In this paper, the researchers investigated how dryness, represented by the aridity index, affects the inter-annual variability of ecosystem iso/anisohydricity at the regional scale, estimated using satellite microwave vegetation optical depth observations.
By grouping weather systems by similar patterns rather than averaging conditions over months, seasons or years, CLEX researchers found that between Australia and Antarctica, the ‘doughnut’ structure of SAM is split into multiple ‘flavours’ and is more likely to have ‘bite marks’ out of it than be a perfect ring.
CLEX researchers and colleagues examined the contribution to uncertainty in simulated future changes in crop yields using the change-factor method and an additional, more sophisticated, statistical downscaling method of generating realistic future climate data from climate model output.
This paper aims to catalogue the steps the authors have found make up a successful framework for event attribution analyses. The hope is that this paper will be useful for those considering how to undertake such work themselves and to highlight some of the potential issues and pitfalls that can arise along the way.
Using ocean model simulations, this study demonstrates that the unusual behaviour of Indian Ocean temperatures over the past 60 years was mainly due to wind conditions.
A landmark new international review of climate sensitivity led by ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes researcher Prof Steven Sherwood has reduced the uncertainty in Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity. Estimates of likely values now vary by less than a factor of two. The new assessment concludes that the climate is more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than some previous estimates.
In a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports, a group of oceanographers, atmospheric scientists, ecologists and fisheries experts got together to identify the most severe marine heatwaves over recent decades. The objective was to understand what triggered these events and led to their ultimate demise.
As a La Niña event intensifies in the Pacific, bringing increased rain to parts of Australia and a powerful hurricane season to the Tropical Atlantic, a new book reveals the dynamics and impacts of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the irregular cycle that switches the Pacific Ocean between these cool La Niña and warm El Niño events.
New study shows November-to-March precipitation (when rainy season peaks over most of the Southern Hemisphere land mass) was significantly reduced both in the Southern Hemisphere tropics and subtropics due to a weakening of the subtropical convergence zones during the mid-Pliocene Warm Period.
An international team including CLEX researchers examined models used by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) over three model phases linked to IPCC reports – CMIP3, CMIP5, and the most recent, CMIP6, to see if they improved representation of tropical rainfall.