
Dr Christine McKenna
- Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
- Areas of expertise: Large-scale atmospheric circulation; stratosphere-troposphere coupling; extratropics; climate dynamics; climate variability; climate modelling; large "initial-condition" ensembles (LEs)
- Email: C.McKenna1@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 11.06 Priestley
- Website: Twitter | Researchgate | ORCID
Profile
I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working on the EU-funded CONSTRAIN project. In this project I am looking at future projections of large-scale atmospheric circulation change, with the aim of constraining uncertainty in these projections.
Before coming to Leeds, I studied for my PhD at the British Antarctic Survey and University of Cambridge (DAMTP). This was under the supervision of Tom Bracegirdle, Peter Haynes, and Emily Shuckburgh. In my PhD I used an intermediate global circulation model, IGCM4, to look at how the large-scale atmospheric circulation changes in response to future Arctic sea-ice loss. In particular, I examined whether the response is sensitive to different regions or magnitudes of sea-ice loss, and the relative roles played by tropospheric and stratospheric mechanisms. I also looked at the influence of atmospheric internal variability with regards to uncertainty in simulated atmospheric responses to sea-ice loss.
Papers in press:
C. M. McKenna & A. C. Maycock. The role of the North Atlantic Oscillation for projections of winter mean precipitation in Europe, GRL, in press.
Papers in review:
In preparation:
V. Charnay, C. M. McKenna & A. C. Maycock. Uncertainty in projected sea surface temperature trends and North Pacific atmospheric circulation, in prep.
Research interests
- Large-scale atmospheric circulation
- Stratosphere-troposphere coupling
- Extratropics
- Climate dynamics
- Climate variability
- Climate modelling
- Large “initial-condition” ensembles (LEs)
Qualifications
- PhD Atmospheric Dynamics - University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey, 2019
- MSc Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate - University of Reading, 2015
- BSc Geography and Mathematics - University of St Andrews, 2014
Professional memberships
- Royal Meteorological Society
Research groups and institutes
- Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science