CLEX, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes

The Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX) is a major initiative funded by the Australian Research Council. The Centre is an international research consortium of five Australian universities and a network of outstanding national and international partner organizations.

The Centre will improve our understanding of the processes that trigger or enhance extremes and build this understanding into our modelling systems. The improved predictions of climate extremes will enable improvements in how Australia copes with extremes now and in the future.

Breaking news

PhD opportunity: The attribution of heatwaves and compound events, UNSW Sydney

Heatwaves, defined as prolonged periods of excessive heat, have increased in their intensity, frequency and duration. These trends are expected to continue as anthropogenic...
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Research Brief: How well can climate models simulate interactions between cool and dry conditions under the current climate?

Hot days are expected to become more frequent with climate change. Heat extremes can be exacerbated by dry conditions due to a lack of evaporative cooling. This has been shown to...
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Research brief: Do climate change cause longer and more frequent marine heatwaves?

Marine heatwaves are becoming longer and more frequent, and they are having major impacts on marine ecosystems. After each event we often ask the question: did climate change...
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New report, What lies beneath, takes a different view of climate impacts

Version 2 of a report by David Spratt and Ian Dunlop has been released called What lies beneath (pdf), with a rather forceful foreword by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber....
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Research briefs

Research Brief: How well can climate models simulate interactions between cool and dry conditions under the current climate?

Hot days are expected to become more frequent with climate change. Heat extremes can be exacerbated by dry conditions due to a lack of evaporative cooling. This has been shown to...
Read more

Research brief: Ecohydrological equilibrium approach improves modelling of LAI

How many leaves should a tree grow? This information is critical to climate models as the amount of leaf area per unit ground area, or leaf area index (LAI), helps determines the...
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Southern Ocean’s clockwise eddies are most productive

Ocean eddies are spinning parcels of water about 100km across and 1500m deep. They occur everywhere in the ocean. In the Southern Hemisphere, eddies that spin clockwise are...
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Research brief: Successful science outreach with social media

Over four years, the Norwegian Polar Institute’s (NPI) Ocean and Sea Ice team used the social media handle @oceanseaicenpi across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to communicate...
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CLEX Research programs

Extreme rainfall

Drought

Heatwaves and cold air outbreaks

Climate variability and teleconnections