leeds.

Look out for future articles

highlighting joint ICAS-NCAS

projects

A research team from ICAS participated in a three-month long research

cruise to study Arctic clouds over the Arctic Ocean. Prof Ian Brooks and post

-doctoral researcher Dominic Salisbury sailed on the Swedish icebreaker

Oden in early July for the first leg of the cruise from Tromsø, in northern

Norway, to Barrow, Alaska. At the half-way point in late August Ian and Dom

will swap places with Drs Barbara Brooks and John Prytherch, who will

undertake the return leg, ending up back in Tromsø in mid-October.

The climate of the Arctic is changing rapidly, warming at about twice the

global average rate. The dramatic reduction in the extent of summer sea ice

over the last decade is the most visible manifestation of this warming.

Climate model predictions are consistent with observed trends, but show

much greater variability in the Arctic than elsewhere in the world. A large

part of this uncertainty results from poor representation of Arctic clouds

within the models. Low level clouds are the single most important factor

controlling the surface energy budget over the Arctic Ocean, and hence the

amount of heat entering research.

The ACSE project aims to improve our understanding of the processes

controlling Arctic stratus clouds. ACSE is a collaboration between ICAS and

groups at the Meteorological Institute, University of Stockholm and

the University of Colorado/NOAA-CIRES, and follows a previous highly

productive collaboration by the same team on the ASCOS project – also

conducted on board the Oden in 2008. They have jointly installed a wide

array of measurement systems on the Oden.

ICAS IN THE FIELD: CAPE VERDE ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATORY

ALAN BLYTH: AFFILIATE OF US NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

Alan Blyth, Professor of

Atmospheric Science in ICAS and

Director of NCAS-Weather, has

been appointed affiliate scientist

at the US National Center for

Atmospheric Research, one of the

world’s leading scientific

institutions.

He will form part of their internationally recognised team, and contribute to NCAR research programmes dedicated to advancing knowledge and building capacity in the atmospheric and related sciences.

The appointment recognises his outstanding contributions to research on convective clouds, and will allow him to lead a programme of research on the dynamics, microphysics and electrification of deep continental convection.

Affiliate scientists are senior-level university and research community scientists who are appointed to carry out long-term, highly interactive, collaborative work with NCAR scientists. They are appointed for three year terms, visiting NCAR and receiving support for their research. Alan joins the 36 existing affiliate scientists from 17 different states and 11 countries at NCAR, including SEE’s Professor Paul Field (joint Met Office and ICAS).

Speaking about his appointment,

Alan said "This is an exciting

opportunity to collaborate with

some of the leaders in the field, to

use the excellent aircraft and radar

facilities at NCAR, and to

strengthen collaborations between

scientists in NCAS, ICAS, NCAR

and the Met Office."

The Oceanic Reactive Carbon:

Chemistry-Climate Interactions

(ORC3) project is led by ICAS’s

Steve Arnold, in collaboration with

Dominick Spracklen & Prof. Dwayne

Heard of the School of Chemistry at

Leeds and with Prof. Lucy Carpenter

and Prof. Ally Lewis at the University

of York.

The NERC project involves new

dedicated field observations at the

NCAS Cape Verde observatory, new

observations from the 2012 and

2013 Atlantic Meridional Transect

cruises, and process modelling and

global atmospheric chemistry

modelling studies.

The Leeds team have taken

measurements of glyoxal during two

intensive fieldwork campaigns (June-

July and August-September 2014).

These measurements will

complement long-term

measurements made at the

observatory all year round by

researchers from the University of

York, UK, the Max-Planck-Institut für

Biogeochemie, Jena, Germany, the

Leibniz-Institut für

Troposphärenforschung, Leipzig,

Germany, and the Instituto Nacional

de Meteorologia e Geofísica, São

Vicente.

ORC3 aims to understand the origin

of volatile organic carbon compounds

over the ocean, and the impact on

climate

ICAS IN THE FIELD: THE ARCTIC CLOUD SUMMER EXPERIMENT (ACSE)

ICAS IN THE FIELD: ONWARDS AND UPWARDS! ICAS SCIENTIST IN EXCITING NEW BBC SHOW

ICAS’s Jim McQuaid is among the

scientists who took to the skies in

the world’s largest airship for one

of the most ambitious

atmospheric experiments on

television.

In a new two-part show for BBC Two,

‘Operation Cloud Lab: Secrets of the

Skies’, Dr McQuaid, Associate

Professor of Atmospheric

Composition in ICAS, flew from coast

to coast across the USA aboard the

Skyship 600.

