Piers Forster
Centre member
Piers is Professor of Physical Climate Change at the School of Earth and Environment| at the University of Leeds.
Piers is also a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award holder. He leads the Physical Climate Change Group|.
Background
Prior to becoming a Professor, Piers was a Roberts Research Fellow/ Reader at the University of Leeds, from 2005-2008. Before this, he was a NERC Advanced Research Fellow at the University of Reading (2000-2005) and a Visiting Researcher at the CRC for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology, Melbourne (1999).
Piers has a PDRA from the University of Reading, BSc Physics from Imperial College London, and a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Reading.
Research interests
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Several aspects of the Earth's climate, particularly those associated with identifying causes of climate change and how the largescale climate responds;
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Using ideas of the Earth's energy budget to help understand climate change, employing a combination of models and analyses of observations;
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Climate adaptation and mitigation, including researching a possible role for geo-engineering.
Research articles
2012
Simelton, E., Fraser, E.D.G., Challinor, A.J., Dougill, A.J., Forster, P.M, et al. Online first - forthcoming. The socioeconomics of food crop production and climate change vulnerability: a global scale quantitative analysis of how grain crops are sensitive to drought. Food Security. External link to full details|
2011
Crook, J., and Forster, P.M. September 2011. A balance between radiative forcing and climate feedback in the modeled 20th century temperature response. Journal of Geophysical Research, v.116. External link to full article|
Spracklen, D.V., Carslaw, K.S., Pöschl, U., Rap, A., and Forster, P.M. September 2011. Global cloud condensation nuclei influenced by carbonaceous combustion aerosol. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v.11, pp.9067-9087. External link to full article|
Crook, J.A., Jones, L.A., Forster, P.M., and Crook, R. July 2011. Climate change impacts on future photovoltaic and concentrated solar power energy output. Energy & Environmental Science, v.4, pp.3101-3109. External link to full article|
Crook, J.A., and Forster, P.M. July 2011. Spatial patterns of modeled climate feedback and contributions to temperature response and polar amplification. American Meteorological Society, v.24, pp.3575–3592. External link to full article|
Forster, P., et al. May 2011. Evaluation of radiation scheme performance within chemistry climate models. Journal of Geophysical Research, v.116. External link to full article|
S. Fueglistaler, P. H. Haynes, and P. M. Forster. April 2011. The annual cycle in lower stratospheric temperatures revisited. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v.11, pp.3701-3711. External link to full article|
Spracklen, D.V., Jimenez, J.L., Carslaw, K.S., Worsnop, D.R., Evans, M.J., Mann, G.W., Zhang, Q., Canagaratna, M.R., Allan, J., Coe, H., McFiggans, G., Rap, A., and Forster, P. February 2011. Aerosol mass spectrometer constraint on the global secondary organic aerosol budget. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v.11, pp.5699-5755. External link to full article|
Crook, J.A., Forster, P.M., and Stuber, N. 2011. Spatial patterns of modeled climate feedback and contributions to temperature response and polar amplification. Journal of Climate, v.24, pp.3575-3592. External link to full article|
Spracklen, D., Carslaw, K., Pöschl, U., Rap, A., and Forster, P.M. 2011. Global cloud condensation nuclei influenced by carbonaceous combustion aerosol. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v.11, pp.9067-9087. External link to full article|
Crook, J.A., Jones, L.A., Forster, P.M., and Crook, R. 2011. Climate change impacts on future photovoltaic and concentrated solar power energy output. Energy and Environmental Science, v.4, pp.3101-3109. External link to full article|
Crook, J.A., and Forster, P.M. 2011. A balance between radiative forcing and climate feedback in the modeled 20th century temperature response. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, v.116. External link to full article|
Forster, P.M., Fomichev, V.I., Rozanov, E., Cagnazzo, C., Jonsson, A.I., Langematz, U., Fomin, B., Iacono, M.J., Mayer, B., Mlawer, E., Myhre, G., Portmann, R.W., Akiyoshi, H., Falaleeva, V., Gillett, N., Karpechko, A., Li J.N., Lemennais P., Morgenstern, O., Oberlander, S., Sigmond, M., Shibata, K. 2011. Evaluation of radiation scheme performance within chemistry climate models. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, v.116. External link to full article|
Forster, P.M., Thompson, D.W.J., Baldwin, M.P., Chipperfield, M.P., Dameris, M., Haigh, J.D., Karoly, D.J., Kushner, P.J., Randel, W.J., Rosenlof, K.H., Seidel, D.J., Solomon, S; Beig, G; Braesicke, P; Butchart, N., Gillett, N.P., Grise, K.M., Marsh, D.R., McLandress, C., Rao, T.N., Son, S.W., Stenchikov, G.L., Yoden, S. 2011. Stratospheric changes and climate. In: (Ed) Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2010, Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project, Report, World Meteorological Organization, pp.516. External link to full article|
