Sara Bennie

Profile

I am a PhD student in the Physical Climate and Cryosphere and the Dynamics and Clouds research clusters. I am funded by the NERC Panorama DTP. My research project explores how external forcings (particularly anthropogenic forcings) influence global climate variability. Climate variability is often associated with extreme weather events and can mask or amplify changes in the mean climate. There has been extensive research of the mean climate response to anthropogenic forcings. What lacks understanding is how internal variability itself may change, and is changing, in response to anthropogenic forcings.

Throughout this project, I will utilise data from the Large Ensemble Single Forcing Model Intercomparison Project (LESFMIP) to cleanly separate internal variability from the forced response for various forcing scenarios. So far, my research has primarily focussed on the North Atlantic, investigating whether forced mean sea-level pressure responses project onto the leading modes of internal variability. Once this chapter is completed, I will then switch focus to internal variability itself, using Snapshot Empirical Orthogonal Functions (SEOFs) to study the evolution of the leading modes of internal variability in response to external forcings.

Alongside my project, I am a member of the Large Ensembles for Attribution of Dynamically-driven ExtRemes (LEADER) Working Group 3: Identifying the forced response of the Northern Hemispheric atmospheric circulation to greenhouse gases, aerosols, and ozone, and associated surface impacts on extremes.

Research interests

• Climate dynamics

• Climate change

• North Atlantic climate variability

• Seasonal to multi-decadal climate variability and prediction

• Climate prediction for adaptation

Qualifications

• BSc in Astrophysics (first-class) from the University of St Andrews (2023)