Marine heatwaves are extreme climate events of anomalously warm ocean surface that have significant impact on marine species, ecosystem distribution consequently on our society.
In this project, you will develop a drought impacts database in a spreadsheet format by mining a wide range of documents. This database will provide valuable information regarding Australian droughts that will be used for drought research in the future.
Mid-level clouds form with a predictable daily cycle over the Sahara in north Africa. The clouds affect the radiation budget for the region, but form in thin layers that are challenging to correctly simulate in weather and climate models.
In this project, the student will use high-resolution data to examine the state of the atmosphere in Australia over the last four decades, and produce maps showing hail boundary conditions – that is, where and when hail could or could not occur.
This project aims to explore the role of the MJO in modulating multi-year La Niña events.
Hydrological impact studies analyse the effects of climate change on hydrological variables, such as changes in soil moisture, streamflow or hydrological extremes. This project aims to investigate the realised added value effect of model bias correction and downscaling methods on hydrological projections for Australia.
This project will explore the use of supervised and unsupervised statistical learning methods (such as neural networks, random forest, clustering) to understand the impact of climate change on hydrological extremes and/or to simulate downstream impacts on affected sectors, such as agriculture, energy, transport, water resources management.
The aim of this project is to investigate the effect of compound hot and dry events on agricultural production in Australia, and to assess the predictability of yield losses due to compound events using seasonal climate and hydrological forecasts. The outcome of the project may inform the development of seasonal forecasts of hydro-climatic risk indicators for agricultural production in Australia.
In Melbourne, 50% of rainfall and 75% of extreme daily rainfall occurs on days with at least one linearly organized convective system. However, thunderstorms are often localized events, and much of the rainfall in a region falls over a short period of time. Furthermore, not all thunderstorms necessarily occur in lines, and organized storms that lead to extreme sub-daily rainfall may be different from those that lead to extreme daily rainfall. This projects aims to identify and categorize organizational structures linked with the most intense rainfalls in the region.
In 1891, Melbourne experienced one of its worst floods on record leading to extensive damage and many deaths. But what was this wayward weather system? How often do lows from our east coast drift westward, and what are their impacts in Victoria? How many of our most significant flooding events are associated with a pattern like this? And are these systems changing over time?