Supervisors:
- Dr Joelle Gergis (jgergis@unimelb.edu.au)
- Dr Linden Ashcroft (linden.ashcroft@bom.gov.au)
Location: University of Melbourne, Bureau of Meteorology
Timing: From February 2019
Our understanding of Australian climate extremes is generally confined to the start of the 20th century. In recent years there have been significant advances in recovering daily instrumental weather observations dating back to 1788, offering insights into the occurrence, magnitude and impacts of historical heatwaves, cold extremes and rainfall events.
This project provides an exciting opportunity to develop the longest homogenised daily climate record for Perth using newly digitised observations beginning in 1830. The project will involve working with BoM staff to conduct state-of-the-art quality control measures on the new historical observations to allow a reliable, long-term analysis of extremes and their possible dynamical causes.
There is also scope to use other historical data sources to verify newly identified extremes and develop case studies for comparison with modern events.
The project is available from February 2019 and can be completed part time throughout semester one as required.
If you are interested in this project, please fill out the application form.