Postdoctoral researcher of clouds and climate change
I study the multi-scale physics of Earth's clouds and climate. To connect the big with the small and make sense of it all, I use pen-and-paper calculations, data-intensive simulations, and observations from aircraft, satellites, and ground-based observatories. Originally from California, I now work at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.
I did my PhD at the University of Exeter, where I was advised by Geoff Vallis and Nadir Jeevanjee. During this time, I got a Fulbright Scholarship to spend a year working at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique with Sandrine Bony and Jean-Louis Dufresne. Before my PhD, I studied Physics in the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. See my CV for more details.
I welcome correspondence at brett.mckim@lmd.ipsl.fr
Happenings
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Apr 2025 The paper Water Vapor Spectroscopy and Thermodynamics Constrain Earth's Tropopause Temperature authored by myself, Nadir Jeevanjee, Geoffrey K. Vallis, and Neil T. Lewis, is now published in AGU Advances.
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Aug 2024 I joined the MAESTRO and PERCUSSION field campaigns in Cape Verde, which are aimed at understanding convective organization from the scale of individual clouds to the ITCZ.
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Jul 2024 I started a postdoc with Sandrine Bony and Jean-Louis Dufresne at the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique in Paris.
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Apr 2024 The paper Weak anvil cloud area feedback suggested by physical and observational constraints, authored by myself, Sandrine Bony, and Jean Louis Dufresne, is now published in Nature Geoscience. For additional context, see the press release, this editorial, this commentary, and my talk at the 32nd ECS Virtual Symposium.
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Mar 2024 I moved to the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology to begin a short Postdoc visit at the Tropical Cloud Observations Group.
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Mar 2024 I finished my PhD at the University of Exeter. I will defend in May...
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Jul 2023 I finished my Fulbright scholarship and returned to Exeter.
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Oct 2022 I moved to Paris and began my year-long Fulbright at the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique.
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Feb 2022 I spoke about "Radiator fins and the Longwave Clear-sky Feedback" at the 15th ECS Virtual Symposium.
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Dec 2021 I spoke about the "Dependence of longwave feedback on surface temperature and relative humidity" at the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting. An adapted version of this talk is available here.
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Aug 2021 The paper Joint Dependence of Longwave Feedback on Surface Temperature and Relative Humidity, led by myself and coauthored with Nadir Jeevanjee and Geoff Vallis, is now published in Geophysical Research Letters.
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May 2021 I led a discussion on the paper Multidecadal climate oscillations during the past millennium driven by volcanic forcing at the GFDL journal club.
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May 2021 I gave a public talk entitled Vortex rings: Why do they form and how can they help us make better climate models? at the annual Pint of Science Festival.
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May 2021 I gave a talk entitled "How does longwave feedback depend on both surface temperature and relative humidity?" at the Exeter Climate System (XCS) Seminar.
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Oct 2019 The paper, Buoyancy-driven entrainment in dry thermals, led by myself and coauthored with Nadir Jeevanjee and Daniel Lecoanet, is now published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
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Sep 2019 I started my PhD at the University of Exeter.