Understanding extreme wind gusts and associated risks in NSW. Wind gusts are rare bursts of high wind, often associated with thunderstorm outflows. They can do significant structural damage, and their rarity and small scale make prediction and risk assessment difficult. This proposal seeks to better understand and predict wind gusts and their impacts to aid in planning. The project aims to use past observations, modelling, and basic theory to show what conditions lead to wind gusts and how like ....Understanding extreme wind gusts and associated risks in NSW. Wind gusts are rare bursts of high wind, often associated with thunderstorm outflows. They can do significant structural damage, and their rarity and small scale make prediction and risk assessment difficult. This proposal seeks to better understand and predict wind gusts and their impacts to aid in planning. The project aims to use past observations, modelling, and basic theory to show what conditions lead to wind gusts and how likely they are to exceed key thresholds. It targets important scientific and practical issues such as the joint occurrence of gusts and high rainfall, role of gusts in contributing to dust and other airborne pollutants, impacts of gusts on subsequent storm activity, and gusts in a warming climate.Read moreRead less
Will East Coast Lows change in frequency or intensity in the future? East Coast Lows, the largest storms on the south-east coast of Australia, produce both large benefits and losses for this highly populated region of the country. An urgent national priority exists to understand the driving mechanisms for these events and to quantify how the frequency and intensity of these systems will change due to climate change.
Transforming our research capacity in the analysis of climate extremes. Given their devastating impacts, there is now a critical urgency to understand what drives extreme climate events and make timely predictions of their future risk. The analysis of comprehensive extremes datasets, comprising global observations and output of multi-model simulations, will greatly improve our ability to answer fundamental questions about the nature and variability of extreme climatic events. This project also e ....Transforming our research capacity in the analysis of climate extremes. Given their devastating impacts, there is now a critical urgency to understand what drives extreme climate events and make timely predictions of their future risk. The analysis of comprehensive extremes datasets, comprising global observations and output of multi-model simulations, will greatly improve our ability to answer fundamental questions about the nature and variability of extreme climatic events. This project also ensures the government's continued commitment to managing the risks associated with extreme events as an urgent national priority. It represents a landmark opportunity for Australian leadership of an international collaboration between some of the world's leading climate scientists and climate data and modelling centres.Read moreRead less
Innovative measurement and modelling of greenhouse fluxes at regional scales across Australia. Carbon dioxide accounts for around 60% of the enhanced greenhouse effect. This proposal aims to markedly improve knowledge of the exchange of carbon, mostly as CO2, between atmospheric, ocean and land-based reservoirs in the Australian region. This will be achieved through a suite of measurements using innovative technologies: satellite and ground based remote sensing as well in situ measurements at ....Innovative measurement and modelling of greenhouse fluxes at regional scales across Australia. Carbon dioxide accounts for around 60% of the enhanced greenhouse effect. This proposal aims to markedly improve knowledge of the exchange of carbon, mostly as CO2, between atmospheric, ocean and land-based reservoirs in the Australian region. This will be achieved through a suite of measurements using innovative technologies: satellite and ground based remote sensing as well in situ measurements at Darwin and on the Ghan railway from Darwin to Adelaide. The measurements will be used to constrain inverse models of the carbon cycle and significantly reduce uncertainties in regional carbon source estimates. These estimates will in turn be compared to the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for comparison and verification.Read moreRead less
Measuring boundary layer flows with airborne LIDAR. This project aims to support development of an existing LIDAR system to enable routine airborne measurement of winds and aerosol concentrations in the atmospheric boundary layer. The technical details are innovative such that the system can operate from a small aircraft, and obtain measurements over urban areas, where previously such measurements were unobtainable. This system will provide unique data to help unravel the complex process respon ....Measuring boundary layer flows with airborne LIDAR. This project aims to support development of an existing LIDAR system to enable routine airborne measurement of winds and aerosol concentrations in the atmospheric boundary layer. The technical details are innovative such that the system can operate from a small aircraft, and obtain measurements over urban areas, where previously such measurements were unobtainable. This system will provide unique data to help unravel the complex process responsible for transport and dispersion of pollutants in boundary layers over citiesRead moreRead less
