Tony Phillips, Author at British Antarctic Survey

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Tony Phillips

Climate Model Data and Analysis Software Manager

I look after sets of climate model, observational and meteorological reanalysis data for the Polar climate variability research group, and maintain a suite of analysis and visualisation software for the group’s researchers.

I have well over two decades of experience in computer systems and software development, but originally came from a science background with a BSc in Physics. This role lets me combine my enthusiasm for science and the environment with my practical computing experience.

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

2026

Gumber, Siddharth . Orr, Andrew . Field, Paul. Covi, Federico. Pritchard, Hamish D. . Deb, Pranab. Girona-Mata, Marc. Phillips, Tony . Potter, Emily. Thakur, Chandni. Widmann, Martin. (2026) Using novel lake-based snowfall measurements from sites in the Alps, Himalayas, and Rockies to evaluate snowfall estimates from atmospheric simulations using the high-resolution regional UK Met Office Unified Model.

Avilés-Podgurski, Luisa E. . Martineau, Patrick . Lu, Hua . Yamamoto, Ayako . Maycock, Amanda C. . Orr, Andrew . Phillips, Tony . Bracegirdle, Thomas . Hogg, Anna E. Muszynski, Grzegorz. Fleming, Andrew . (2026) Impact, drivers and pathways of two Arctic atmospheric rivers in April 2020.

2025

Gilbert, Ella . Torres-Alavez, José Abraham. Hofsteenge, Marte G. . van de Berg, Willem Jan . Boberg, Fredrik. Christensen, Ole Bøssing . van Dalum, Christiaan Timo . Fettweis, Xavier . Gumber, Siddharth . Hansen, Nicolaj . Kittel, Christoph . Lambin, Clara. Maure, Damien. Mottram, Ruth . Olesen, Martin. Orr, Andrew . Phillips, Tony . van Tiggelen, Maurice . Verro, Kristiina . Mooney, Priscilla A. . (2025) The PolarRES dataset: a state-of-the-art regional climate model ensemble for understanding Antarctic climate.

Pearson, Emma J. Juggins, Steve. Allbrook, Harry. Foster, Louise C. Hodgson, Dominic A. . Naafs, B. David A. Phillips, Tony . Roberts, Stephen . (2025) Development of new global lake brGDGT-temperature calibrations: advances, applications, challenges, and recommendations.

Girona-Mata, Marc . Orr, Andrew . Widmann, Martin . Bannister, Daniel . Dars, Ghulam Hussain . Hosking, Scott . Norris, Jesse. Ocio, David . Phillips, Tony . Steiner, Jakob . Turner, Richard E. (2025) Probabilistic precipitation downscaling for ungauged mountain sites: a pilot study for the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

2024

Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Caton Harrison, Thomas . Holmes, Caroline R. . Lu, Hua . Martineau, Patrick. Phillips, Tony . (2024) Antarctic extreme seasons under 20th and 21st century climate change.

Jena, Babula. Turner, John . Reeves-Francois, Tylei. Bajish, C. C. Holmes, Caroline . Caton Harrison, Thomas . Phillips, Tony . Wang, Zhaomin. (2024) Occurrence of an unusual extensive ice-free feature within the pack ice of the central Weddell Sea, Antarctica.

2023

Clark, M.S. . Hoffman, J.I. Peck, L.S. . Bargelloni, L. Gande, D. Havermans, C. Meyer, B. Patarnello, T. Phillips, T. . Stoof-Leichsenring, K.R. Vendrami, D.L.J. Beck, A. Collins, G. Friedrich, M.W. Halanych, K.M. Masello, J.F. Nagel, R. Norén, K. Printzen, C. Ruiz, M.B. Wohlrab, S. Becker, B. Dumack, K. Ghaderiardakani, F. Glaser, K. Heesch, S. Held, C. John, U. Karsten, U. Kempf, S. Lucassen, M. Paijmans, A. Schimani, K. Wallberg, A. Wunder, L.C. Mock, T. (2023) Multi-omics for studying and understanding polar life.

Lu, Hua . Colwell, Steve. King, John . Orr, Andrew . Phillips, Tony . Dobb, Emilia. Xue, Jonathan. Kucieba, Sabina. Phillips, Guy. Marshall, Gareth . (2023) Temperature variation in the South Orkney Islands, maritime Antarctic.

Hansen, Nicolaj. Orr, Andrew . Zou, Xun. Boberg, Fredrik. Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Gilbert, Ella . Langen, Peter L. Lazzara, Matthew A. Mottram, Ruth. Phillips, Tony . Price, Ruth . Simonsen, Sebastian B. Webster, Stuart. (2023) The importance of cloud properties when assessing surface melting in an offline-coupled firn model over Ross Ice shelf, West Antarctica.

