I am a fourth year PhD student in the Polar Climate and Prediction group working with Tom Bracegirdle, Emily Shuckburgh and Peter Haynes (DAMTP, University of Cambridge). I am also a member of the Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography research group in DAMTP. My project involves looking at the dynamical mechanisms that link Arctic sea-ice loss to mid-latitude weather and climate. I am particularly interested in the role that stratosphere-troposphere coupling may play in this link, and whether the link is sensitive to different regions or magnitudes of sea-ice loss, or the background state of the atmosphere and ocean.

Before coming to BAS I did an MSc in Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate at the University of Reading, and a BSc in Maths and Geography at the University of St Andrews. During these degrees I did a couple of projects in physical oceanography: one on water mass mixing in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, and another on the link between Rossby wave-breaking and mesoscale eddy diffusivity in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

McKenna, C.M., Bracegirdle, T.J., Shuckburgh, E.F., Haynes, P.H., and Joshi, M.M. (2017). Arctic sea-ice loss in different regions leads to contrasting Northern Hemisphere impacts. Geophysical Research Letters, 44. doi:10.1002/2017GL076433.

McKenna C., Berx, B., and Austin, W.E.N. (2016). The decomposition of the Faroe-Shetland Channel water masses using Parametric Optimum Multi-Parameter analysis. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 107, pp.9-21. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2015.10.013.

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

1. FEATURED PAPER: Sea-ice loss impacts Northern Hemisphere

   This study, led by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, suggests that sea-ice loss in different regions of the Arctic, and of different amounts, leads to different effects on surface […]

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