The University of the West Indies

              CLIMATE STUDIES GROUP MONA

        "Taking a closer look at Caribbean Climate Science"

About Us

The Climate Studies Group Mona (CSGM) was formed within the Physics Department at the University of the West Indies in 1994 under the initiative of the Honourable Professor A. Anthony Chen, O.M. The CSGM comprises faculty members, consultants, technical staff and postgraduate students - all working together to increasingly understand the workings of local, regional and global climate.

Our Mission

  The mission of the CSGM is as follows:-

• To investigate and understand the mechanisms responsible for
  
  1. the mean climate and
  2. extremes in climate in both Jamaica and the wider Caribbean;

• To use this understanding to predict climate on a seasonal and annual basis; 
• To promote awareness of global warming 
• To determine how anthropogenic climate change will manifest itself in the Caribbean region;
• To investigate the potential for exploiting renewable energy resources; and
• To investigate and promote the advantageous uses of climate prediction in socio-economic sectors

Some Pioneering Work

• Mapping of the average solar radiation available to Jamaica
• Modelling of wind speed and power across Jamaica
• Creation of statistical models for the early (May-July) and late (August-September) rainfall seasons
• Development of a Caribbean Climate Interactive Database
• Generation of future scenarios of precipitation and temperature change over the Caribbean
• Highlighting the link between climate and dengue
  

Current Research

Research is currently ongoing under the following themes:

1. Climate variability and its impact on dengue for the Caribbean
2. Modelling of cane yields at Worthy Park Sugar Estate in Jamaica
3. Generation of climate change scenarios with applications to health and water resources
4. Understanding climate change impacts on biodiversity and the development of projects to study these impacts
5. Investigating hurricanes using regional climate models
6. Modelling of the strong low level winds over the Caribbean