Dr Peter Sykes

Areas of expertise

• Shelf seas modelling, particularly sediment modelling.

• Model evaluation.

• Scientific software development.

Current activities

Peter is currently working on development and maintenance of the sediment modelling performed in the UK shelf seas region. A sediment model is incorporated into the MRCS configuration of a coupled version of the Ocean models at the Met Office physical model and the Ocean models at the Met Office ecosystem model.

The MRCS configuration provides an analysis and five day forecasts of (amongst other variables) sediment concentration for two characteristic size classes across a northwest European shelf seas domain.

Peter is responsible for transitioning an improved version of the sediment model from the POLCOMS-MRCS system into a shelf seas compatible version of the Ocean models at the Met Office ocean model. This will provide an analysis and five day forecast over a larger domain covering the North Atlantic.

Peter is also responsible for validation of the sediment model, the results from which have lead to improvements in the sediment model performance.

Peter has recently moved into the Assessment and Transitions group which will see Peter's work taking a greater emphasis in assessment and operational transition of the ocean modelling systems.

Career background

Peter moved into the Assessment and Transitions group in 2010 after being a member of the Applied Ocean Modelling Research group since 2008; both of which are teams within the Ocean Forecasting Research area.

Peter completed a PhD in shelf seas sediment and turbulence modelling at Bangor University after completing a BSc in Physical Oceanography with Mathematics also at Bangor University.