Matthew (Mat) Collins is Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and holds the Joint Met Office Chair in Climate Change in the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter. His research interests are in physical aspects of climate change, with a focus on future projections. He has served twice as Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on the Firth Assessment Report of Working Group 1 and on the Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. He has led several UK-funded large projects on physical climate projections including, ‘Emergence of Climate Hazards’ and ‘Robust Spatial Projections of Real-World Climate Change’. He is the Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Climate. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Patterns and the El Niño Southern Oscillation under Climate Change
This lecture will discuss the impact of climate change in the tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere system, and the wider global impacts of these changes. Topics covered will include the mean-state pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) change and the discrepancy between observations and models, physical processes responsible for uncertainties in future tropical Pacific SST patterns, and the impact of those mean-state SST pattern changes on rainfall in N. and S. America. The lecture will also discuss changes in the variability of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) including the time of emergence of changes in the mean state and ENSO, the time of emergence of changes in the Walker Circulation, and changes in ENSO teleconnection patterns in North America and Europe.
