Team

The CMUG team consists of individuals from the Met Office, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Météo-France, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (Fondazione CMCC), Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), NCEO (University of Leicester), and NCEO (University of Edinburgh).

Met Office

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

Météo-France

DLR

CEDA

Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL)

Swedish Meteorological Hydrological Institute (SMHI)

Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)

CMCC

DMI

NCEO (University of Leicester)

NCEO (University of Edinburgh)


Biographies

Dr. Vladislav Bastrikov is an environmental researcher and data scientist at Science Partners (Paris, France) with PhD in experimental physics (2004, Ural Federal University). He has been working at LSCE (Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences) in 2012-2018 and since 2019 is affiliated at a private enterprise Science Partners still continuing close collaboration with LSCE. He is mostly working on the ecosystems modelling within the land surface models ORCHIDEE (LSCE/IPSL) and ECLand (ECMWF), development of the data assimilation systems and visualization platforms. He has an expertise in water isotopologues measurements, radioactive gases and aerosols measurement instruments. As part of CMUG, he uses satellite data (MODIS, ESACCI and some others) to enhance modelling capacities in simulating the land surface albedo through improving representation of vegetation, snow and bare soil processes.

Dr. Angela Benedetti holds a Physics degree from the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy (under the supervision of Professor Giorgio Fiocco), and a PhD in Atmospheric Science, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO (under the supervision of Professor Graeme L. Stephens). Angela joined ECMWF in October 2002 first as a research scientist working on the exploitation of CloudSat data, and in 2004  as the aerosol expert in the EU-funded precursor projects of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). In 2022 she became the team leader of the infrared and visible observations team in  the Earth's System Assimilation Section. Angela's research interests span from Data assimilation with focus on cloud and aerosol for improvements in Numerical Weather Prediction and atmospheric composition.

Dr. Jean-Christophe Calvet received a PhD from Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse in 1996 and a habilitation degree from the same university in 2002. Since 2003, he has been Head of a land-modelling and remote-sensing team at CNRM. His recent work focuses on the joint analysis of soil moisture and vegetation biomass, as well as the representation of the carbon cycle in climate models. His research interests include modelling the exchange between land and the atmosphere, and using remote sensing to study land surfaces for meteorological purposes.

Dr. Frédérique Cheruy is a research scientist at the CNRS and works in the IPSL Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique LMD. At the early stage of her career she was specialized in radiative transfer calculations, retrieval of atmospheric products from satellite observations and analysis of satellites date. She re-oriented in atmospheric modelling and has experience regarding parameterizations (land surface and atmosphere), feedback analysis and process oriented diagnostics for evaluating climate models. In the continuity of her collaboration with the IPSL partner during the first phase of CMUG [Cheruy et al. 2017], she will lead the contribution of IPSL to CMUG.

Dr. Amélie Cuynet is a research scientist at the CNRS and has worked at the LSCE (Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences) as a postdoctoral researcher since 2022. She began her research career in material sciences, receiving an Engineering degree and a PhD in Engineering Sciences in 2015 and 2018 respectively. She then reoriented her research by validating an MSc in Meteorology and Climatology at Sorbonne University, Paris, in 2022. She now specialises in modelling high-latitude and permafrost regions using the ORCHIDEE land surface model, focusing on physical soil processes (e.g. thermics, hydrology and snow/vegetation interactions). As part of CMUG, she uses remote sensing data, especially snow and vegetation products, to enhance the ORCHIDEE LSM's ability to simulate snow processes.

Dr Amy Doherty is the CMUG project manager. She works in the International Applied Science area of the Met Office in the Climate Information for International Development group. She has a Ph.D. in remote sensing and has spent many years working on improving the use of satellite data in the Met Office operational weather forecasts, with a focus on microwave humidity sounders.

Prof. Dr. Veronika Eyring received her PhD in Environmental Physics from the University of Bremen (Germany) in 1999. She joined the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2000 where she is now working as a Senior Scientist and Head of the Earth system model evaluation group. She is Professor of Climate Modelling at the University of Bremen and maintains a strong collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, USA) as Affiliate Scientist. Her research focuses on Earth system modelling and process-oriented model evaluation with observations to better understand chemistry-climate interactions and climate change, and to improve the models. She has authored many peer-reviewed journal articles and has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ozone assessments since 2004. Veronika is involved in the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) through her roles as Chair of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) Panel and member of the scientific steering committees for the Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM), the WCRP Data Advisory Council's (WDAC) Observations for Model Evaluation Task Team, and the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE)/WGCM Climate Model Diagnostics and Metrics Panel.

