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Study Reveals Key Changes in the North Pacific Jet Stream Due to Climate Change
10 September 2024
Research by PhD student Tom Keel finds that the North Pacific jet stream is shifting polewards due to climate change, with significant implications for weather patterns and North American climate.
New research led by final-year PhD student in collaboration with Professor Chris Brierley, has uncovered major changes in the North Pacific jet stream that could have wide-ranging impacts on weather patterns and the climate.听听
Their findings, recently featured in , show a trend in how the jet stream is changing due to global warming.听
鈥淲e found two main things,鈥� says Tom. 鈥淔irstly, we found that a poleward trend has begun emerging in the wintertime North Pacific jet stream in observations. Our paper uses six statistics to study jet position and four observational datasets to check this robustness.鈥澨�
This means that the data record is now long enough to reveal jet stream changes that climate models have been predicting for some time.听
The second key finding is that the North Pacific jet stream will continue to shift polewards, especially in the autumn, and this shift will be more extreme under high-emission global warming scenarios.听听
鈥淭he North Pacific jet exerts a control over North American climate,鈥� explains Tom, highlighting the potential impacts this could have on weather patterns in the region.听
This research is crucial for understanding the uneven way our planet is warming. Tom notes, 鈥淭he jets respond to the imbalance of warming and are roughly following the expansion of the tropics. This tropical expansion pushes weather and biodiversity polewards and this can have huge implications on humans, crop yields, etc.鈥澨�
Looking to the future, Tom鈥檚 team aims to explore how the North Pacific jet鈥檚 poleward shift could affect extreme weather in North America. 鈥淚ts position is a key control on (extreme) surface conditions, so we are looking to quantify the link,鈥� he says.听听
His advice to aspiring researchers? 鈥淐ollaborate with others and find out about (and contribute to) open-source software tools related to your research field!鈥澨�
More information
- Read the full article in 听
- Find out more about the research in 听
- Visit Professor Brierley's Academic Staff Profile听
- Learn about studying for your PhD with us听