Precipitation in shallow convection over the Southern Ocean. This project aims to quantify the amount of precipitation over the Southern Ocean and identify the key dynamical and microphysical processes that lead to its development. Large uncertainties exist in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, which limits the ability to model the coupled Southern Ocean climate system. Observations from the RV Investigator, an Australian marine research vessel, have revealed heavy precipitation event ....Precipitation in shallow convection over the Southern Ocean. This project aims to quantify the amount of precipitation over the Southern Ocean and identify the key dynamical and microphysical processes that lead to its development. Large uncertainties exist in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, which limits the ability to model the coupled Southern Ocean climate system. Observations from the RV Investigator, an Australian marine research vessel, have revealed heavy precipitation events within the shallow convection commonly found between fronts that have not been captured by either satellite observations or numerical models. This project will improve weather forecasts, including precipitation, and climate projections over the Southern Ocean and the adjoining Antarctic and the southern part of Australia.Read moreRead less
Local climate changes caused by large bushfire burnt areas. This project aims to quantify the impact on local climate produced by large burnt areas after extreme bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge on these previously unexplored fire-scar induced changes to local climate. It will extend an innovative approach that combines satellite based earth observation with very high resolution regional climate modelling to quantify the impacts on land-atmosphere feedbacks and local cli ....Local climate changes caused by large bushfire burnt areas. This project aims to quantify the impact on local climate produced by large burnt areas after extreme bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge on these previously unexplored fire-scar induced changes to local climate. It will extend an innovative approach that combines satellite based earth observation with very high resolution regional climate modelling to quantify the impacts on land-atmosphere feedbacks and local climate. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced methods to quantify local climate changes after extreme fires and their effect on vegetation recovery. This should provide significant benefits to the planning for, and management of, vegetation recovery after extreme fires.Read moreRead less
Role of modulating water wave groups in enhancing air-water fluxes. This project aims to investigate the importance of the group structure and breaking of wind-generated waves of various scales in the air-water exchange of mass, momentum and energy. This project expects to generate new understanding in the area of air-water exchanges using an innovative approach based on direct numerical simulation of wind over unsteady water wave groups for a wide range of wind speed and wave steepness conditi ....Role of modulating water wave groups in enhancing air-water fluxes. This project aims to investigate the importance of the group structure and breaking of wind-generated waves of various scales in the air-water exchange of mass, momentum and energy. This project expects to generate new understanding in the area of air-water exchanges using an innovative approach based on direct numerical simulation of wind over unsteady water wave groups for a wide range of wind speed and wave steepness conditions.
Expected outcomes of this project include generating fundamental knowledge of the unresolved physics and new parameterisations for air-water exchange rates. This will deliver more accurate and more comprehensive forecast models for weather, inland and ocean waterways, and numerous industrial processes.Read moreRead less
The dynamics of turbulent entrainment in sheared convective boundary layers. This project aims to develop general laws to enable the accurate prediction of boundary layer entrainment processes. This will be significant in a wide range of environmental and engineering applications. In particular, the current lack of understanding of this area is a major source of uncertainty in the latest generation of global climate models.
The impact of India-Asia tectonics on climate. This interdisciplinary project aims to determine the controls of tectonics on global climate in the last 50 million years. A combination of tectonics, paleogeography, climate modelling and high-performance computing will be applied to test systematically outstanding issues in the reconstruction of the Indo-Asia region and their landmass/seaways configurations and topography, which have bedevilled previous models of paleoclimate evolution. The propos ....The impact of India-Asia tectonics on climate. This interdisciplinary project aims to determine the controls of tectonics on global climate in the last 50 million years. A combination of tectonics, paleogeography, climate modelling and high-performance computing will be applied to test systematically outstanding issues in the reconstruction of the Indo-Asia region and their landmass/seaways configurations and topography, which have bedevilled previous models of paleoclimate evolution. The proposal expects to generate novel knowledge in the area at the boundary between tectonics, paleoclimate modelling and present-day climate. This provides significant benefits to the interpretation of tectonics–climate coupling as current drivers of climate evolution.Read moreRead less
Links between bushfires in Victoria and floods in Queensland. This project will investigate connections between bushfires in Victoria and floods in Queensland under the framework that atmospheric blocking can be thought of as a common link. High resolution runs using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change future projections of the energetics of high impact weather will improve climate forecasts in sensitive coastal areas of the country.
