Effect of climate boundary changes on the Southern Westerly Winds. This project aims to produce high quality data on how the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW) respond to largescale changes in climate boundary conditions over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Because the SWW are key drivers of Southern Hemisphere climate, Southern Ocean circulation and global carbon dioxide concentrations, it is important to understand how they respond to changes in boundary conditions. Uncertainty about how they ....Effect of climate boundary changes on the Southern Westerly Winds. This project aims to produce high quality data on how the Southern Westerly Winds (SWW) respond to largescale changes in climate boundary conditions over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Because the SWW are key drivers of Southern Hemisphere climate, Southern Ocean circulation and global carbon dioxide concentrations, it is important to understand how they respond to changes in boundary conditions. Uncertainty about how they do so limits attempts at accurate predictive climate modelling. This project will test conceptual models of SWW dynamics and provide essential boundary conditions for predictive climate models. The project intends to simultaneously build and support a research capacity and global network, and advance Australia’s knowledge and contribution in the area of global climate dynamics.Read moreRead less
Understanding the role of deep flaming in violent pyroconvective events. This project aims to improve the prediction of firestorms by combining state-of-the-art knowledge of dynamic bushfire behaviour with atmospheric models to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the heat and moisture released by a bushfire interacts with ambient atmospheric instability to produce extreme fire events. Firestorms represent the most extreme and catastrophic phase of development of a bushfire. They often c ....Understanding the role of deep flaming in violent pyroconvective events. This project aims to improve the prediction of firestorms by combining state-of-the-art knowledge of dynamic bushfire behaviour with atmospheric models to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the heat and moisture released by a bushfire interacts with ambient atmospheric instability to produce extreme fire events. Firestorms represent the most extreme and catastrophic phase of development of a bushfire. They often cause broad-scale loss of property, environmental damage and human fatalities. Firestorms cannot be suppressed, and so accurate and timely warnings of their occurrence, combined with appropriate community responses, are the only way of mitigating their effects. Better understanding of extreme fire processes may improve mitigation planning, community safety, environmental outcomes and emergency response measures.Read moreRead less
The evolution of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation in southeast Australia. El Niño events starve southeast Australia of rainfall, resulting in droughts and wildfires. El Niño activity is projected to amplify as global temperatures rise, heralding a serious threat to Australia's water security and the incidence and magnitude of wildfires. The key to understanding the potential effects of future changes in El Niño activity lies in the past. El Niño activity has varied substantially over the last 12 ....The evolution of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation in southeast Australia. El Niño events starve southeast Australia of rainfall, resulting in droughts and wildfires. El Niño activity is projected to amplify as global temperatures rise, heralding a serious threat to Australia's water security and the incidence and magnitude of wildfires. The key to understanding the potential effects of future changes in El Niño activity lies in the past. El Niño activity has varied substantially over the last 12,000 years. This project will reconstruct the response of southeast Australian climate, vegetation and fire activity to changes in El Niño activity over this period using lake sediments located in El Niño sensitive locations in Tasmania.Read moreRead less
Has it always burned so hot? Fuel and fire in southeast Australian forests. Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires. While based on enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indige ....Has it always burned so hot? Fuel and fire in southeast Australian forests. Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires. While based on enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indigenous communities, this assertion needs empirical testing within these highly flammable forests. This project aims to empirically test how fuel loads, fuel type, fire frequency and fire intensity have changed over the past 500 years in southeast Australian forests, spanning the period of indigenous to British management.Read moreRead less
Investigation of atypical bushfire spread driven by the interaction of wind, terrain and fire. Large bushfires continue to pose a significant risk to communities in south-eastern Australia. Despite this, there is still very little known about the processes driving the development of large bushfires. This project aims to improve understanding of extreme fire processes and thus improve mitigation planning, community safety and environmental outcomes.