cc: j.palutikof@uea.ac.uk
date: Wed Oct 25 15:12:03 2000
from: Phil Jones
subject: Revisions to your text about Climate Science
to: Tim Jickells
Tim,
I had a brief chat with Jean about this before she went. Our changes
to the text are in the rest of this email.
Cheers
Phil
At 11:39 AM 10/23/00 +0100, you wrote:
Climate Science
Primary Category A Staff
Briffa, Chapman, Hulme, Jones, Kelly, Palutikof, Wigley
Other Staff in the School Contributing to Climate Science but returned in a different group T. Atkinson, J. Andrews, G. Bigg, T. Davies, K.Heywood, A. Matthews, M.Parry
Climate Science in the School is closely linked to Atmospheric Sciences and GeoSciences but permeates all parts of the School as the impacts of climate change on the earth system become a major focus for research activity. The core of this group is the world renowned Climatic Research Unit and ranges from reconstruction of past climates through to prediction of future climates. The new Tyndall Centre will further extend this research to consider strategies to minimise the impact of climate change on the UK.
The Climatic Research Unit undertakes pioneering research on the nature, predictability and impact of natural and anthropogenic climate change, maintaining a position as a world authority in the field. Five lead authors for the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are drawn from the unit. The global land and marine surface temperature record maintained by the Unit is used extensively in climate change studies. The work of Jones and co-workers with this record can justifiably be claimed to have been central to the acceptance that humans are having a significant impact on climate. Jones has also been involved with many of the climate change detection exercises which have attempted to attribute recent changes to human influences.
The work of Hulme has focussed on climate model validation, the development of climate change scenarios as well as considering responses to the predicted changes. This has lead to his appointment as Executive Director of the new Tyndall Centre. Palutikof has led the work of the unit on climate change impacts, particularly related to the global change, and the development and analysis of regional climate change scenarios. She has worked extensively on the application of comparing model climate information to economic and planning issues, and is internationally known for her work on wind climatologies for the insurance and energy industries. Kelly has specialised in the nature and cause of instrumental climate change, including the effects of volcanic activity, deforestation and global change. He is also involved in interdisciplinary studies with social scientists on vulnerability to climate change and adaptation, most notably in Vietnam with Adger, who is being submitted within the Social Science Group. Wigley led the Climate Research Unit from 1978-1993. Since then he has held a part time post in the School while also being Director of the Office for Interdisciplinary Earth Science at NCAR/UCAR Boulder Colorado. His own research has focused on the detection of climate change and now includes assessments of strategies to minimise its impact.
Briffa is a world leader in research using records from tree rings to infer climate change throughout the Holocene thereby enhance our understanding of natural climate variability. Working with Jones, recent studies are begining to rewrite the way the last thousand years is perceived by paleoclimatologists. Chapman is a new member of faculty. His work also focuses on palaeo-reconstruction, in particular of sea surface temperature and salinity using marine microfossil data. In addition he works on the evaluation of high resolution stratigraphy methods and on the dynamics of modern planktonic populations and the controls on their geochemistry and isotopic composition.
Tim Jickells
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ UK
tel UK 1603 593117
fax 1603 507719