Lu, Hua . Orr, Andrew . King, John C. . Phillips, Tony . Gilbert, Ella . Colwell, Steve R. Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . (2023) Extreme warm events in the South Orkney Islands, Southern Ocean: Compounding influence of atmospheric rivers and föhn conditions.

Orr, Andrew . Deb, Pranab. Clem, Kyle R. Gilbert, Ella . Bromwich, David H. Boberg, Fredrik. Colwell, Steve. Hansen, Nicolaj. Lazzara, Matthew A. Mooney, Priscilla A. Mottram, Ruth. Niwano, Masashi. Phillips, Tony . Pishniak, Denys. Reijmer, Carleen H. van de Berg, Willem Jan. Webster, Stuart. Zou, Xun. (2023) Characteristics of surface “melt potential” over Antarctic ice shelves based on regional atmospheric model simulations of summer air temperature extremes from 1979/80 to 2018/19.

2022

King, John C. . Marshall, Gareth J. . Colwell, Steve. Arndt, Stefanie. Allen-Sader, Clare. Phillips, Tony . (2022) The performance of the ERA-Interim and ERA5 atmospheric reanalyses over Weddell Sea pack ice.

Turner, John . Holmes, Caroline . Caton Harrison, Thomas . Phillips, Tony . Jena, Babula. Reeves-Francois, Tylei. Fogt, Ryan. Thomas, Elizabeth R. . Bajish, C.C. (2022) Record low Antarctic sea ice cover in February 2022.

Turner, John . Lu, Hua . King, John C. . Carpentier, Scott. Lazzara, Matthew. Phillips, Tony . Wille, Jonathan. (2022) An extreme high temperature event in coastal East Antarctica associated with an atmospheric river and record summer downslope winds.

2021

Mottram, R. Hansen, N. Kittel, C. Melchior van Wessem, J. Agosta, C. Amory, C. Boberg, F. Jan van de Berg, W. Fettweis, X. Gossart, A. van Lipzig, N.P.M. van Meijgaard, E. Orr, A. . Phillips, T. . Webster, S. Simonsen, S.B. Souverijns, N. (2021) What is the surface mass balance of Antarctica? An intercomparison of regional climate model estimates..

Andersson, Tom R. . Hosking, J. Scott . Pérez-Ortiz, María. Paige, Brooks. Elliott, Andrew. Russell, Chris. Law, Stephen. Jones, Daniel C. . Wilkinson, Jeremy . Phillips, Tony . Byrne, James . Tietsche, Steffen. Sarojini, Beena Balan. Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, Eduardo. Aksenov, Yevgeny . Downie, Rod. Shuckburgh, Emily . (2021) Seasonal Arctic sea ice forecasting with probabilistic deep learning.

Orr, Andrew . Kirchgaessner, Amélie . King, John . Phillips, Tony . Gilbert, Ella. Elvidge, Andrew. Weeks, Mark. Gadian, Alan. Kuipers Munneke, Peter. van den Broeke, Michiel. Webster, Stuart. McGrath, Daniel. (2021) Comparison of kilometre and sub‐kilometre scale simulations of a foehn wind event over the Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula using the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM).

King, John C. . Turner, John . Colwell, Steve. Lu, Hua . Orr, Andrew . Phillips, Tony . Hosking, J. Scott . Marshall, Gareth J. . (2021) Inhomogeneity of the surface air temperature record from Halley, Antarctica.

Turner, John . Lu, Hua . King, John . Marshall, Gareth J. . Phillips, Tony . Bannister, Dan . Colwell, Steve. (2021) Extreme temperatures in the Antarctic.

2020

Inoue, Jun. Sato, Kazutoshi. Rinke, Annette. Cassano, John J. Fettweis, Xavier. Heinemann, Günther. Matthes, Heidrun. Orr, Andrew . Phillips, Tony . Seefeldt, Mark. Solomon, Amy. Webster, Stuart. (2020) Clouds and radiation processes in regional climate models evaluated using observations over the ice‐free Arctic Ocean.

Turner, John . Guarino, Maria Vittoria . Arnatt, Jack. Jena, Babula. Marshall, Gareth J. . Phillips, Tony . Bajish, C.C. Clem, Kyle. Wang, Zhaomin. Andersson, Tom . Murphy, Eugene J. . Cavanagh, Rachel . (2020) Recent decrease of summer sea ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica.

Sedlar, Joseph. Tjernström, Michael. Rinke, Annette. Orr, Andrew. Cassano, John. Fettweis, Xavier. Heinemann, Günther. Seefeldt, Mark. Solomon, Amy. Matthes, Heidrun. Phillips, Tony . Webster, Stuart. (2020) Confronting Arctic Troposphere, Clouds, and Surface Energy Budget Representations in Regional Climate Models With Observations.

