An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Dr Kirsty Hanley

Kirsty works on the representation of convection in convective-scale versions of the Unified Model.

Areas of expertise

  • Convective scale modelling 

  • Convection and convective initiation

  • Orographic rainfall

  • Ocean waves 

Publications by Dr Kirsty Hanley

Current activities

Kirsty works in the Mesoscale Modelling group at MetOffice@Reading based at the University of Reading Department of Meteorology. Kirsty's work is focused on the representation of convection in convective-scale versions of the Unified Model. The aim of this work is to determine the best configuration for future operational models. An important aspect of this work is validating the Unified Model against observations obtained during field campaigns such as DYMECS and COPE - the Convective Precipitation Experiment.

Career background

Kirsty joined the Met Office in March 2013. Prior to this Kirsty completed her PhD in ocean waves and air-sea interactions at the University of Reading in 2008. Kirsty then went on to do post-doctoral work at the University of Reading, focusing on the initiation of convection over orography in convective-scale ensembles.