My work focuses on using regional climate model simulations to perform research into the dynamics of cold and mountainous climate systems (e.g. Antarctica, the Himalaya) to address current and future challenges related to weather and climate variability and change.

Current research

Ice Shelves in a warming world: Filchner Ice Shelf System (FISS)

To be able to improve both modelling of the Antarctic and our understanding of future climate change in this region, it is essential to better understand the near-surface processes and to improve their parameterization in atmospheric models. The objective of this project is to identify meteorological conditions, variables, and processes most liable for large model errors. In order to do this, a combination of observations (e.g. buoys, weather station data) and model simulations (e.g. the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model) are used to better understand these challenges in the Weddell Sea region of Antarctica. This research will help inform targeted future observational campaigns and highlight the improvements required in climate model parameterizations.

Sustaining Himalayan Water Resources in a Changing Climate (SusHi-Wat)

In this project, we are investigating how water is stored in, and moves through, a Himalayan river system (the inter-linked Beas and Sutjej catchments) in northern India at daily to decadal timescales. A combination of state-of-the-art modelling, field studies, satellite-based remote sensing and observation will be developed to improve the process-based understanding of Himalayan water resources availability and quality. The resulting insights will be used to develop and test a robust model of the whole system that can be used to inform current and future decision making to support the sustainable development and management of the region’s water resources.

At BAS, I am using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to dynamically downscale reanalysis data to high spatial resolution over the data-sparse Himalayas in order to provide sufficiently detailed precipitation output for driving a hydrological model. The aims of this project are to: (a) evaluate the model’s ability to simulate precipitation at annual, monthly, and daily timescales in comparison to observations; (b) compare the spatiotemporal characteristics of mean and extreme precipitation between bias corrected modelled precipitation with gridded precipitation datasets; and (c) identify regions potentially susceptible to future changes in precipitation.

Previous research

Previously, I had a secondment to the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge to take part in the LoHCool (Low Carbon Climate-Responsive Heating and Cooling of Cities) project. The aim of this project was to identify future climate scenarios from the CMIP5 repository for further downscaling analysis to predict future mean and extreme temperature events for the the Sichaun basin, China. The Sichuan basin is one of the most densely populated regions of China. Along with insufficient arable land and economic underdevelopments, this region is particularly vulnerable to climate-related stresses. Improving the predictability of extreme temperatures over the Sichuan basin is important due to the profound implications of climate change on internal heating and cooling loads in the ever-expanding urban regions. Findings from this research will help provide guidance for future climate projections in further research which focuses on urban planning and design based on thermal comfort conditions in the Sichuan basin.

Research background

• BSc (Hons) Geography – Department of Geography – University of Portsmouth
  • Dissertation: “‘Globála Liegganeapmi’: Global Warming and Environmental Change through the Eyes of Indigenous Arctic Sámi”
• MSc Atmospheric Sciences – School of Environmental Sciences – University of East Anglia
  • Dissertation: “The Influence of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) on the Maintenance of a Polar Low”
• PhD – British Antarctic Survey & University of East Anglia
  • Thesis: “Investigating the role of orographic processes in controlling the climate of South Georgia”

Research interests

Mountain meteorology, orographic flows, precipitation, polar meteorology, glacier melt, surface fluxes, Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations

• Bannister, D., Orr, A., & Phillips, T. (2019). Model-simulated and bias-corrected daily total precipitation from a reanalysis-driven Weather Research and Forecasting simulation of the Beas and Sutlej river basins in the Himalaya, 1980 to 2012 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/74fab393-2718-4bdb-b229-190ae72a9fe1

• Ice Shelves in a warming world: Filchner Ice Shelf System (FISS)
• Sustaining Himalayan Water Resources in a Changing Climate (SusHi-Wat)
• Low Carbon Climate-Responsive Heating and Cooling of Cities (LoHCool)