Dr Paul Barrett

Areas of expertise

• Process level understanding of atmospheric cloud and aerosol microphysics
• Observations experience and understanding of global cloud systems, including tropical, mid-latitude and Arctic.
• Leadership of international scientific research projects

Paul's Publications

Current activities

Paul is responsible for the  Clouds and Radiation team in the Atmospheric Processes and Parameterisations Group. His current focus is on leading the work of the group to develop Unified Physics codes that represent moist physics processes in both regional and global modelling simulations.

Career Background

Paul recently led the WesCon 2023 field campaign that made extensive measurements of UK Summertime convection with two research aircraft, a network of research radars, numerous UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicles) and a wide range of other measurements.  These observations will be used to develop the next generation of high-resolution convection permitting numerical weather prediction models. Find out more in this ITV News item.

Previously worked with research aircraft to study warm boundary layer clouds, including stratocumulus in the south-east Pacific (VOCALS) and more recently studying aerosol-cloud interactions in the south-East Atlantic during CLARIFY (Special Issue). Other campaigns Paul has participated in include ACAO (Arctic, 2022),   EUREC4A-UK (Barbados 2020) and HyVIC (Lake Victoria, 2019).

He gained his Doctorate in 2017 while investigating turbulence and ice production in altocumulus clouds: through part-time study at University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment through the Met Office Academic Partnership. This followed time in industry, monitoring airborne asbestos particle concentrations, and a physics degree from University of Sheffield (MPhys, 2002) where he undertook a research masters developing thin-film toxic-gas detectors.

External Recognition

Member: FAAM MLU scientific advisory committee