Bannister, Daniel. Orr, Andrew . Jain, Sanjay K. Holman, Ian P. Momblanch, Andrea. Phillips, Tony . Adeloye, Adebayo J. Snapir, Boris. Waine, Toby W. Hosking, Scott . Allen-Sader, Clare. (2020) Bias correction of high-resolution regional climate model precipitation output gives the best estimates of precipitation in Himalayan catchments.

2019

Turner, John . Marshall, Gareth . Clem, Kyle. Colwell, Steve. Phillips, Tony . Lu, Hua . (2019) Antarctic temperature variability and change from station data.

Turner, John . Phillips, Tony . Thamban, Meloth. Rahaman, Waliur. Marshall, Gareth . Wille, Jonathan. Favier, Vincent. Winton, Holly . Thomas, Elizabeth . Wang, Zhaomin. van den Broeke, Michiel. Hosking, Scott . Lachlan-Cope, Thomas . (2019) The dominant role of extreme precipitation events in Antarctic snowfall variability.

2018

Hosking, J. Scott . MacLeod, D. Phillips, T. . Holmes, C.R. . Watson, P. Shuckburgh, E.F. . Mitchell, D. (2018) Changes in European wind energy generation potential within a 1.5°C warmer world.

Klein, Emily S. Hill, Simeon L. . Hinke, Jefferson T. Phillips, Tony . Watters, George M. (2018) Impacts of rising sea temperatures on krill increase risks for predators in the Scotia Sea.

2017

Hosking, J. Scott . Fogt, Ryan. Thomas, Elizabeth R. . Moosavi, Vahid. Phillips, Tony . Coggins, Jack. Reusch, David. (2017) Accumulation in coastal West Antarctic ice core records and the role of cyclone activity.

Turner, John . Phillips, Tony . Marshall, Gareth J. . Hosking, J. Scott . Pope, James O. . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Deb, Pranab. (2017) Unprecedented springtime retreat of Antarctic sea ice in 2016.

Pope, James O. . Holland, Paul R. . Orr, Andrew . Marshall, Gareth J. . Phillips, Tony . (2017) The impacts of El Niño on the observed sea ice budget of West Antarctica.

2016

Turner, John . Hosking, J. Scott . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Phillips, Tony . Marshall, Gareth J. . (2016) Variability and trends in the Southern Hemisphere high latitude, quasi-stationary planetary waves.

Turner, John . Lu, Hua . White, Ian. King, John C. . Phillips, Tony . Hosking, J. Scott . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Marshall, Gareth J. . Mulvaney, Robert . Deb, Pranab. (2016) Absence of 21st century warming on Antarctic Peninsula consistent with natural variability.

Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Stephenson, David B. Turner, John . Phillips, Tony . (2016) The importance of sea ice area biases in 21st century multimodel projections of Antarctic temperature and precipitation.

Deb, Pranab. Orr, Andrew . Hosking, J. Scott . Phillips, Tony . Turner, John . Bannister, Daniel. Pope, James O. . Colwell, Steve. (2016) An assessment of the Polar Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model representation of near-surface meteorological variables over West Antarctica.

White, Ian P. Lu, Hua . Mitchell, Nicholas J. Phillips, Tony . (2016) Dynamical Response to the QBO in the Northern Winter Stratosphere: Signatures in Wave Forcing and Eddy Fluxes of Potential Vorticity.

2015

Turner, John . Hosking, J. Scott . Marshall, Gareth J. . Phillips, Tony . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . (2015) Antarctic sea ice increase consistent with intrinsic variability of the Amundsen Sea Low.

Turner, John . Hosking, J. Scott . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Marshall, Gareth J. . Phillips, Tony . (2015) Recent changes in Antarctic sea ice.

2014

Lu, Hua . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Phillips, Tony . Turner, John . (2014) A comparative study of wave forcing derived from the ERA-40 and ERA-interim reanalysis data sets.

Hosking, J. Scott . Bannister, Daniel. Orr, Andrew . King, John . Young, Emma . Phillips, Tony . (2014) Orographic disturbances of surface winds over the shelf waters adjacent to South Georgia.

Lu, Hua . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Phillips, Tony . Bushell, Andrew. Gray, Lesley. (2014) Mechanisms for the Holton-Tan relationship and its decadal variation.

Orr, Andrew . Phillips, Tony . Webster, Stuart. Elvidge, Andy. Weeks, Mark. Hosking, Scott . Turner, John . (2014) Met Office unified model high resolution simulations of a strong wind event in Antarctica.

Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Turner, John . Hosking, J. Scott . Phillips, Tony . (2014) Sources of uncertainty in projections of 21st century westerly wind changes over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, in CMIP5 climate models.

2013

Turner, John . Hosking, J. Scott . Phillips, Tony . Marshall, Gareth J. . (2013) Temporal and spatial evolution of the Antarctic sea ice prior to the September 2012 record maximum extent.