Hannah Findley works on the CMUG project as Work Package 6 lead, Coordination & Outreach. She holds a Geography Bachelors degree and Masters degree in Applied Meteorology and Climatology, both from the University of Birmingham. Hannah is a Chartered Meteorologist and works on climate services, training and adaptation.

David Ford holds a BSc (Hons) 1st class in Mathematics and Physics from Cardiff University (2002-2005). David has worked on ocean modelling and data assimilation research at the Met Office since 2008. His main focus is on developing and validating the pre-operational global coupled physical-biogeochemical ocean modelling system. His work covers time scales from near-real-time forecasts to decadal reanalyses, with both operational and climate research applications. David has also worked on shelf seas biogeochemical modelling and validation, and developing error covariances for the data assimilation component of the Met Office's operational physical ocean forecasting system.

Dr Debbie Hemming leads a group of scientists studying vegetation-climate interactions, her personal research is focussed on phenology – the timing of events in nature, and it's interactions with climate. She is also Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, Birmingham University, studying the seasonal dynamics of carbon and nitrogen in their mature woodland Free-Air CO2 Enrichment research site. She leads the scientific direction of her group, and works on a range of projects involved in vegetation responses and feedbacks to climate.

Prof. Richard Jones holds a PhD in Numerical Analysis (1984-1988) and a BSc in Mathematics (1980-1983) from Imperial College, United Kingdom. He was a post-doctoral research scientist at Oxford University from 1987 to 1990. Richard has been working at the Met Office since 1990. He has been a Science Fellow and Manager of Climate Information for International Development team since 2012. He manages and coordinates research into generating and applying regional climate information and modelling systems with a focus on climate risk management, climate change vulnerability and adaptation and international development. Prior to this, Richard was manager of the Regional Climate Prediction team (2002-2012), managing a group of 5-10 scientists generating and applying regional climate information and modelling systems relevant to climate change impacts and adaptation assessment for UK government and international agencies. The previous decade, he was a Senior Scientific Officer, providing state-of-the-art regional climate modelling systems; providing and analysing regional climate change scenarios and advising on these as required under contracts for various UK government departments and international bodies.

Dr. Robert King received a PhD in mathematics in 2011, from the University of Southampton. Joining the Met Office in 2012, Robert initially worked on thermal modelling in a variety of domains, including a strong land surface element. Robert now works in the Vegetation-Climate Interactions teams, researching satellite based techniques around vegetation moisture stress and sub-canopy temperature processes.

Dr. Axel Lauer is a research scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (German Aerospace Center, DLR) and core developer of the Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool). His main research interests are aerosols, clouds and cloud-climate feedbacks as well as their interactions. He has a long-standing experience in evaluating and analysing climate model results and will contribute to Tasks 4 and 5. Specifically, he will help with coordination, support and documentation of ESMValTool CMUG activities as well as implementation of the new ECVs into ESMValTool and updating existing ECVs from previous CMUG phases. This includes programming of new diagnostics and metrics that are suitable for evaluating these ECVs from global climate models with the ESA CCI data and application of the ESMValTool to CMIP model results.

Dr. Pablo Ortega co-leads the Climate Variability and Change Group at the BSC since September 2017, where he supervises all research activities involving the ocean, sea ice and high resolution modelling, including those within CMUG. He is particularly interested in the fate of the ocean circulation and its related climate impacts, as well as on the predictability of the climate system, for which he uses cutting-edge high-resolution climate models and observations.

Catherine Ottlé is a senior researcher at LSCE, with a strong expertise in land surface modelling and remote sensing for climate applications. She contributed to many national and international projects as PI or Co-PI including projects around CNES or ESA satellite missions (such as SMOS, SWOT or TRISHNA) and co-authored more than hundred publications. Her present reasearch interests include the role of land cover and surface properties on surface energy and water budgets and atmospheric feedback. She has been co-leading the land surface - atmosphere interactions (MOSAIC) research team at LSCE since 2014.

