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Ashar Aslam

Ashar Aslam

Profile

I am a fourth year PhD student in the Atmospheric and Cloud Dynamics research group in the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, funded by the SENSE CDT.

I graduated with an MEarthSci Earth Sciences degree from the University of Oxford in 2021. My Master’s project used an energetics framework to understand and provide reasoning for deep convection biases in the Met Office convective-permitting climate simulation CP4-Africa, relative to its convective-parameterised counterpart R25-Africa, which had a pre-existing bias relative to observations. I began my PhD at Leeds in October 2021 – my thesis is entitled “Severe Weather over Southeast Asia”. My research is centred around the objective of improving our understanding of the multi-scale variability in extreme rainfall over the Maritime Continent (another name for the thousands of islands and shallow seas in Southeast Asia). In this project, I am:

  • Using a combination of satellite, radar and reanalysis data to better understand processes which influence patterns in extreme rainfall across the Maritime Continent.
  • Analysing the interactions between large-scale modes of variability (e.g. the Madden-Julian Oscillation, El Niño Southern Oscillation), the diurnal cycle and synoptic-scale processes using global and regional numerical weather models of varying complexity.
  • Evaluating the representation of finer-scale processes regulating precipitation patterns and development of convection over the Maritime Continent using high-resolution, sub-km model runs.

 

Research interests

  • Tropical meteorology and oceanography
  • Atmospheric and ocean physics
  • Climate patterns and teleconnections
  • Air-sea interactions

Teaching

  • SOEE2710: Data Analysis and Visualisation for Environmental Applications
  • SOEE3700: Practical Weather Forecasting
  • SOEE3701: Modelling Extreme Weather Events

Conference Presentations

  • EGU General Assembly 2023: Mid-Level Dry Air Intrusions over the southern Maritime Continent
  • Royal Meteorological Society Student & Early Career Scientists Conference 2022 (poster): The Influence of Mid-Level Dry Air Intrusions on Maritime Continent Rainfall
  • LGBTQ+ STEMinar 2022 (poster): Diagnosing the Moist Static Energy Budget of Tropical Depressions in the Mozambique Channel in a Convective-Permitting Climate Simulation

Outreach and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

  • SENSE EDI Champion (PhD Secondment, Jan-Mar 2023)
  • Pride in STEM Trustee (Dec 2022-September 2024)
  • SatSchool Module Assistant and External Communications Officer (Jan 2022-Nov 2023)
  • GAIA (Geoscience Access, Inclusion and Attainment) Outreach Assistant (Mar-May 2022)
  • STEM, LGBTQ+ and You 2022 Guest Speaker (‘From Geology and Confusion, to Meteorology and Inclusion: A Thank You’, Feb 2022)

Qualifications

  • MEarthSci Earth Sciences, University of Oxford

Research groups and institutes

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