Reengineering a dynamic vegetation model to explore the stability of Australian terrestrial carbon. Overseas models do not represent Australian biophysical processes well: our flora and fauna are unique and our soils are old and nutrient poor. In contrast, the National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) is a world-class framework for estimating current carbon processes. By building NCAS expertise into an overseas model of soil and vegetation processes we can develop the capacity to increase our con ....Reengineering a dynamic vegetation model to explore the stability of Australian terrestrial carbon. Overseas models do not represent Australian biophysical processes well: our flora and fauna are unique and our soils are old and nutrient poor. In contrast, the National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) is a world-class framework for estimating current carbon processes. By building NCAS expertise into an overseas model of soil and vegetation processes we can develop the capacity to increase our confidence in future projections of carbon and vegetation change. Our proposal, linking Universities, CSIRO and the Australian Greenhouse Office establishes a team that is internationally competitive. It will enhance local expertise and local model development to ensure national policy development is underpinned by world-class science.Read moreRead less
The Effects of Nano and Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions on Children's Health. The socio-economic benefits to Australia will include (i) quantitative knowledge of the exposure to nano and ultrafine particles, pollutants in the centre of current scientific, medical and policy debates and (ii) a breakthrough in the scientific understanding of the specific particle properties, which have impacts on health effects. The ultimate economic benefit will be improved urban design to lower, in pa ....The Effects of Nano and Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions on Children's Health. The socio-economic benefits to Australia will include (i) quantitative knowledge of the exposure to nano and ultrafine particles, pollutants in the centre of current scientific, medical and policy debates and (ii) a breakthrough in the scientific understanding of the specific particle properties, which have impacts on health effects. The ultimate economic benefit will be improved urban design to lower, in particular, children's exposure to ultrafine particles, thus reducing life long impacts, health care cost and productivity losses. The research will also place Australia at the forefront of international progress towards better methods for achieving environmental and public health sustainability.Read moreRead less
Airborne ultrafine particles in Australian cities. There is an acute deficiency of knowledge in Australia on urban airborne ultrafine particles, originating from transport and other anthropogenic sources, which pose significant health and environmental risks. The aim of this project is to address this deficiency by an extensive multi-city, cross-disciplinary study using state of the art instrumentation and data analytic techniques. The outcome will be an in depth, quantitative insight into the c ....Airborne ultrafine particles in Australian cities. There is an acute deficiency of knowledge in Australia on urban airborne ultrafine particles, originating from transport and other anthropogenic sources, which pose significant health and environmental risks. The aim of this project is to address this deficiency by an extensive multi-city, cross-disciplinary study using state of the art instrumentation and data analytic techniques. The outcome will be an in depth, quantitative insight into the characteristics of the particles, their sources and spatial and temporal variation across different urban areas and time scales. Further, the impacts of changing fuels, vehicle technologies, and climate on future trends of the particles will be elucidated.Read moreRead less
Interactions between sulfur, nitrogen, and iron cycles in the sustainable management and use of acid sulfate soils. Acid Sulfate Soils (ASS) can cause major land management and environmental problems. It has been proposed that the linkages between the Sulfur, Nitrogen, and Iron biogeochemical cycles deterrmine the environmental and crop production hazards associated with use of ASS. In order to develop best management practices for ASS, it is important to research those linkages and determine th ....Interactions between sulfur, nitrogen, and iron cycles in the sustainable management and use of acid sulfate soils. Acid Sulfate Soils (ASS) can cause major land management and environmental problems. It has been proposed that the linkages between the Sulfur, Nitrogen, and Iron biogeochemical cycles deterrmine the environmental and crop production hazards associated with use of ASS. In order to develop best management practices for ASS, it is important to research those linkages and determine their contribution to fluxes of materials exported from these soils. This project will carry out that research and will transfer results to industry partners to improve land management practices and identify appropriate landuses in ASS landcapes.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing pre-20th century rainfall, temperature and pressure for south-eastern Australia using palaeoclimate, documentary and early weather station data. South-eastern Australia is in the grip of a severe water crisis due to the worst drought in recorded history and increasing temperatures. This landmark project brings together a team of Australia's leading climate scientists, water managers and historians with the common goal of reconstructing south-eastern Australia's climate history. Th ....Reconstructing pre-20th century rainfall, temperature and pressure for south-eastern Australia using palaeoclimate, documentary and early weather station data. South-eastern Australia is in the grip of a severe water crisis due to the worst drought in recorded history and increasing temperatures. This landmark project brings together a team of Australia's leading climate scientists, water managers and historians with the common goal of reconstructing south-eastern Australia's climate history. The greatly extended record of annual rainfall and temperature variability will allow better planning for water storage and use, and improved testing of climate model simulations. Improving our understanding of the historical impacts of climate extremes on society will assist with planning for life in a hotter and drier future.Read moreRead less