A new study with Centre of Excellence researchers warns that changes in springtime winds high above the South Pole could trigger higher than usual heat waves and fire-prone weather conditions in Australia.
New research has used a combination of records from captains and scientific observers, FAD tracking data, ocean models and cutting edge simulation methods to reveal for the first time the trajectories and potential impact FADs may have on fisheries around Pacific island nations.
Melbourne’s existing water supplies may face pressure if global warming hits the 2℃ level. The effects of drying and warming in southern Australia are expected to reduce natural water supplies. If we overshoot 2℃ of warming, even the desalination plant might not provide enough drinking water to a growing population.
This release is to advise the community that an ACCESS Oversight Committee has been formed initially comprising Christian Jakob, Rachel Law, Helen Cleugh, Andy Pitman, Tony Hirst, Peter May, David Karoly and Ben Evans. Terms of reference have been agreed to by the group and can be found at the end of this document.
The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) Model Analysis Workshop was held in Barcelona from March 25-28, 2019, and provided the first opportunity for results from CMIP6 models to be discussed and presented by the modelling community.
Indian Ocean convection caused a powerful planetary wave that led to a drought in South America and a marine heatwave in the South Atlantic that lasted for months.
An international team, led by Australian researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic (IMAS) studies, have published in Nature Communications the first global assessment of the major drivers of marine heatwaves.
CLEX researchers with the Bureau of Meteorology have created a new 20-year-long regularly updated precipitation dataset for Australia using 50 radar sites. This will allow researchers to examine the climatology of extreme events, follow cloud processes, estimate hail size, determine cloud top height and much more.
Dr Mandy Freund and CLEX colleagues have produced a world first 400-year long record of El Niño activity. It's a record that was previously considered impossible to extract from coral cores.
CLEX researchers and colleagues from Australia, Germany and the US have quantified the effect of climate extremes, such as droughts or heatwaves, on the yield variability of staple crops around the world. Overall, year-to-year changes in climate factors during the growing season of maize, rice, soy and spring wheat accounted for 20%-49% of yield fluctuations, according to research published in Environmental Research Letters.