Unearthing historic weather records to help predict our future climate
We are delighted to announce that the citizen science project, Operation Weather Rescue, will be running throughout British Science Week 2019.
The Operation Weather Rescue project is run by a team of UK meteorologists and climate scientists who are unearthing historic weather data to answer questions about our changing climate. Their project uses the tried and tested method of people power; drawing on invaluable help from members of the public by asking them to enter pieces of historical weather information into their online database.
UK's first Earth system model launched
A team of scientists led by the National Centre for Atmospheric Science have completed building the UK’s first Earth system model.
An Earth system model is a complex computer simulation of the earth, including its atmosphere, land, ice and oceans. Traditionally, computer models have focused on single aspects of the global climate, but new models are able to integrate multiple environmental factors.
By providing a representation of the planet that draws on all environmental science disciplines, the Earth system model developed by the UKESM project will transform the UK’s capacity for predicting future climate change.
Air pollution at gas well site rises despite lack of fracking
Air quality monitoring near the Kirby Misperton gas well, conducted by NCAS and BGS scientists, has found that although full fracking never took place, the preoperational part of the development led to some air pollutants increasing in the vicinity of the rural site to levels more commonly seen in a city.
Professor Ally Lewis, NCAS Director of Science and Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of York, explains that the cause was the large number of lorry movements needed to supply and maintain equipment, plus diesel generators and compressors.
Improving forecasts of high-impact weather in Africa
The GCRF African SWIFT programme aims to better understand weather systems over Africa, and to improve the forecasting of high impact weather events such as urban flooding or prolonged droughts.
This month sees SWIFT partners Kenyan Meteorological Department (KMD) host the first forecasting testbed (24-29 January 2019) - a way to bring together teams of SWIFT researchers and operational forecasters from East and West Africa and the UK to develop more accurate and timely weather forecasts for Africa.
The testbed will also provide support to the HyVic flight campaign over Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, using FAAM’s world-class research aircraft and expertise from SWIFT, NCAS, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the Ugandan National Meteorological Authority, and the HIGHWAY project.