Kerry H. Cook

Kerry Harrison Cook is an American climate scientist and, since 2008, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She was elected in 2009 a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and in 2021 was awarded the Joanne Simpson Tropical Meteorology Research Award.

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Quotes

The African easterly jet (AEJ, also known as the West African jet) is a prominent feature of the complicated zonal wind structure that forms over northern Africa in summer. ...
The jet may be instrumental in creating an environment in which African wave disturbances develop through baroclinic and barotropic instability (e.g., Rennick 1976; Thorncroft and Hoskins 1994a,b) and may play a role in determining the region’s precipitation distribution through these wave disturbances (e.g., Payne and McGarry 1977; Rowell and Milford 1993) or through its role in determining the large-scale column moisture convergence (Rowell et al. 1992). In addition, the African wave disturbances have long been identified as sources of tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic (e.g., Frank 1970). A better understanding of why the jet forms, and its sensitivity to surface conditions, will be useful for understanding the mechanics of the region’s basic climate dynamics as well as its intra- and interannual variability; such an understanding is necessary to advance our prediction capabilities.
- (May 1999) "Generation of the African Easterly Jet and Its Role in Determining West African Precipitation". Journal of Climate 12 (5): 1165–1184. DOI:10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<1165:GOTAEJ>2.0.CO;2.

In the absence of regulation and/or some prohibitive cost attached to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, will freedom in the climate commons bring ruin to all? Or will a more complex scenario develop, in which unequal use of the climate commons brings benefit to some and ruin to others?
- Goldstein, Natalie (2009). "Foreword by Kerry Harrison Cook". Global Warming. Infobase Publishing. pp. v–viii. ISBN 9780816081264. (quote from p. v;; 340 pages; juvenile nonfiction)

The stratosphere lies above the tropopause, extending to about 48 km or 1 hPa, and is capped by the stratopause. It is a vertically stable, stratified region—hence its name—in which temperature increases with altitude. The mesosphere ("middle sphere") stretches from the stratopause to about 80 km, with temperatures again decreasing with height. The region of transition to interplanetary space, about 80 km, is the thermosphere. ...
The only region where the incoming solar radiation is strongly absorbed is in the stratosphere, where ozone absorbs ultraviolet wavelengths. The stratopause marks the level of maximum absorption of solar radiation by ozone, but it is not the location of the greatest ozone concentration. Ozone concentrations generally peak near about 25 km elevation, but much of the ultraviolet radiation has been removed from the incoming solar beam at that level by the ozone above.
- Climate Dynamics (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. 2025. p. 15. ISBN 9780691265759. (280 pages; 1st edition 2013)

The West African monsoon season begins in late April or early May with the onset of spring rains along the Guinean coast near 4°N. The precipitation maximum remains over the coast until late June or early July. At that time, the rainfall maximum shifts into the southern Sahel, near 12°N, often over the course of a few days. This shift in the latitude of the rainfall maximum is known as the West African monsoon jump.
- (21 March 2015) "Role of inertial instability in the West African monsoon jump". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. DOI:10.1002/2014JD022579.