Dr. Alex Baker
Research Scientist (NCAS)
Responsibilities:
Research Scientist in the High Resolution Climate Modelling (HRCM) research group, a long-standing collaboration between NCAS-Climate at the University of Reading and the Met Office Hadley Centre. Additionally, I am the administrator for HRCM's website and also sit on the Department of Meteorology's Research-funded Staff Forum as the representative for house, health and safety matters.
Research Interests:
- Precipitation extremes and climate change
- Extratropical cyclones and resolution sensitivity
- Global high-resolution climate model evaluation
- European climate and decadal variability
- Palaeoclimate and water isotopes
- East Asian monsoon climate
Research Projects:
- PRIMAVERA: PRocess-based climate sIMulation: AdVances in high-resolution modelling and European climate Risk Assessment. PRIMAVERA is a European Union Horizon2020 project which aims "to develop a new generation of advanced and well-evaluated high-resolution global climate models, capable of simulating and predicting regional climate with unprecedented fidelity, for the benefit of governments, business and society in general." Within PRIMAVERA, I study the representation of European extreme precipitation in a new generation of high-resolution global climate models, both atmosphere-only and coupled, such as HadGEM3. I am particularly interested in how precipitation extremes are driven by mid-latitude phenomena, such as extratropical cyclones, and how extremes are associated with modes of large-scale atmospheric variability, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, and ocean-atmosphere variability, such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. (Supervisors: Reinhard Schiemann and Pier Luigi Vidale.)
- Collaboration with the hydrocarbon industry to improve assessments of tropical-cyclone risk to offshore infrastructure.
Supervision:
- Elliott Sainsbury Ph.D. 2019-2022 The role of post-tropical cyclones for European extreme weather
My research online:
- Google Scholar
- ResearchGate
- Personal website and blog
- High-Resolution Climate Modelling group
- Follow @alexbakey
Centaur Publications
2024
Baker, A. J. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Vannière, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8600-400X and Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460
(2024)
On the realism of tropical cyclone intensification in global storm-resolving climate models.
Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (17).
e2024GL109841.
ISSN 0094-8276
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109841
2023
Huang, H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6153-6357, Collins, W. D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4463-9848, Patricola, C. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3387-0307, Ruprich‐Robert, Y. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4008-2026, Ullrich, P. A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4118-4590 and Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350
(2023)
Contrasting responses of Atlantic and Pacific tropical cyclone activity to Atlantic Multidecadal Variability.
Geophysical Research Letters, 50 (10).
e2023GL102959.
ISSN 1944-8007
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl102959
2022
Sainsbury, E. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5626-5583, Schiemann, R. K. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Shaffrey, L. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2696-752X, Bhatia, K. T. and Bourdin, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2635-5654
(2022)
Can low-resolution CMIP6 ScenarioMIP models provide insight into future European post-tropical-cyclone risk?
Weather and Climate Dynamics, 3 (4).
pp. 1359-1379.
ISSN 2698-4016
doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1359-2022
Athanasiadis, P. J., Ogawa, F., Omrani, N.-E., Keenlyside, N., Schiemann, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460, Bellucci, A., Ruggieri, P., Haarsma, R., Roberts, M., Roberts, C., Novak, L. and Gualdi, S.
(2022)
Mitigating climate biases in the mid-latitude North Atlantic by increasing model resolution: SST gradients and their relation to blocking and the jet.
Journal of Climate, 35 (21).
pp. 3379-3400.
ISSN 1520-0442
doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0515.1
Sainsbury, E. M., Schiemann, R. K. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Shaffrey, L. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2696-752X and Bhatia, K. T.
(2022)
Why do some post-tropical cyclones impact europe?
Monthly Weather Review, 150 (10).
pp. 2553-2571.
ISSN 1520-0493
doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-22-0111.1
Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Roberts, M. J., Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Seddon, J., Vanniere, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8600-400X, Haarsma, R. J., Schiemann, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Kapetanakis, D., Tourigny, E., Lohmann, K., Roberts, C. D. and Terray, L.
(2022)
Extratropical transition of tropical cyclones in a multiresolution ensemble of atmosphere-only and fully coupled global climate models.
