University of Bristol welcomes five Met Office Research Scientists as part of the new Met Office Academic Partnership

Image Credit: Federico Respini on Unsplash

In spring of 2020 the University of Bristol joined a prestigious alliance of the Met Office and six University Research Institutes that brings together expertise in weather and climate science. The exciting, new Bristol Met Office Academic Partnership (MOAP) is focussed on the theme of “weather and climate hazards for decision making.” The aim is to align research interests through combining the Met Office world-leading ability in weather forecasting and the hazard and impact modelling expertise we have at Bristol.

A core part of the MOAP is to embed Met Office expertise within the University and to develop cross-disciplinary research in our key theme areas. We are, therefore, delighted to announce five new part-time Joint Bristol - Met Office Faculty members of staff who began working with us at the beginning of April.

Our Joint MOAP Chair based at the Met Office, Professor Chris Hewitt commented:

"We were delighted to welcome the University of Bristol to the Met Office Academic Partnership last year, and are excited that there will be five new joint faculty positions for Met Office scientists to cement the collaboration with the University’s experts working on research topics of mutual interest."

The collaborative research will come under four interchangeable, themes:

Weather, climate and environmental hazards (e.g. volcanic hazards, heat waves, storms).
Impact and risk-based predictions.
Resilience to hazards and weather.
Climate services for making decisions.

The theme areas are co-led by eight University of Bristol researchers from Earth Sciences, Geographical Sciences and Civil Engineering and eight Met Office scientists. The new positions will work closely with the theme co-leads and have been strategically placed across the University Faculties to enhance collaboration and develop new research opportunities, particularly in the lead up to COP26.

University of Bristol-based MOAP Joint Chair, Dr Dann Mitchell says:

"We are really excited with the new joint faculty positions starting at Bristol. They represent the full spectrum of our partnership with the Met Office, from fundamental science for weather and climate hazards, to end user engagement. They will sit across three of our faculties and help solidify cross-disciplinary links between weather and climate, and the impacts on society, such as through health and hydrological modelling."

The Faculty of Science welcomes three of the appointments: Dr Lizzie Kendon, a Science Manager and Met Office Fellow looking at high impact weather events using very high-resolution climate models, Dr Matt Palmer who leads the team at the Met Office who research sea level and ocean heat content and Dr Joseph Daron a Science Manager for International Climate Services at the Met Office.

The Faculty of Engineering welcomes our fourth appointment Dr Fai Fung who is the UK Climate Projections Climate Services Manager.. Our fifth appointment, Dr Dan Bernie, is the Science Manager for the UK Climate Resilience Team at the Met Office and is welcomed by the Faculty of Health Sciences. With regular MOAP meetings underway and events such as the CMIP6 Data Hackathon now open for applications we are excited to begin working with our new colleagues to develop a strong, collaborative relationship between Bristol and the Met Office.

The new appointments will work closely with The Cabot Institute for the Environment, Jean Golding Institute and Elizabeth Blackwell Institute to deliver cutting-edge research in weather and climate science

For further enquiries about the MOAP we can be contacted at bris-moap-coordinator@bristol.ac.uk.

---------------------------------

This blog is written by Dr Emma Stone (Bristol MOAP Project Manager).

Emma’s role as MOAP project Manager, previously with a background in climate science, is to assist with and coordinate MOAP-related activities working alongside the MOAP Joint Chairs, Research Advisory Panel and theme co-leads to identify potential research opportunities between the University and the Met Office and see these through to development. Emma is a key point of contact for internal and external researchers, collaborators, funders and support staff.

Image at start of article credit: Federico Respini on Unsplash

Converting probabilities between time-intervals

This is the first in an irregular sequence of snippets about some of the slightly more technical aspects of uncertainty and risk assessment. If you have a slightly more technical question, then please email me and I will try to answer it with a snippet. Suppose that an event has a probability of 0.015 (or 1.5%) of happening at least once in the next five years. Then the probability of the event happening at least once in the next year is 0.015 / 5 = 0.003 (or 0.3%), and the probability of it happening at least once in the next 20 years is 0.015 * 4 = 0.06 (or 6%). Here is the rule for scaling probabilities to different time intervals: if both probabilities (the original one and the new one) are no larger than 0.1 (or 10%), then simply multiply the original probability by the ratio of the new time-interval to the original time-interval, to find the new probability. This rule is an approximation which breaks down if either of the probabilities is greater than 0.1. For example

1-in-200 year events

You often read or hear references to the ‘1-in-200 year event’, or ‘200-year event’, or ‘event with a return period of 200 years’. Other popular horizons are 1-in-30 years and 1-in-10,000 years. This term applies to hazards which can occur over a range of magnitudes, like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, space weather, and various hydro-meteorological hazards like floods, storms, hot or cold spells, and droughts. ‘1-in-200 years’ refers to a particular magnitude. In floods this might be represented as a contour on a map, showing an area that is inundated. If this contour is labelled as ‘1-in-200 years’ this means that the current rate of floods at least as large as this is 1/200 /yr, or 0.005 /yr. So if your house is inside the contour, there is currently a 0.005 (0.5%) chance of being flooded in the next year, and a 0.025 (2.5%) chance of being flooded in the next five years. The general definition is this: ‘1-in-200 year magnitude is x’ = ‘the current rate for eve

Coconuts and climate change

Before pursuing an MSc in Climate Change Science and Policy at the University of Bristol, I completed my undergraduate studies in Environmental Science at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. During my final year I carried out a research project that explored the impact of extreme weather events on coconut productivity across the three climatic zones of Sri Lanka. A few months ago, I managed to get a paper published and I thought it would be a good idea to share my findings on this platform. Climate change and crop productivity There has been a growing concern about the impact of extreme weather events on crop production across the globe, Sri Lanka being no exception. Coconut is becoming a rare commodity in the country, due to several reasons including the changing climate. The price hike in coconuts over the last few years is a good indication of how climate change is affecting coconut productivity across the country. Most coconut trees are no longer bearing fruits and thos

Cabot Institute for the Environment blog

Search This Blog