Paloma Trascasa-Castro
University of Leeds
Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
Modulation of El Niño Southern Oscillation by the mean climate state
By producing changes in atmospheric circulation, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events can alter normal climate variability and lead to extreme impacts (such as flooding and forest fires) which represent an associated risk to populations and ecosystems. There are great uncertainties about how the intensity, frequency and global spatial patterns of ENSO events will evolve in the future. A better understanding of the physical mechanisms of ENSO will help to understand its teleconnections and future changes. This project will use state-of-the-art model simulations, including CMIP6 and very high-resolution global models, alongside observations to study ENSO impacts and their relation to changes in global largescale circulation.
Why do you do what you do?
I am very curious to broaden my knowledge about the complex connections that exist in the climate system. The fact that a phenomenom such as ENSO, that occur in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, affects climate conditions accross the world awaken me great interest, and after studying the stratospheric pathway of ENSO teleconnections to Europe, I am looking forward to study other ways for ENSO signal to propagate across the planeat and be able to predict how extreme events associated with ENSO will change as the mean climate state changes. The latest El Niño event (2015-2016) affected over 60 million people across the world, and during my project I would like to contribute to improve the predictability of extreme impacts associated with ENSO events.
Passions
Friends, swimming, playing music
Challenges
Work-life balance with all it entails