Flux-profile relationships in the Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL): During my first Antarctic winter in 1986 I noticed that the turbulent atmosphere during the polar night is more complex than expected, with a variety of coherent structures apparent in a range of fine resolution data, from acoustic radar to sonic anemometers. The mechanism that generates and maintains these structures when the atmosphere is stratified (stable) but turbulent is still obscure; turbulence should act to diffuse or blur any structure, not enhance them. Understanding this effect is of growing importance in improving the accuracy of our climate models, as parameterization schemes that derive surface fluxes from bulk meteorology are very noisy and on average biased. My personal research still dwells in the Stable ABL, working through an international group within GEWEX trying to improve GCMs in this area by understanding the missing physics.
Remotely Piloted Aircraft (also known as UAVs): I am leading the SAMS project to developing Earth Observation and in situ platforms for marine research. The project involves training a team of avionics engineers, pilots and commanders for RPA operations, modifying a fleet of Light RPA (< 20kg tow) for over-water deployment, and developing sensor payloads for environmental sampling. Flux buoys: Although many buoy-based systems are operating around the world, the vast majority only measure meteorology, whilst a fraction measure what is actually needed, fluxes of heat and momentum into the surface. Fluxes are the true coupling conditions that govern air-surface interaction. Making automatic flux measurements is not trivial, but I am adapting relatively standard techniques used on land to work on a mobile platform at sea. Such buoys will help the community validate couple general circulation models in remote oceans, especially polar regions. Glider-Deployed Drifters: I am working in partnership with Southampton University to use the relatively new technique of balloon launched gliders as a vehicle for deploying marine sensors.
2012-present Head of Marine Technology R&D Group. SAMS
2009-2012 BAS/NERC: Boundary-layer physicist within CLIMATE Programme responsible for stratified boundary layer processes, blowing snow processes and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) development
2005-2008 BAS/NERC: Project leader for UAS-based research and data analysis of APACE data. Member of FOCAS team
2000-2005 BAS/NERC: Project leader for Surface Processes Affecting Antarctic Climate (SPACE), to study high resolution wave/turbulence interaction in the stable boundary layer
1996 Awarded Polar Medal for services to Antarctic Science
1995-2000 BAS/NERC: Project leader for FLUX project: year round monitoring of full surface energy balance
1994 BAS/NERC: Promotion to SSO / PB5
1988-1994 BAS/NERC: Open ended appointment as physicist: to design, build, run and analyse STABLE II project. Included one year winter at Halley in 1991
1985-1989 Joined the British Antarctic Survey as wintering scientist for the Stable Antarctic Boundary Layer Experiment
1983-1985 Instrument technician and lecturer. People’s College, Nottingham
See research interests
Anderson PS (2012) Climatology of tropospheric solitary waves observed over an ice shelf. In: Kooij-Connally E (ed). Workshop on Diurnal cycles and the stable boundary layer. ECMWF, Shinfield Park, Reading, UK.
Anderson PS (2009) Measurement of Prandtl Number as a Function of Richardson Number Avoiding Self-Correlation. Boundary-Layer Meteorology. 131(3):345-362.
Jones AE, Anderson PS, Begoin M, Brough N, Hutterli M, Marshall GJ, Richter A, Roscoe HK and Wolff EW (2009) BrO, blizzards, and drivers of polar tropospheric ozone depletion events. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 9:4639-4652.
Anderson PS and Neff WD (2008) Boundary layer physics over snow and ice. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 8(13):3563-3582.
Anderson PS and Bauguitte SJB (2007) Behaviour of tracer diffusion in simple atmospheric boundary layer models. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 7(19):5147-5158.
