My research at BAS seeks to understand how the current set of climate models used in climate change assessments simulates sea ice, and how this affects our future projections of climate change both within the polar regions and remotely. I am analysing output from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) used in the most recent IPCC asssessment (2013) to evaluate how different models simulate the dynamic and thermodynamic processes important to the evolution of sea ice concentration. I work closely with BAS colleagues in both the Polar Oceans team and Atmosphere, Ice and Climate teams. This research is funded under the NERC large grant “Real Projections – Robust projections of real world climate change” led by Mat Collins at the University of Exeter.

I completed an undergraduate degree in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, followed by an MSc in Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate at the University of Reading. With a particular interest in atmospheric dynamics, I pursued a PhD at the University of Reading Department of Meteorology. My thesis investigated the possible impacts of changes in sea ice cover on the midlatitude atmosphere, through idealised modelling experiments with imposed sea ice. I then undertook a short postdoc at the University of Edinburgh looking at impacts of climate change on Scotland in sectors such as building energy demand, before moving to the British Antarctic Survey to pursue research into the coupled climate system of the polar regions.

• Holmes, C. (2022). Sea Ice Area climatologies and 21st century change in the CMIP5 and CMIP6 multi-model ensembles (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/e67242f2-e9aa-4402-85a3-be42d13354af

1. Tracking Antarctica’s Ice Fluctuations

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2. Real Projections

   Real Projections focused on understanding the processes driving sea ice variability and change, combining observational data with climate model outputs to produce more robust projections of future Antarctic sea ice area under different greenhouse gas emission scenarios.

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1. Regional data highlights emerging climate change signals

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2. Record low Antarctic sea ice ‘extremely unlikely’ without climate change

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3. New Antarctic extremes ‘virtually certain’ as world warms

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4. The mystery of the missing Antarctic sea ice

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