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Research brief: Influence of the Madden-Julian oscillation on Costa Rican mid-summer drought timing

September 27, 2018 9:56 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Influence of the Madden-Julian oscillation on Costa Rican mid-summer drought timing

The Central American mid‐summer drought (MSD) is the decline in rainfall during the middle of the wet season over Central America, which has been shown to have strong effects on agriculture and bushfires in Costa Rica. The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) has been shown to influence Costa Rican rainfall on intra‐seasonal time scales, and therefore may be important to the MSD. This research aims to find the connection between the MJO and MSD.

Research brief: Summertime Heatwaves in Brisbane

September 25, 2018 11:20 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Summertime Heatwaves in Brisbane

Heat waves are the deadliest natural hazard in Australia. Motivated by the prediction that the number of extremely hot days in subtropical Australia will increase in a warmer climate, this study aims to develop a comprehensive picture of the processes leading to extreme temperatures.

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

September 11, 2018 1:07 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How well can climate models simulate interactions between cool and dry conditions under the current climate?

This paper shows that many models overestimate the interaction between hot and dry conditions in wet regions and therefore overamplify heat extremes. The study points to necessary model improvement to increase confidence in future projections of heat extremes.

Research brief: If dimethyl sulfide emissions ceased, Earth would warm 0.5C in a decade

August 15, 2018 12:12 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: If dimethyl sulfide emissions ceased, Earth would warm 0.5C in a decade

The study finds important regional consequences for precipitation and clouds formation if large changes in dimethyl-sulfide emissions were to occur.  In a hypothetical case where all marine DMS emissions cease completely, we find the Earth would warm by approximately 0.5 degrees C over a ten-year period.

Research brief: Southern Ocean’s clockwise eddies are most productive

August 15, 2018 10:43 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Southern Ocean’s clockwise eddies are most productive

CLEX researchers found that counter-clockwise rotating eddies in the Southern Ocean mix the ocean deeper in winter, allowing more nutrients to enter their interiors, leading to higher productivity.  This work is important because eddy productivity plays a significant role in the exchange of carbon between the ocean and the atmosphere.

Research brief: Climate models under-represent tropical heating variations

August 14, 2018 11:33 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Climate models under-represent tropical heating variations

This research demonstrates how cloud processes, steep mountains, tropical coastlines, the daily changes in solar insolation and planetary-scale waves work together to cause large variations in the tropical heating that drives global circulation patterns. Many of these effects are under-represented in global climate models.

Research brief: MAAT reveals hidden sources of model divergence

August 14, 2018 8:56 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: MAAT reveals hidden sources of model divergence

The MAAT framework can be used to systematically run multiple model simulations to explore how different underlying model assumptions, hypotheses and parameters lead to predicted model behaviour and isolate the causes of model divergence.

CLEX undergraduate scholarships

August 14, 2018 12:08 pm Published by Comments Off on CLEX undergraduate scholarships

The ARC Centre of Excellence Undergraduate Summer Scholarships in Climate Extremes are highly competitive scholarships intended to provide undergraduate students from Australian universities an introduction to cutting-edge climate science research at one of our five universities, or our national partners- CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology and Department of Environment.