The Extreme Rainfall Research Program of the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX) held a workshop on October 4 at the University of New South Wales (Sydney). There were 30 participants representing the CLEX nodes, Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and National Centre for Atmospheric Research.
One of the most striking features of Jupiter –-a gaseous giant with no solid surface-- is the coloured bands encircling the planet. These bands are strong zonal jets that flow in Jupiter’s atmosphere, similar in a way to the jets in Earth's atmosphere. Until recently, we had almost no direct observations beneath Jupiter's clouds.
Forecasting El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, and anticipating how they may change with global warming remains a significant challenge for climate researchers. An ENSO complexity workshop held in November 2017 produced a follow-up paper summarising what we know about ENSO and its predictability.
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.
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.
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.
This paper examined the likelihood of extreme marine heatwaves global using climate models simulations, with and without anthropogenic influences, concluding that these events were up to fifty times more likely due to anthropogenic climate change.
This report is not intended as a “science paper”, rather its designed to translate science into action and highlight risks in the way businesses, the military and emergency services should treat risk when it becomes existential.
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.
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.