Alison is a climate model developer and is adding water tracers, including stable water isotopes, to the UK Earth System Model (UKESM). Her current focus is developing the atmosphere and land components, in collaboration with the Met Office.

Water tracers are valuable diagnostic tools for understanding the hydrological cycle in a model.  For example, they can track water from where it evaporates at the surface, through the cloud and transport processes in the model, to where it eventually falls back to the surface as rain or snow.  Water isotopes are modelled by treating them as a special type of water tracer.  Simulations of water isotopes in climate models are especially useful for investigating conditions in past climates, as the modelled fields can be compared with measurements preserved in ice cores.

Alison joined British Antarctic Survey in 2021. Previously she worked at the Met Office, initially in the Polar Climate group (working on sea ice model development) before moving to the Ocean Forecasting group. Prior to this, she was a Senior Research Assistant at the University of Liverpool, which followed on from her PhD in Physical Oceanography at the same university.

ORCID profile – which includes publications pre-2024 which are not listed below.

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

1. Creating Standards for Climate Experiments

   Eco-ICE studies whether making Arctic sea ice thicker could harm ocean life and creates tools to help decision-makers work out if climate projects are safe.

   Read more of: Creating Standards for Climate Experiments

   

2. Adding water tracers to the UK Earth System Model

   The project adds water tracers, including stable isotopes, to the UK Earth system model (UKESM2). These tracers follow water through the model’s hydrological cycle.

   Read more of: Adding water tracers to the UK Earth System Model