Hosking, J. Scott . Orr, Andrew . Marshall, Gareth J. . Turner, John . Phillips, Tony . (2013) The influence of the Amundsen–Bellingshausen Seas low on the climate of West Antarctica and its representation in coupled climate model simulations.

Hill, Simeon L. . Phillips, Tony . Atkinson, Angus. (2013) Potential climate change effects on the habitat of Antarctic krill in the Weddell Quadrant of the Southern Ocean.

Turner, John . Phillips, Tony . Hosking, J. Scott . Marshall, Gareth J. . Orr, Andrew . (2013) The Amundsen Sea low.

Lu, Hua . Franzke, Christian. Martius, Olivia. Jarvis, Martin. Phillips, Tony . (2013) Solar wind dynamic pressure effect on planetary wave propagation and synoptic-scale Rossby Wave Breaking.

Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Shuckburgh, Emily . Sallee, Jean-Baptiste. Wang, Zhaomin. Meijers, Andrew J.S. . Bruneau, Nicolas. Phillips, Tony . Wilcox, Laura J. (2013) Assessment of surface winds over the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean sectors of the Southern Ocean in CMIP5 models: historical bias, forcing response, and state dependence.

Turner, John . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Phillips, Tony . Marshall, Gareth J. . Hosking, J. Scott . (2013) An initial assessment of Antarctic Sea ice extent in the CMIP5 models.

Turner, John . Maksym, Ted. Phillips, Tony . Marshall, Gareth J. . Meredith, Michael P. . (2013) The impact of changes in sea ice advance on the large winter warming on the western Antarctic Peninsula.

2012

Orr, Andrew . Bracegirdle, Thomas J. . Hosking, J. Scott . Jung, Thomas. Haigh, Joanna D. Phillips, Tony . Feng, Wuhu. (2012) Possible dynamical mechanisms for Southern Hemisphere climate change due to the ozone hole.

2010

Turner, John . Chenoli, Sheeba Nettukandy. abu Samah, Azizan. Marshall, Gareth . Phillips, Tony . Orr, Andrew . (2010) Strong wind events in the Antarctic.

Turner, John . Anderson, Philip. Lachlan-Cope, Thomas . Colwell, Steve. Phillips, Tony . Kirchgaessner, Amélie . Marshall, Gareth J. . King, John C. . Bracegirdle, Tom . Vaughan, David G. . Lagun, Victor. Orr, Andrew . (2010) Record low surface air temperature at Vostok Station, Antarctica.

Orr, A., & Phillips, T. (2023). MetUM high-resolution simulations of extreme warm temperature events over South Orkney Islands from 1 to 17 January 1991 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/0b011472-c766-4190-8718-8cf4be95daa6
Colwell, S., & Lu, H. (2023). Continuous Subdaily Meteorological Records at Signy Station, the South Orkney Islands 1947 – 1994 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/d74b142c-7981-4a6a-9321-cf904a5668e6
Orr, A., Boberg, F., & Phillips, T. (2022). MetUM and HIRHAM5 simulations of summer near-surface temperatures over Antarctica from 1979 to 2019 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/05f8bd4b-97b1-43d0-a1c6-66aea7021aaf
Orr, A., & Phillips, T. (2021). Kilometre and sub-kilometre scale atmosphere-only model simulations using the Met Office Unified Model of a foehn wind event over the Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula on 27 January 2011 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c5cc491e-7119-4500-b05a-e5e34274438f
Andersson, T., & Hosking, J. (2021). Forecasts, neural networks, and results from the paper: ‘Seasonal Arctic sea ice forecasting with probabilistic deep learning’ (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/71820e7d-c628-4e32-969f-464b7efb187c
Orr, A., & Phillips, T. (2021). Fine-scale atmosphere-only model simulation of near-surface temperature and wind from a reanalysis-driven Met Office Unified Model simulation of the Brunt Ice Shelf for the year 2015 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/20f3bf27-bf33-4c21-8164-005667b2ddb8
Phillips, T. (2020). Cyclone tracks for the region south of 60S for 1979 – 2018 derived from 6-hourly ERA-Interim reanalysis mean sea level pressure (MSLP) fields (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/d3b5d87d-c882-4fed-9d47-14c73be43bca
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
van de Berg, W., van Wessem, M., van de Broeke, M., Turner, J., & Phillips, T. (2019). Antarctic daily precipitation amounts for January 1979 – July 2017 from the RACMO version 3p2 limited area atmospheric model, along with flags that indicate extreme precipitation events (Version 1) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/bbf12a6f-7d97-4951-9bd1-e4224e2abac9
Deb, P., Orr, A., & Turner, J. (2018). Polar Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulation of West Antarctic climate, summer 1980-2015 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK. https://doi.org/10.5285/9536f22e-37dd-4f37-948b-e19c70e15292

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Atmosphere, Ice and Climate team

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