Professor Adrian McDonald

Position: Professor and Associate Head, School of Physical & Chemical Sciences, University of Canterbury. Former Director of Gateway Antarctica.
Field: Atmospheric physics

Dr Adrian McDonald is a senior lecturer with the School of Physical & Chemical Sciences at University of Canterbury. His research involves using a range of remote sensing observations from radar and satellite instruments.

Adrian is originally from Birmingham in the UK. He began his science career with a BSc (Hons) in physics and went on to do a PhD in atmospheric physics at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. Adrian held a number of postdoctoral positions in universities around the United Kingdom and also worked in the defence industry in the UK. During this time, Adrian used lidar (laser radar) to research the propagation of atmospheric waves into the stratosphere, worked on optical remote sensing of the Earth’s surface and used synthetic aperture radar data to examine properties of the Earth’s surface. In his last position in the UK, he worked at Alenia Marconi Systems as a systems engineer, which involved the development of radar systems on board missiles.

The research that I do on the interaction between atmospheric dynamics, the movement of the winds and chemistry and how that interacts with climate wouldn’t be possible without satellites.

Rights: Dr Adrian McDonald, University of Canterbury

Base camp

A base camp set up in Antarctica by Adrian McDonald and University of Canterbury researchers. They will live in these tents while carrying out research to validate satellite data.

Adrian took up a position at the University of Canterbury in 2001. His research focuses on the Antarctic atmosphere, Antarctic climate and the ozone hole. Adrian travels to Antarctica for 2 or 3 weeks most years to do fieldwork, supported by Antarctica New Zealand, where he sets up weather stations to validate the data he gets from satellites. Adrian believes that the ozone hole is on the road to recovery and could be fully recovered by as early as 2050. That’s the good news. However, the shrinking ozone layer may lessen the strong winds that help to keep the Antarctic cold.

Rights: Dr Adrian McDonald, University of Canterbury

University of Canterbury weather station

Scientists use a variety of weather monitoring tools and sets of data to make weather predictions – this weather station was set up by University of Canterbury researchers to verify satellite data.

In addition to research, Adrian teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in physics and supervises graduate students.

Adrian was also part of the Deep South Challenge, heading up the ‘Processes and Observations’ programme.

This article is based on information current in 2013 and updated in 2025.