NCAS Science Highlights are bite-sized, non-technical summaries of high-impact research published by HRCM scientists, our colleagues across NCAS-Climate and Met Office Hadley Centre, and our collaborators around the world.

Improving projections of long-term African Sahel rainfall

Vellinga et al.

The Sahel is prone to substantial fluctuations in summer rainfall. Prolonged, multi-year droughts have occurred in the 20th century, causing devastating losses to society. Find out more.

Changes in simulated tropical rainfall due to increased resolution

Johnson et al.

Simulations of the Earth’s atmosphere are used to predict weather and climate. We increased the simulation resolution by more than five times, to include more detailed features such as mountain ranges and small weather systems, and analysed changes in Indian monsoon rainfall and summer rainfall in the surrounding region. Find out more.

Improving atmospheric moisture transport over land in global climate models

Demory et al.

Atmospheric moisture is mostly transported by cyclones and weather fronts from the ocean to the land where it precipitates. Climate models tend to underestimate moisture transport because they do not have the spatial resolution (pixels) required for simulating such fine-scale weather events. Find out more.