Dr Julia Crook

Profile

Since January 2024 I am a member of the Centre for Environmental Modelling and Computation (CEMAC).

Previously I was a Research Fellow within the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science. I worked with Juliane Schwendike on rainfall in South East Asia from synoptic scale Borneo vortices and tracked  Mesoscale Convective Systems, largely using reanalysis data, understanding the role of the MJO and equatorial waves on the properties of these features (FORSEA and SPISEA). Previously I analysed the representation of Tropical Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal in a convection-permitting coupled model (CASPER).

I have also worked with Doug Parker (Leeds) and Chris Taylor (CEH) looking at impacts of vegetation on convection in West Africa using convection permitting models (VERA) - in particular I used the 4km Met Office UM to analyse the impacts of deforestation in West Africa since 1950. I also investigated the ability of the Met Office UM at different resolutions to represent the properties of Mesoscale Convective Systems compared to observed storms in satellite data using storm tracking code. The results of this project should provide underpinning knowledge required for both future improvements in weather and climate prediction and tropical forest management.

After my PhD, I was part of the Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Project, analysing Met Office Unified Model output to understand the effectiveness and side effects of a number of geoengineering options. I have given invited talks on this to the Royal Society and to the German environment agency.

In 2012 I obtained my PhD 'Quantifying zonal patterns of climate feedbacks and their role in polar amplification' from the University of Leeds (with Piers Forster) and since then have been a research fellow. From 1990-2006 I worked as a software engineer before giving this up to return to university to study climate change.

Research interests

Understanding human influence on climate through use of computer modelling, understanding how well climate models represent the real world and understanding the drivers of extreme precipitation.

Qualifications

• PhD Quantifying zonal patterns of climate feedbacks, University of Leeds, 2012
• MSc Climate Change, University of East Anglia, 2007
• MSc Surface Chemistry, University of Bristol, 1989
• BA Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, 1988

Professional memberships

• EGU

Research groups and institutes

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