John Greenhough

Research experience

At Warwick, my PhD focused on the statistical signatures of highly-correlated systems such as turbulent space and astrophysical plasmas. My aims were (i) to quantify the ways in which transport processes are anomalous (diffusion coefficient depends on time/space) and (ii) to establish how this may be determined from observations of bulk plasma quantities. In particular, I have considerable experience with techniques that quantify scaling properties and probability distributions, which provide model-independent constraints on physical phenomena in these systems.

In Earth Observation Science at Leicester, I looked at two areas exploiting new developments in limb-sounding observations of clouds. First, analysis of their spectral signatures is important owing to the potential implications of both thin cirrus and polar stratospheric clouds for radiative forcing and heterogeneous chemistry (c.f. Kyoto and Montreal-related protocols). Second, this new knowledge was used to design a Limb Cloud Imager to provide more detailed measurements on a future ESA mission. I was also involved with updating carbon dioxide reference atmospheres by assimilating the latest measurements into existing profiles.

Now in the School of Geosciences at Edinburgh, my research involves the analysis of correlations in time series for earthquakes and subsurface fluid flow, in order to quantify the Earth's response to both natural and man-made stress perturbations and hence predict this response more accurately and precisely. Previous experience enabled me to inform our research group on the correct type of regression for earthquake histograms, from which three publications arose with significant implications for seismic hazard calculation. Involvement in the running and commercialisation of a Bayesian Statistical Reservoir Model for oilfield flow rates brings frequent opportunities to explain technical concepts to mixed audiences – a skill from which I derive much enjoyment.

Publications in refereed journals

1. J Greenhough et al. Characterising anomalous transport in accretion disks from X-ray observations. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 385, 693 (2002).

2. J Greenhough et al. Football goal distributions and extremal statistics. Physica A, 316, 615 (2002).

3. J Greenhough et al. Identification of a 12-17 day timescale in X-ray observations of GRS 1915+105. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 340, 851 (2003).

4. J Greenhough et al. Probability distribution functions for ELM bursts in a series of JET tokamak discharges. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 45, 747 (2003).

5. J Greenhough et al. Probability distributions of full-disk EUV/XUV solar irradiance and correlation with solar activity. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 409, L17 (2003).

6. J Greenhough et al. Towards cloud detection and cloud frequency distributions from MIPAS infra-red observations. Advances in Space Research, 36, 800 (2005).

7. N W Watkins et al. Towards synthesis of solar wind and geomagnetic scaling exponents: a fractional levy motion model. Space Science Reviews, 121, 271 (2005).

8. J J Remedios et al. MIPAS reference atmospheres and comparisons to V4.61/V4.62 MIPAS level 2 geophysical data sets. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 7, 9973 (2007).

9. K Heffer et al. Reservoirs near a critical geomechanical point: review of theory, field evidence, prevalence and management. Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE 107164 (2007).

10. J Greenhough and I G Main. A Poisson model for earthquake frequency uncertainties in seismic hazard analysis. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L19313, doi:10.1029/2008GL035353 (2008).

11. J Greenhough et al. Comment on paper: `Relationship between accelerating seismicity and quiescence, two precursors to large earthquakes' by A Mignan and R Di Giovambattista. Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L17303, doi:10.1029/2009GL039846 (2009).

12. M Naylor et al. Statistical evaluation of characteristic earthquakes in the frequency-magnitude distributions of Sumatra and other subduction zone regions. Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L20303, doi:10.1029/2009GL040460 (2009).

13. K Heffer et al. Low-cost monitoring of inter-well reservoir communication paths through correlations in well rate fluctuations: case studies from mature fields in the North Sea. Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE 130734 (2010).

14. A F Bell et al. Challenges for forecasting based on accelerating rates of earthquakes at volcanoes and laboratory analogues. Geophysical Journal International, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2011.04982.x (2011).

15. X Zhang et al. Modeling of Depletion Induced Micro-Seismic by Coupled Reservoir Simulation: Application to Valhall Field . Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE 143378 (2011).

16. I G Main et al. Model selection and uncertainty in earthquake hazard analysis, in Köhler & Nishijima (eds), Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ISBN 978-0-415-66986-3, pp 735-743 (2011).