Journal of Climate, 35 (16).
pp. 5283-5306.
ISSN 1520-0442
doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0801.1
Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350
(2022)
Tropical cyclones: global decline in frequency.
Nature Climate Change, 12.
pp. 615-617.
ISSN 1758-6798
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01414-5
Sainsbury, E. M., Schiemann, R. K. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Shaffrey, L. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2696-752X and Bhatia, K. T.
(2022)
What governs the interannual variability of recurving North Atlantic tropical cyclones?
Journal of Climate, 35 (12).
pp. 3627-3641.
ISSN 1520-0442
doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0712.1
2021
Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Schiemann, R. K. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856 and Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460
(2021)
Historical variability and lifecycles of North Atlantic midlatitude cyclones originating in the tropics.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126 (9).
e2020JD033924.
ISSN 2169-8996
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD033924
Baldini, J. U.L., Lechleitner, F. A., Breitenbach, S. F.M., van Hunen, J., Baldini, L. M., Wynn, P. M., Jamieson, R. A., Ridley, H. E., Baker, A. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Walczak, I. W. and Fohlmeister, J.
(2021)
Detecting and quantifying palaeoseasonality in stalagmites using geochemical and modelling approaches.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 254.
106784.
ISSN 0277-3791
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106784
2020
Sainsbury, E. M., Schiemann, R. K. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Shaffrey, L. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2696-752X, Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350 and Bhatia, K. T.
(2020)
How important are post-tropical cyclones for European windstorm risk?
Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (18).
e2020GL089853.
ISSN 0094-8276
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089853
Bador, M., Boé, J., Terray, L., Alexander, L. V., Baker, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Bellucci, A., Haarsma, R., Koenigk, T., Moine, M.-P., Lohmann, K., Putrasahan, D. A., Roberts, C., Roberts, M., Scoccimarro, E., Schiemann, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Seddon, J., Senan, R., Valcke, S. and Vanniere, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8600-400X
(2020)
Impact of higher spatial atmospheric resolution on precipitation extremes over land in global climate models.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125 (3).
ISSN 2169-8996
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jd032184
Fabiano, F., Christensen, H. M., Strommen, K., Athanasiadis, P., Baker, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Schiemann, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856 and Corti, S.
(2020)
Euro-Atlantic weather regimes in the PRIMAVERA coupled climate simulations: impact of resolution and mean state biases on model performance.
Climate Dynamics, 54 (11-12).
pp. 5031-5048.
ISSN 0930-7575
doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05271-w
2019
Roberts, M. J., Baker, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Blockley, E. W., Calvert, D., Coward, A., Hewitt, H. T., Jackson, L. C., Kuhlbrodt, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2328-6729, Mathiot, P., Roberts, C. D., Schiemann, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Seddon, J., Vanniere, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8600-400X and Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460
(2019)
Description of the resolution hierarchy of the global coupled HadGEM3-GC3.1 model as used in CMIP6 HighResMIP experiments.
Geoscientific Model Development, 12 (12).
pp. 4999-5028.
ISSN 1991-9603
doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4999-2019
Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Schiemann, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3095-9856, Hodges, K. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Demory, M.-E., Mizielinski, M. S., Roberts, M. J., Shaffrey, L. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2696-752X, Strachan, J. and Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460
(2019)
Enhanced climate change response of wintertime North Atlantic circulation, cyclonic activity and precipitation in a 25 km-resolution global atmospheric model.
Journal of Climate, 32 (22).
pp. 7763-7781.
ISSN 1520-0442
doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0054.1
2015
Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Sodemann, H., Baldini, J. U. L., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Johnson, K. R., van Hunen, J. and Zhang, P.
(2015)
Seasonality of westerly moisture transport in the East Asian summer monsoon and its implications for interpreting precipitation δ18O.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 120 (12).
pp. 5850-5862.
ISSN 2169-8996
doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022919
2014
Baker, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Mattey, D. P. and Baldini, J. U. L.
(2014)
Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 392.
pp. 239-249.
ISSN 0012-821X
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.036
Last update: 31st August 2023
