Dr Ruth Geen PhD

Dr Ruth Geen

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Lecturer in Atmospheric Sciences

Contact details

Dr Ruth Geen is an atmospheric dynamicist. Her research aims to increase confidence in projections of future regional climate by building simple, conceptual pictures of the large-scale circulations governing climate phenomena.

Qualifications

2016 - PhD in Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College London
2012 - MPhys (First Class Hons), University of Oxford

Biography

Dr Ruth Geen studied Physics at the University of Oxford, before moving to Imperial College London for her PhD in Atmospheric Physics, looking at the effects of water vapour on climate in an aquaplanet model. From 2016-2021 she worked as a Research Fellow in Mathematics at University of Exeter, researching questions in monsoon dynamics and Arctic influences on midlatitude climate. In 2022 she joined University of Birmingham as a lecturer in Atmospheric Sciences.

Teaching

Dr Ruth Geen teaches into Birmingham’s MSc in Applied Meteorology and Climatology, as well as supporting 2nd year fieldwork in Berlin.

Postgraduate supervision

Ruth Geen is interested in understanding fundamental processes governing large-scale atmospheric circulations, their representation in models, and their future changes, making use approaches such as hierarchical modelling. Particular areas of interest are dynamics of monsoon circulations and midlatitude weather.

If you are interested in joining the Meteorology and Climate group here at Birmingham as a graduate student, postdoc or if you looking for somewhere new for a research visit or sabbatical then please get in touch.

Research

Ruth uses a hierarchy of climate models and data to tackle problems in regional climate variability and change. By building up a basic understanding of climate phenomena with simpler, idealised models she aims to develop firmer foundations for our understanding of real-world climate. For example, areas she is currently exploring are:

  • Pathways by which warming of the Arctic may influence weather extremes (e.g. heatwaves, storms) in the midlatitudes

  • Sources of model bias in CMIP6 simulations of the East Asian Summer Monsoon

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Dey, D, Geen, R, Lambert, FH, Agrawal, S, Vallis, G, Marsh, R, Skliris, N & Döös, K 2023, 'Identification of the atmospheric water sources and pathways responsible for the East Asian summer monsoon rainfall', Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.4621

Li, J, Geen, R, Mao, J, Song, Y, Vallis, GK & Wu, G 2023, 'Mechanical and Thermal Forcings of Asian Large-Scale Orography on Spring Cloud Amount and Atmospheric Radiation Budget over East Asia', Journal of Climate, vol. 36, no. 15, pp. 5215-5232. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0797.1

Strnad, FM, Schlör, J, Geen, R, Boers, N & Goswami, B 2023, 'Propagation pathways of Indo-Pacific rainfall extremes are modulated by Pacific sea surface temperatures', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 5708. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41400-9

Geen, R, Pietschnig, M, Agrawal, S, Dey, D, Lambert, FH & Vallis, GK 2023, 'The Relationship between Model Biases in East Asian Summer Monsoon Rainfall and Land Evaporation', Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-023-2297-1

Mutton, H, Chadwick, R, Collins, M, Lambert, FH, Taylor, CM, Geen, R & Todd, A 2023, 'The impact of a uniform ocean warming on the West African monsoon', Climate Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-023-06898-1

Scaife, A, Hermanson, L, Niekerk, AV, Andrews, M, Baldwin, M, Belcher, S, Bett, P, Comer, RE, Dunstone, NJ, Geen, R, Hardiman, SC, Ineson, S, Knight, J, Nie, Y, Ren, H-L & Smith, D 2022, 'Long-range predictability of extratropical climate and the length of day', Nature Geoscience, vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 789–793. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01037-7

Mutton, H, Chadwick, R, Collins, M, Lambert, FH, Geen, R, Todd, A & Taylor, CM 2022, 'The impact of the direct radiative effect of increased CO2 on the West African monsoon', Journal of Climate, vol. 35, no. 8, pp. 2441–2458. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-21-0340.1

Geen, R 2021, 'Forecasting South China Sea monsoon onset using insight from theory', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 48, no. 6, e2020GL091444. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091444

Geen, R, Lambert, FH & Vallis, GK 2019, 'Processes and Timescales in Onset and Withdrawal of “Aquaplanet Monsoons”', Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, pp. 2357-2373. https://doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-18-0214.1

Vallis, GK, Colyer, G, Geen, R, Gerber, E, Jucker, M, Maher, P, Paterson, A, Pietschnig, M, Penn, J & Thomson, SI 2018, 'Isca, v1.0: A framework for the global modelling of the atmospheres of Earth and other planets at varying levels of complexity', Geoscientific Model Development, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 843-859. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-843-2018

Geen, R, Lambert, FH & Vallis, GK 2018, 'Regime change behavior during Asian monsoon onset', Journal of Climate. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0118.1

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Ummenhofer, CC, Geen, R, Denniston, RF & Rao, MP 2024, Past, present, and future of the South Asian monsoon. in C Ummenhofer & RR Hood (eds), The Indian Ocean and its Role in the Global Climate System. 1st edn, Elsevier. <https://shop.elsevier.com/books/the-indian-ocean-and-its-role-in-the-global-climate-system/ummenhofer/978-0-12-822698-8>

Letter

Geen, R, Thomson, SI, Screen, JA, Blackport, R, Lewis, NT, Mudhar, R, Seviour, WJM & Vallis, GK 2023, 'An Explanation for the Metric Dependence of the Midlatitude Jet‐Waviness Change in Response to Polar Warming', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 50, no. 21, e2023GL105132. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl105132

Xu, P, Wang, L, Vallis, GK, Geen, R, Screen, JA, Wu, P, Ding, S, Huang, P & Chen, W 2021, 'Amplified waveguide teleconnections along the polar front jet favor summer temperature extremes over northern Eurasia', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 48, no. 13, e2021GL093735. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl093735

Review article

Geen, R, Bordoni, S, Battisti, DS & Hui, K 2020, 'Monsoons, ITCZs, and the Concept of the Global Monsoon', Reviews of Geophysics. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020rg000700

View all publications in research portal