In this project you will be addressing the challenge of recurring droughts by helping us build a collection of data visualisations to tell the story of Victoria’s parched history. Your collection will help us understand these droughts were experienced by people across the state, and how our understanding of drought is changing as we move into a warmer world.
The jet stream is a band of strong westerly winds in the upper atmosphere. Shifts in the jet are associated with shifts in the storm tracks, with associated changes in regional weather and rainfall. This project will look at methods to characterise the position and strength of the jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere, with a focus on changes in the Australian region with time.
Ozone depletion over Antarctica from the late 1970s to 2000 has been linked to changes in the surface climate over the Southern Hemisphere in summer, among them a more positive Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Over Australian latitudes, a more positive SAM is associated with increased rainfall over eastern Australia in the summer season. Given stratospheric ozone over Antarctica is projected to recover to 1980 levels by ~2050, the impact of ozone recovery on its own would be to reduce this upward trend in summertime rainfall over eastern Australia.