Frieler, K, Meinshausen, M., von Deimling, T.S., Andrews, T., and Forster, P. February 2011. Changes in global-mean precipitation in response to warming, greenhouse gas forcing and black carbon. Geophysical Research Letters, v.38. External link to full article|
Andrews, T., Doutriaux-Boucher, M., Boucher, O., and Forster, P.M. February 2011. A regional and global analysis of carbon dioxide physiological forcing and its impact on climate. Climate Dynamics, v.36, pp.783-792. External link to full article|
2010
Rap, A, Forster, P.M., Haywood, J.M., Jones, A., and Boucher, O. October 2010. Estimating the climate impact of linear contrails using the UK Met Office climate model. Geophysical Research Letters, v.37. External link to full article|
Murphy, D.M., and Forster, P.M. September 2010. On the accuracy of deriving climate feedback parameters from correlations between surface temperature and outgoing radiation. Journal of Climate, v.23, pp.4983-4988. External link to full article|
Simelton, E., Fraser, E.D.G., Termansen, M., Benton, T.G., Gosling, S.N., South, A., Arnell, N.W., Challinor, A.J., Dougill, A.J., and Forster, P.M. August 2010. Climate change and the socioeconomics of global food production: a quantitative analysis of how socioeconomic factors influence the vulnerability of grain crops to drought. Working paper, Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, Leeds and London. Download PDF of paper| (468KB)
Andrews, T., Forster, P.M., Boucher, O., Bellouin, N., Jones, A. July 2010. Precipitation, radiative forcing and global temperature change. Geophysical Research Letters, v.37. External link to full article|
Andrews, T., and Forster, P.M. June 2010. The transient response of global-mean precipitation to increasing carbon dioxide levels. Environmental Research Letters, v.5. External link to full article|
Rap, A, Forster, P.M., Jones, A., Boucher, O., Haywood, J.M., Bellouin, N., and De Leon, R.R. May 2010. Parameterization of contrails in the UK Met Office Climate Model. Journal of Geophysical Research, v.115. External link to full article|
Heymsfield, A., Baumgardner, D., DeMott, P., Forster, P., Gierens, K., and Karcher, B. April 2010. Contrail microphysics. BAMS, v.91, pp.465-472. External link to full article|
Wuebbles, D, Forster, P., Rogers, H., and Herman, R. April 2010. Issues and uncertainities affecting metrics for aviation impacts on climate. BAMS, v.91, pp.491-496. External link to full article|
Korhonen, H., Carslaw, K.S., Forster, P.M., Mikkonen, S., Gordon, N.D., and Kokkola, H. January 2010. Aerosol climate feedback due to decadal increases in Southern Hemisphere wind speeds. Geophysical Research Letters, v.37. External link to full article|
Jackson, L.S., and Forster, P.M. January 2010. An empirical study of geographic and seasonal variations in diurnal temperature range. Journal of Climate, v.23, pp.3205-3221. External link to full article|
2009
Haywood, J.M., Allan, R.P., Bornemann, J., Forster, P.M., Francis, P.N., Milton, S., Radel, G., Rap, A., Shine, K.P., and Thorpe, R. December 2009. A case study of the radiative forcing of persistent contrails evolving into contrail-induced cirrus. Journal of Geophysical Research, v.114. External link to full article|
Lee, D.S., Fahey, D.W., Forster, P.M., Newton, P.J., Wit, R.C.N., Lim, L.L., Owen, B., and Sausen, R. July 2009. Aviation and global climate change in the 21st century. Atmospheric Environment, v.43. External link to full article|
Austin, J., Wilson, R.J., Akiyoshi, H., Bekki, S., Butchart, N., Claud, C., Fomichev, V.I., Forster, P., Garcia, R.R., Gillett, N.P., Keckhut, P., Langematz, U., Manzini, E., Nagashima, T., Randel, W.J., Rozanov, E., Shibata, K., Shine, K.P., Struthers, H., Thompson, D.W.J., Wu, F., and Yoden, S. July 2009. Coupled chemistry climate model simulations of stratospheric temperatures and their trends for the recent past. Geophysical Research Letters, v.36. External link to full article|
Simelton, E., Fraser, E.D.G., Termansen, M., Forster, P.M., and Dougill, A. June 2009. Typologies of crop-drought vulnerability: an empirical analysis of the socio-economic factors that influence the sensitivity and resilience to drought of three major food crops in China (1961-2001). Environmental Science & Policy, v.12, pp.438-452. External link to full article|
Murphy, D.M., Solomon, S., Portmann, R.W., Rosenlof, K.H., Forster, P.M., and Wong, T. May 2009. An observationally based energy balance for the Earth since 1950. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, v.114, pp.4154-4161. External link to full article|
Andrews, T., and Forster, P.M. May 2009. A surface energy perspective on climate change. American Meteorological Society, v.22, pp.2557-2570. External link to full article|
Grise, KM; Thompson, DWJ; Forster, PM. February 2009. On the role of radiative processes in stratosphere-troposphere coupling. Journal of Climate, v.22, pp.4154-4161. External link to full article|
2008
Gregory, J.M., and Forster, P.M. December 2008. Transient climate response estimated from radiative forcing and observed temperature change. Journal of Geophysical Research, v.113. External link to full article|
Andrews, T., and Forster, P.M. February 2008. CO2 forcing induces semi-direct effects with consequences for climate feedback interpretations. Geophysical Research Letters, v.35. External link to full article|
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