Prof. Paul Palmer is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh and the science director of the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation. His research is focused on understanding the physical and chemical processes that drive variations in the atmospheric composition of Earth, embracing data, models, and theory. He is a science team member of NASA and Japanese satellite instruments that measure atmospheric GHGs and is the UK lead of the French-UK MicroCarb satellite that was launched in July 2025. He sits on the European Commission CO2 Task Force that is delivering information to support Europe’s response to the Paris Agreement.

Dr Rob Parker is a lecturer in Earth Observation at the University of Leicester and leads the Carbon-Climate research group. His research interests centre around improving our understanding of key terrestrial processes relevant to climate change, in particular related to the carbon cycle, methane and wildfires. He has developed key satellite methane data products which are extensively used for better understanding the global methane budget and has expertise in using satellite data for evaluation of land surface and climate models. He is currently leading several Environmental Digital Twin activities, bringing together models and data with machine-learning to develop decision support tools.

Dr. Daniele Peano (male) is a Scientist at CMCC in the “Earth System Modelling and Data Assimilation” (ESYDA) Division. He has three years of experience in ice sheet modelling (PhD) and nine years of experience in land surface and climate modelling (PostDoc). He has contributed to the development of the land component of the CMCC global coupled model with a specific focus on the land biogeochemical cycle (CMCC-CM2, CMCC-ESM2), high-resolution configurations (CMCC-CM2-HR4, CMCC-CM2-VHR4), and he is working on the development of the new CMCC coupled model (CMCC-CM3). He has contributed to various International projects (i.e. CRESCENDO, PRIMAVERA, GoNEXUS as CMCC PI, CONCERTO as WP leader), the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects (CMIP6), and some of the CMIP6-specific MIPs (LUMIP, LS3MIP, C4MIP, HighResMIP). As part of CMUG, he focuses on the evaluation of the impact of vegetation phenology on observed and simulated land-atmosphere processes and the relationship between vegetation and hydrometeorology.

Dr Philippe Peylin is a senior scientist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) working on the Carbon Cycle with a 15-year strong expertise in the development of terrestrial ecosystem models and the application of data assimilation techniques to improve the simulations of carbon, water and energy balances. His main research interests concern the links and feedbacks between climate change and terrestrial ecosystem functioning. He is currently coordinating the development of the ORCHIDEE land surface model. He coordinated several research projects, including the H2020 VERIFY project on the estimation of greenhouse gas budgets for European countries.

Dr. Oscar Rojas-Muñoz received a PhD in Ocean, Atmosphere, Climate and Space Observations from the Université Paris-Saclay in 2021. Since 2022, he has been a research scientist at Météo-France/CNRM, working on land surface modelling and data assimilation. His research interests include land–atmosphere exchange processes, using remote sensing for land surface modelling and representing vegetation and hydrological dynamics in climate models.

Dr Jasmin Vural is a research scientist working on the CMUG project. She has a PhD in astrophysics and has worked at various national weather centres in the field of meteorology, focusing on data assimilation and remote sensing. She has also recently started using AI-based methods to improve the initial state of atmospheric and land surface variables for research and operational applications.

Dr. Ulrika Willén is a research scientist at the Rossby Centre, SMHI, working on regional and global climate modelling especially the parameterization and evaluation of clouds and radiation. She is currently involved in PRIMAVERA, ARCPATH and GREENICE and has previously been involved in EU projects for evaluation of models using ground-based observational networks, such as the CLIWA-NET and CloudNET projects and a number of satellite projects with the Swedish National Space Board, ArcticCLIM, CLOUDMAP and CM SAF projects to assess the use of satellite products in climate Research.

Dr. Shuting Yang is a senior researcher at DMI with long experience in Earth system modelling (ESM), applying ESM to investigate the climate variability, climate predictions and projects, and use observational datasets including satellite remote sensing data to evaluate ESMs. She has strong expertise in modelling and understanding cryosphere changes, in particular Arctic sea ice loss and its influence on mid-latitude circulation and extremes, as well as incorporating a dynamical ice sheet model for Greenland ice sheet changes in the climate model to simulate Greenland ice sheet change and interactions with the climate system. Recently she has expended her research interests to abrupt changes and tipping phenomena in the Earth climate system. She contribute to many national and international projects, and currently coordinating the EU Horizon Europe project TipESM.