Dr McQuaid said: “The Cloud Lab

project was a once in a lifetime

experience and when I was asked to

put together the suite of instruments

to explain how the atmosphere

works, I jumped at the chance.”

During the shows, Dr McQuaid and

the rest of the team looked at the

relationship between life and

weather, explored the science that

controls the creation and destruction

of clouds, and examined a growing

cloud's internal structure. They also

shed light on how hurricanes develop

and why pollution has suppressed

hurricane activity in the Gulf of

Mexico.

The airship is ideal for exploring the

atmosphere because it can remain

stationary while the team watch

weather phenomena develop and

then move to get the best view.

It is also stable enough for the team

to conduct scientific experiments,

such as sampling air from different

regions (arid deserts, moist oceans

and polluted cities) while measuring

the properties of the clouds in an

attempt to understand which type

produces the most clouds.

“Because the airship flies so slowly

compared to the research aircraft

that we usually use for our research,

we could collect so many more

'measurements per miles’ than

usual,” said Dr McQuaid.

“What is great is that we will get

some new science from our

observations for this TV programme.

I am already working with US

research teams who are really keen

to get their hands on our unique

dataset.”

If you are inspired by the show and

want to learn more, you can read

about our undergraduate degrees

in Meteorology and Climate Science,

our Master’s degrees in Climate and

Atmospheric Science, and the world-

leading research carried out by

our Institute for Climate and

Atmospheric Science, including PhD

opportunities. New ICAS "Challenge

Seminars"

ICAS AWARD WINNERS

The European Meteorological Society (EMS) Young Scientist Award 2014 is awarded to

Cathryn Birch.

The award is given to individuals in recognition of excellent performance in terms of scientific publications or presentations during the early stage of their scientific career. John Marsham was a winner in 2010

Ken Carslaw is to be awarded the prestigious American Geophysical Union Atmospheric

Sciences Ascent Award.

Established in 2012, the Ascent Award is given annually to four exceptional, mid-career scientists in the atmospheric and climate sciences fields, who demonstrate excellence in research and leadership.

Ken was also awarded Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher 2014.

NEXT ISSUE

Profile of ICAS Laboratories

Introducing the new partner-

ship with Karlsruhe Institute of

Technology (KIT)

ICAS Outreach —

communicating ICAS science

to schools and the public

OUTSTANDING VISITOR PROGRAMME

The School of Earth and

Environment has an international

reputation for excellent research.

We wish to build on this by hosting

visiting academics recognised by

peers as academic leaders. This

may be demonstrated by, for

example, a sustained and

distinguished record of publication

of internationally excellent

research outputs; demonstrable

impact on leading researchers and

the research agenda within their

discipline; or strategic importance

regarding funding calls, impact or

knowledge transfer activity.

The School will host up to five

outstanding academic visitors per

academic year, who will normally

be expected to stay for between

two weeks and three months.

Longer visits are possible but

funding beyond 3 months will need

to be provided from other sources.

In return, the visiting academic

should be prepared to:

Contribute fully to the academic

life of the School;

Make at least one seminar

presentation and/or;

Develop joint papers for

publication and other research

outputs that can foster impact,

and/or contribute to the

development of research grant

proposals.

Opportunities to engage with

researchers from across their

Institute and beyond where

relevant;

The opportunity to continue their

engagement with the School by

applying for affiliate researcher

status.

Ruza Ivanovic:

Ruza, a NERC

Independent

Research Fellow,

uses general

circulation models

and isotope

geochemistry to

understand climate-ocean

interactions.

Primarily, her research investigates

mechanisms of past abrupt climate

change using versions of the UK Met

Office's Unified Model. For example,

one focus is on climate-ocean

interactions taking place around 21

to 14 thousand years ago.

Falling in the early last deglaciation,

this encompasses the duration of

Heinrich Stadial 1 (a period of

increased iceberg calving), and the

abrupt transition to the Bolling-

Allerod period, when Northern

Hemisphere temperatures are

thought to have warmed by as much

as 10 degrees C in just a few

decades.

Lindsay Lee:

Lindsay is a

statistician and

her research

interests are

using advanced

statistical methods to better

understand Earth science models

and the visualisation of statistical

results for scientific interpretation.

She joined ICAS in January 2010 to

work on the NERC funded AEROS

project and now works on the NERC

funded GASSP project.

