Dr French focuses on projects in atmospheric temperatures, waves and models and the tide gauge network.
He is a principal investigator on the Australian Academy of Science project “Mesospheric OH Climate Assessment”, a 20 year temperature record near the mesopause derived from observations of hydroxyl airglow. These data are used for long-term trend and variability studies and contribute to the global Network for Mesospheric Change (NDMC), of which he is a founding member.
Dr French contributes to the Australian Academy of Science project “Gravity wave drag parameterization in climate models” using a scanning radiometer at Davis, which has provided a 16 year record of gravity wave characteristics.
He is also involved with interpretation of ACCESS model simulations to investigate how regional weather and climate patterns respond to changes in ozone distribution under AAS project “Polar Feedbacks between Ozone Recovery and Climate”
Most recently, he seeks to sort and catalogue several decades of tide gauge data to enable a multi-station assessment of Antarctic sea-level rise.
I contribute to the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre as a member of the Future Climate and Sea Level group within the Australian Antarctic Division’s ‘Antarctica and the Global System’ program.
Turner J., Barrand N.E., Bracegirdle T.J., Convey P., Hodgson D.A., Jarvis M., Jenkins A., Marshall G., Meredith M.P., Roscoe H., Shanklin J., French W.J.R., Goosse H., Guglielmin M., Gutt J., Jacobs S., Kennicutt III M.C., Masson-Delmotte V., Mayewski P., Navarro F., Robinson S.A., Scambos T., Sparrow M., Summerhayes C., Speer K., Klepikov A. (2013) Antarctic climate change and the environment: an update, Polar Record 1-23; doi:10.1017/S0032247413000296; [Ref:15014] AAS Projects 3042, 3129, 4046
French W.J.R., Klekociuk A.R. (2011) Long-term trends in Antarctic winter hydroxyl temperatures, Journal of Geophysical Research 116. D00P09; doi:10.1029/2011JD015731; [Ref:14660] AAS Projects 701, 737
French W.J.R., Mulligan F.J. (2010) Stability of temperatures from TIMED/SABER v1.07 (2002-2009) and Aura/MLS v2.2 (2004-2009) compared with OH(6-2) temperatures observed at Davis Station, Antarctica, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 10. 11439-11446; doi:10.5194/acp-10-11439-2010; [Ref:14206] AAS Projects 701
French W.J.R., Burns G.B., Espy P.J. (2005) Anomalous winter hydroxyl temperatures at 69°S during 2002 in a multiyear context, Geophysical Research Letters 32. L12818; doi:10.1029/2004GL022287; [Ref:12053] AAS Projects 701
French W.J.R., Burns G.B. (2004) The influence of large-scale oscillations on long-term trend assessment in hydroxyl temperatures over Davis, Antarctica, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 66. 493-506; [Ref:11335] AAS Projects 701