An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Alex West

Area of expertise

  • Sea-ice observations and modelling

Current activities

At present Alex is working with the sea-ice team to investigate how well models have reproduced sea-ice conditions in the last 10 years and to examine the causes of the sudden ice decline in 2007. This work is described in a report recently submitted to DECC examining the potential for rapid Arctic sea-ice loss. He is also evaluating output from the latest set of Met Office climate prediction model: HadGEM3 family model runs which use the CICE sea-ice model to gauge how well observations of Arctic, Antarctic and Baltic sea-ice are reproduced by the model at one degree and 1/4 degree horizontal resolution.

Career background

Alex studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College) from 2005–2009, following his BA with the Certificate of Advanced Studies (aka Part 3). He joined the Met Office in September 2009.