Lindsay was awarded a prestigious

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship

in 2014 to pursue her career as a

statistician embedded in an

environmental research institute.

MEET THE ICAS TENURE TRACK FELLOWS

Tenure-track researcher positions

are a relatively new concept in

Leeds. These ICAS fellows,

appointed through a range of

schemes, have the opportunity of

becoming the leading academics

of the future.

Lauren Gregoire:

Lauren is an Earth-system modeller

interested in interactions between

climate ice and the carbon cycle in

the past, present

and future. She

was appointed to

a prestigious

Academic

Research

Fellowship in

2013.

Her current

research focusses on ice sheet and

climate processes involved in ice

sheet collapse and rapid sea level

rise. One of her projects aims at

modelling interactions between sea

level changes and marine ice sheet

instability.

Daniel Hill:

Daniel is a

climate and ice

sheet modeller,

who uses

computer models

to simulate Earth

system changes

over the last 50

million years.

He has just completed a Leverhulme

Early Career Fellowship and is a

member of NCAS Climate. Trained

as a physicist, he studies the working

of the Earth System. This includes

the climate, along with many of the

geological, glaciological and

biological processes that impact on

climate.

PROPOSAL SUCCESSES CLARIFY Project:

ICAS and NCAS were successful

with the NERC CLoud-Aerosol-

Radiation Interactions and Forcing

(CLARIFY) proposal, which aims to

clarify effects of aerosols on clouds.

Alan Blyth, Ken Carslaw and Paul

Field are part of the UK consortium

involving Exeter, Manchester, Oxford

and Reading to improve our under-

standing of how biomass burning

aerosols interact with clouds. There

will be a major field campaign off the

coast of Africa in 2016 and extensive

high-resolution regional and global

modelling to improve estimates of

radiative forcing.

Drivers of Variability in the South

Asian Monsoon research

programme:

ICAS academics are part of interna-

tional team looking at forecasting the

monsoon.

The £8 million project is aiming to

improve understanding of the pro-

cesses governing the South Asian

monsoon rains, and improve predic-

tions.

The monsoon last year caused ex-

tensive damage when it arrived earli-

er than expected damaging crops

and causing landslides washing

whole communities away.

The programme will observe the

Southern Asian monsoon using the

UK’s BAe-146 atmospheric research

aircraft and ocean gliders, and Indian

research ships. ICAS’s John Mar-

sham (water@leeds and NCAS) and

Doug Parker are among the team of

a 4-year project led jointly by India

and the UK.

John Marsham:

John is a

water@leeds

research fellow

within NCAS-

Weather. He

leads a research

group studying

atmospheric convection, tropical

meteorology and Saharan dust uplift.

His focus is on taking process

studies through to implications for

and improvements in weather and

climate models. "New modelling tools

are providing new opportunities to

address the long-standing problem of

improving predictions of monsoons.

We are very happy to be part of this

collaborative project, which should

deliver the science required to

improve predictions that will benefit

people across Asia"

Malcolm

McMillan:

Mal is a member

of the UK Centre

for Polar

Observation and

Modelling

(CPOM). His

research uses

satellite observations to study Earth's

polar regions, with a focus on the

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

He specialises in using the

techniques of radar altimetry and

interferometry to monitor current ice

sheet evolution, and to investigate

the mechanisms which drive ice

sheet change.

Alexandru Rap:

Alex studies the

way that aerosol

particles and

greenhouse

gases in the

atmosphere affect

the climate through radiation

changes. Alex’s current research

focuses on reducing uncertainty

through improving the level of

scientific understanding in key areas

of physical climate change and

atmospheric science, especially

climate forcing from aerosols and

non-CO2 greenhouse gases. He is

also interested in climate modelling

of aviation contrails. Also, he

previously worked on aerosol-cloud

parameterisations for Global Climate

Modelling and Boundary Element

methods for inverse problems.

Anja Schmidt:

Anja was

appointed to a

prestigious

Academic

Research

Fellowship in

2013. She combines expertise in

atmospheric science and volcanology

to advance the current understanding

of volcanic impacts and hazards. She

is investigating the impact of

volcanism on atmospheric chemistry,

climate, air quality, human health,

ecosystems and civil aviation using a

wide range of atmospheric models

and volcanological datasets.

Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science

School of Earth and Environment

Institute Director, Professor Ken Carslaw

Earth and Environment Building

Leeds LS2 9JT, UK