Improving the avoidance and prediction of turbulence from thunderstorms. One of the most critical weather-related safety issues for aviation is atmospheric turbulence caused by thunderstorms. Thunderstorm-generated turbulence is responsible for frequent serious injuries and significant costs to airlines that are ultimately passed on to passengers. Using extensive new data, case studies and state-of-the-art simulations, this project aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics and behaviour ....Improving the avoidance and prediction of turbulence from thunderstorms. One of the most critical weather-related safety issues for aviation is atmospheric turbulence caused by thunderstorms. Thunderstorm-generated turbulence is responsible for frequent serious injuries and significant costs to airlines that are ultimately passed on to passengers. Using extensive new data, case studies and state-of-the-art simulations, this project aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics and behaviour of thunderstorm-generated turbulence and its representation in weather forecast models. Expected outcomes of this project include the development of new methods to avoid and predict turbulence for use by the aviation industry. This research should provide significant benefits, such as safer and more efficient air travel.Read moreRead less
The Southern Ocean boundary layer: winds, turbulence, sea spray and clouds. Both satellite products and climate models have large biases in the energy and water budgets over the Southern Ocean (SO). This is a direct consequence of a poor understanding of the structure and dynamics of the SO atmospheric boundary layer, which has arisen from an inability to make the necessary observations in this harsh environment. Due to the availability of new Australian research infrastructure, large steps forw ....The Southern Ocean boundary layer: winds, turbulence, sea spray and clouds. Both satellite products and climate models have large biases in the energy and water budgets over the Southern Ocean (SO). This is a direct consequence of a poor understanding of the structure and dynamics of the SO atmospheric boundary layer, which has arisen from an inability to make the necessary observations in this harsh environment. Due to the availability of new Australian research infrastructure, large steps forward are now possible with modest investment. This project will conduct and combine observations from the recently acquired marine vessel, RV Investigator, and the collocated airborne and surface observations to understand the structure and evolution of the unique, pristine SO boundary layer and to evaluate satellites and climate models.Read moreRead less
Atmospheric Photothermal Oxidation as a New Reaction in the Atmosphere. Atmospheric models provide crucial advice on the current and future impacts of human activity on the atmosphere. This project hypothesizes the presence of a new class of chemical reactions that are unknown in atmospheric science and therefore missing from the best existing models. The reactions require both sunlight and air, and they behave differently to all other types of atmospheric reactions. This project aims to charact ....Atmospheric Photothermal Oxidation as a New Reaction in the Atmosphere. Atmospheric models provide crucial advice on the current and future impacts of human activity on the atmosphere. This project hypothesizes the presence of a new class of chemical reactions that are unknown in atmospheric science and therefore missing from the best existing models. The reactions require both sunlight and air, and they behave differently to all other types of atmospheric reactions. This project aims to characterise these reactions in the lab, understand them with theory, and quantify their global impact through modelling. Expected benefits include new understanding of atmospheric chemistry, more accurate model predictions, and—as a result—better strategies for managing the impacts of human activity on the environment.Read moreRead less
Reactivity and photochemistry of halide anions: atmospheric implications. Bromine and iodine are suspected to be responsible for most of the halogen-induced ozone loss in the stratosphere but are not currently included in atmospheric models due to a paucity of knowledge of the gas-phase chemistry and photochemistry of their anions and radicals. This project will develop and deploy advanced mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy techniques to enable precision measurements of the reactions and p ....Reactivity and photochemistry of halide anions: atmospheric implications. Bromine and iodine are suspected to be responsible for most of the halogen-induced ozone loss in the stratosphere but are not currently included in atmospheric models due to a paucity of knowledge of the gas-phase chemistry and photochemistry of their anions and radicals. This project will develop and deploy advanced mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy techniques to enable precision measurements of the reactions and photo-reactions of gas-phase iodide and bromide anions and their oxides. These state-of-the-art measurements of reaction kinetics and products will enable accurate chemical models that predict the impact of bromine and iodine chemistry on ozone levels and will inform future models for global climate.Read moreRead less