Convection is one of the main processes that creates the weather. It drives cloud formation and atmospheric circulation. A major challenge is to correctly describe convection in weather and climate models, and how convective-scale and larger-scale phenomena interact in the atmosphere. This talk will discuss the use of limited-area models to simulate deep convective motion over large domains. These models prove to be a useful tool for studying effects such as the Madden-Julian oscillation – the major fluctuation in tropical weather over weekly to monthly timescales – and convective aggregation.

Dr. Christopher Holloway is a Natural Environment Research Council postdoctoral research fellow based at the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology in the UK. His interests are focused on tropical cyclones, the Madden-Julian oscillation and tropical rainfall. Dr. Holloway is particularly interested in the interaction of convection and the large-scale environment, including the vertical structure of temperature and moisture at various spatial scales. He holds a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in atmospheric science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor’s degree in Earth and planetary sciences from Harvard University.