An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Dr Sana Mahmood

Areas of expertise

  • Simulation of stratospheric dynamics by numerical models
  • Middle atmosphere observations
  • Impact of model vertical resolution on tropospheric forecasts

Current activities

Sana is currently working on assessing the impact of the representation of the stratosphere on tropospheric weather forecasts. This work aims to further our understanding of the dynamical coupling between the troposphere and the stratosphere and to identify the mechanisms by which the stratosphere may be influencing the troposphere. Additionally, Sana's work hopes to answer questions regarding the optimum representation of the stratosphere in GCMs and thereby contribute towards the selection of future NWP forecast setups at the Met Office.

Sana is also in the process of assimilating mesospheric data from the SSMIS UAS channels. There is a currently a lack of global operational observational capability for temperatures in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere for constraining the model background. The addition of these observations would extend the upper limits of temperature soundings to 85km altitude.

Further work that Sana is responsible for includes monitoring of the daily middle atmosphere analyses against independent data such as EOS Microwave Limb Sounder and analyses from other meteorological centres such as European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Career background

Sana has been a member of DAE since she joined the Met Office in 2007. Prior to that, Sana completed a MSci in Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Birmingham.