Professor David Andrews

Research Interests

My research over many years has focused on modelling the middle atmosphere (the stratosphere and mesosphere, between about 10 and 100 km altitude), with particular emphasis on dynamics and transport of tracers. Much of this work has been directed towards interpreting data from earth-orbiting satellites, especially from Oxford's ISAMS instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) and on the HIRDLS instrument on the Aura satellite. I also try to keep up an interest in atmospheric wave theory, when I have time. Recently I have been thinking about some aspects of the very simple models that can help interpret the most complex 'top-of-the-range' models used for predicting climate change.

The Second Edition of my book, An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics, aimed at undergraduate physicists and other physical scientists, was published in April 2010 by Cambridge University Press. (See Table of Contents.)

Teaching and Administration

Much of my time during the university term is taken up by undergraduate teaching and administration. I lecture on topics such as geophysical fluid dynamics in the final-year Physics of Atmosphere and Oceans course and on fluid dynamics in the third-year Physics of Fluid Flows course. I am also a Fellow and Physics Tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, where I give tutorials in a wide variety of undergraduate physics courses.

Some Recent Publications

S. C. Hardiman, D. G. Andrews, A. A. White, N. Butchart and I. Edmond: Using different formulations of the Transformed Eulerian Mean equations and Eliassen-Palm diagnostics in general circulation models. To appear in J. Atmos. Sci. (2010).

D. G. Andrews and M. R. Allen: Diagnosis of climate models in terms of transient climate response and feedback response time. Atmos. Sci. Lett., 9, 7-12 (2008). doi: 10.1002/asl.163

D. G. Andrews: On the available energy density for axisymmetric motions of a compressible stratified fluid. J. Fluid Mech., 569, 481-492 (2006). doi:10.1017/S0022112006002680

S. N. Sparrow, L. J. Gray, M. Juckes, A. O'Neill and D. G. Andrews: Simulations of stratospheric flow regimes during northern hemisphere winter. Adv. Space Res., 34, 337-342 (2004).

L. J. Gray, S. Sparrow, M. Juckes, A. O’Neill and D. G. Andrews: Flow regimes in the winter stratosphere of the northern hemisphere. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 129, 925-946 (2003).

Email: andrews@atm.ox.ac.uk

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Last update: 28 April 2010