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Amethyst Johnson

Profile

About me

I graduated from the University of Manchester in 2020, with a 1st class BSc in Environmental Science. During my degree, I gained an interest in atmospheric science through a severe convection research project with Professor David Schultz, which allowed me to develop my interest in meteorology. This project consisted of analysing 39 years worth of ERA-Interim reanalysis data to identify European tornado environment hotspots. My next project was my third year dissertation, working with Professor Thomas Choularton and Dr Karen Aplin (University of Bristol) estimating the charges on aerosols near the surface of Venus.

 

Conference appearances

  • The global distribution and interannual variability of severe convective storm environments (coauthor: David Schultz)
    • 2019 – Royal Meteorological Society Student & Early Career Scientists Conference
  • “Estimating the charges on aerosols near the surface of Venus” (coauthor: Karen Aplin)
    • 2019 – CTR Wilson Institute for Atmospheric Electricity annual meeting
    • 2020 – Royal Astronomical Society Planetary Atmospheres Meeting (mentioned in Fletcher, 2020. ‘Meeting report: There’s something in the air’, Astronomy & Geophysics, 61:3, pp. 3.20-3.25)
    • 2020 – Royal Meteorological Society Student & Early Career Scientists Conference
  • “Planetary aerosol electrification: Lessons learned from a terrestrial analogy for Venus” (coauthor: Karen Aplin)
  • “Investigating boundary layer processes in the Met Office Unified Model for Hurricane Maria (2017)” (supervisors: Juliane Schwendike, Andrew Ross, Adrian Lock, John Edwards)
    • 2021 – Royal Meteorological Society Student & Early Career Scientists Conference

 

Conference duties

  • RMetS Student & Early Career Scientist 2020 committee member; chair of the Dynamics oral session & photography competition
  • European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2021 student volunteer

 

Society memberships

  • Associate Fellow – Royal Meteorological Society
  • Member, Graduate Student – American Meteorological Society
  • Member – Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO)
  • Fellow – Royal Astronomical Society
  • Associate Member – European Astronomical Society

 

Society duties

  • 2018-2020: RMetS student ambassador for the University of Manchester
  • 2019-2020: American Meteorological Society beta website tester
  • 2020-2023: RMetS Board of Membership Development representative for students & early career scientists

Research interests

My current PhD project (as of October 2020) is titled ‘Investigating boundary layer processes in tropical cyclones in the Met Office Operational Forecasting Model’. The overarching aim is to evaluate how the model represents these processes. Where the model is perfoming well, we can use it to learn more about boundary layer dynamics. For example, we can see which theorised intensification and weakening paradigms we can find evidence for. On the other hand, where the model is not performing well we can identify, test and suggest implications of the limitations. This project is supervised by Juliane Schwendike and Andrew Ross at the University of Leeds; Adrian Lock and John Edwards of the Met Office; and Jeff Kepert of the Bureau of Meteorology.

Qualifications

  • BSc Environmental Science (1st class) - University of Manchester