Since the early 1990s, Autumn rainfall has been declining in southeast Australia, particularly through Victoria, southeast South Australia and eastern Tasmania. This ongoing trend has been linked to changes in a number of factors on monthly and longer time scales, including changes to the strength of the subtropical ridge and other remote factors including modes of climate variability. However, the key feature of the decline is the absence of months of high rainfall. Recent work by our group has shown that dry periods are linked to declines in heavy rainfall days. This project will establish the autumn rainfall decline in southeast Australia can also be linked to changes in heavy rainfall days. You’ll explore how aspects of daily rainfall have declined during this period and, time permitting, will examine the meteorological systems related to those days.
Supervisor: Ailie Gallant (ailie.gallant@monash.edu)
Project available: November to early December; late Jan-Feb, periodically March-June 2024.