Previous research

PhD work at the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK. Either implicitly or explicitly, many existing ideas about atmospheric convection are based on an equilibrium assumption. The convection is assumed to maintain a state very close to an equilibrium that balances the forcing mechanism. All of the convective parameterization schemes used in weather forecast and climate models make this assumption in some form. However, there are many situations for which the assumption is not valid, and where the departures from equilibrium may be a significant feature of the flow. This project uses a cloud-resolving model to perform numerical simulations of the response of the atmosphere to various changes in the forcing. The aim is to determine the behaviour and evolution of convective cloud fields under non-equilibrium conditions, leading to an understanding of the timescales and mechanisms of transitions between different equilibrium states.

My PhD thesis titled the 'Self Organization of Convection as a Mechanism for Memory' can be downloaded here.

A simple model for convective memory. One of the first studies I did as part of my PhD was to investigate the characteristics that memory might have on convection. We wrote a simple model of convection that included memory and investigated the convective characteristics in response to a time-varying forcing.

The paper 'A simple model of convection with memory' has been published by the American Geophysical Union in the Journal of Geophysical Research. According to SHERPA, the postprint (accepted version but not publisher's pdf) can be archived on an author's own website so long as publisher copyright is acknowledged with the following formulation: An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2009 American Geophysical Union.

If you have access permissions you can obtain the published pdf from here.

The paper was named as an Editor's Highlight for J. Geophys. Res.

The full citation is: Davies, L., R. S. Plant, and S. H. Derbyshire (2009), A simple model of convection with memory, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D17202, doi:10.1029/2008JD011653.