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CLEX annual workshop, 2019

December 7, 2019 11:00 am Published by Comments Off on CLEX annual workshop, 2019

This year’s annual workshop, held in Hobart, brought together complex science, explainers, breakout meetings and poster sessions in a way that was perhaps the most accessible yet. It's set a very high bar for next year's annual workshop.

Montreal Protocol set to slow global warming by at least 1°C

December 6, 2019 1:28 pm Published by Comments Off on Montreal Protocol set to slow global warming by at least 1°C

The Montreal Protocol, an international agreement signed in 1987 to stop chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroying the ozone layer, now appears to be the first international treaty to successfully slow the rate of global warming.

Climate change will increase frequency of Australia’s most dangerous fires

November 26, 2019 1:50 pm Published by Comments Off on Climate change will increase frequency of Australia’s most dangerous fires

Catastrophic wildfires like the Black Saturday wildfires in 2009 and Canberra Wildfires of 2003, which were so large and dangerous that they generated their own weather systems – including the world’s first filmed fire tornado – are likely to be more frequent in the future as a result of climate change across southeast Australia

Research brief: How magnetic fields can make water behave like honey

November 26, 2019 10:49 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How magnetic fields can make water behave like honey

Turning on a magnetic field may make fluids that conduct electricity behave more like honey than like water. This discovery may help explain a mystery of Jupiter's zonal winds, the alternating east-west jet streams, seen in photographs as colourful stripes.

Research brief: How tropical Indo-Pacific processes drive ocean heat into Atlantic meridional circulation

November 26, 2019 10:26 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How tropical Indo-Pacific processes drive ocean heat into Atlantic meridional circulation

Solar heating of surface waters in the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans, along with turbulent mixing that moves this heat into the colder deep-reaching Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, play a crucial role in shaping oceanic heat transport pathways

Research brief: New model explores the relationship between humidity, instability, and precipitation in the tropics

November 26, 2019 9:57 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: New model explores the relationship between humidity, instability, and precipitation in the tropics

In this paper, CLEX researchers considered the steady-state response of the atmosphere to an imposed large-scale flow. They found that under these steady-state conditions, humidity increases with the precipitation rate, while the lapse rate (rate of decrease of temperature with height) increases.

Research brief: Assessing surface heat flux products from observations over the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean

November 25, 2019 1:15 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Assessing surface heat flux products from observations over the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean

To better understand the biases and ultimately improve the quality of our climate records, CLEX researches and their collaborators undertook in situ measurements using the NOAA Physical Sciences Division flux system during the Clouds, Aerosols, Precipitation, Radiation, and Atmospheric Composition over the Southern Ocean (CAPRICORN) experiment in 2016.

Research brief: Convective extremes don’t always coincide with warm extremes during El Niños

November 25, 2019 12:46 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Convective extremes don’t always coincide with warm extremes during El Niños

This study found in CMIP5 models that are able to simulate both types of events, that convective extremes do not always coincide with warm extremes. The disassociation becomes more distinct under greenhouse warming with higher occurrences of convective extremes than warm extremes.

Research brief: Large scale monsoon circulation impacts Indian Ocean convection

November 25, 2019 12:15 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Large scale monsoon circulation impacts Indian Ocean convection

This paper investigates the annual cycle in cloud and rainfall measurements over the western equatorial Indian Ocean. While there is a single period of strong rainfall over the region during December-January each year, there are two periods of increased high-top clouds associated with convection.