Dr Jane Mulcahy
Jane develops and evaluates the aerosol component UKCA-mode and its interactions within the fully coupled UK Earth System Model (UKESM).
Areas of expertise
- Atmospheric Modelling
- Aerosol Feedbacks on Weather and Climate
- Climate and NWP model development and evaluation
- Technical Aspects of running the Unified Model
Current activities
Jane is a senior research scientist working in the joint NERC-Met Office ESM Core Development Group. Her current work focuses on improving the simulation of aerosols and their feedbacks within the fully coupled UKESM model. Jane is currently implementing the state-of-the-art aerosol and chemistry model, UKCA-mode in UKESM replacing the older CLASSIC scheme used in HadGEM2-ES. In collaboration with UKCA scientists across the UK academic community, including the University of Leeds, University of Oxford, University of Reading and University of Cambridge she works on the development and evaluation of the new aerosol scheme in the Unified Model, evaluating the impact of the new aerosol scheme on the physical model and eventually in the fully coupled system.
Career background
Jane joined the Met Office in 2008 and has been working in the UKESM core development group since July 2013. Prior to this she worked in the Global Model Evaluation and Diagnostics group where she worked on short-range, high-resolution aerosol forecasting and investigated the impacts of different atmospheric aerosol configurations on the short-range forecast skill as part of the MACC project. Prior to joining the Met Office in 2008, Jane completed her PhD in atmospheric physics at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where she also received a first class honours B.Sc in Experimental Physics.
Jane's research interests stem from her PhD studies in the area of marine aerosol optical properties and the contribution of primary sea spray aerosol to the aerosol-climate effect. Her PhD work involved using both ground-based observations and satellite remote sensing techniques to retrieve aerosol optical parameters.