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Michael Baidu

Michael Baidu

Profile

I am a PhD researcher funded by the GCRF SWIFT project and working on 'The Understanding and Prediction of High Impact Weather over West Africa' with Dr Juliane Schwendike, Dr John Marsham and Professor Douglas Parker.

I hold both BSc and MPhil degrees in Meteorology and Climate Science and a Postgraduate Diploma in Earth System Physics. I have also worked as a Teaching/ Research Assistant and a Graduate Assistant at the Kwame Nkrumah Univeristy of Science and Technology (KNUST) and a Research Scientist at the Research and Applied Meteorology Department of the Ghana Meteorological Agency.

Project Description

Deep convection in the tropics is the engine-room of the global climate. High impact weather (HIW) systems are often linked to waves in the mid-troposphere over West Africa; so called African easterly waves (AEWs). Despite their importance, these clouds remain very poorly predicted. The project aims to investigate the dynamics and predictability of these systems, which are called mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) or squall lines, over West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.

Project Objectives
The project seeks to address the following tasks and questions:

  • Identify and track squall lines in the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa.
  • How and why do the squall lines form over land and ocean?

How do numerical weather prediction models capture squall lines and can this be improved to provide longer- lead early warning times?

  • How does the diurnal cycle of solar heating and convection influence the squall line circulations and vortices?
  • Do the squall line vortices cause feedbacks with the African Easterly Jet (AEJ)?

Research interests

  • The variability of the West African Monsoon and it's teleconnections.
  • Tropical Atmospheric Circulations.

Qualifications

  • 2016-2017: PGDip (Earth System Physics), International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste-Italy
  • 2014-2016: MPhil (Meteorology and Climate Science), Kwame Nkrumah Univ. of Science & Tech., Ghana
  • 2009-2013: BSc (Meteorology and Climate Science), Kwame Nkrumah Univ. of Science & Tech., Ghana

Research groups and institutes

  • Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
  • Atmospheric and Cloud Dynamics