Research program: The role of land surface forcing and feedbacks for regional climate

Given we live on the land, source our water from the land, and grow our crops on the land, a research focus on this part of the climate system is to be expected.

Climate simulations worldwide have been successful at viewing the future effects of climate change at continental scales but have struggled at regional scales because of the variety of forcing and feedback effects caused by different land-use types, urban landscapes, fire, irrigation etc.

The Centre’s researchers will explore the processes and feedbacks associated with different land types over Australia. They will examine regional energy and water budgets and how land types affect climate – particularly irrigated areas, urban spaces and fire affected regions. More broadly our researchers will examine the processes, which explain how energy, water and carbon vary in Australian soils and vegetation.

This research will directly lead to regionally detailed Australian climate models that will give us a far greater insight into the processes that explain observed changes in land-surface processes and what future climate change holds for our soils and vegetation.

Chief Investigators

Associate Professor Michael Roderick (ANU)
Professor Andrew Pitman (UNSW)
Dr Lisa Alexander (UNSW)
Dr Todd Lane (University of Melbourne)

Partner Investigators

Dr Ying Ping Wang (CAWCR-CSIRO)
Dr Christa Peters-Lidard (NASA-Goddard Space Flight Centre, USA)
Professor Hoshin Gupta (University of Arizona, USA)
Professor Rowan Sutton (National Centre for Atmospheric Science, UK)

Latest news

Triple whammy: ocean warming, La Niña, and cyclone produced Queensland floods
17 May 2012
A record La Niña event coupled with tropical cyclone Tasha generated most of the record deluge of rain that devastated much of Queensland in December 2010, but a new study has found that another big culprit was also in play - record high sea-surface temperatures off northern Australia.

Air pollution may be driving expansion of tropics - black carbon and near-surface ozone most likely culprits
17 May 2012
Man-made pollutants are likely to be pushing the boundary of the tropics further polewards in the Northern Hemisphere according to new research by a team of scientists.

1000 years of climate data confirms Australia's warming
17 May 2012
In the first study of its kind in Australasia, scientists used 27 natural climate records to create the first large-scale temperature reconstruction for the region over the last 1000 years.

More news >>

Latest blog entries

John Allen's storm chasing: entry 1
17 May 2012
Is it time to leave yet?

Jackson Tan's Maldives research: entry 10
09 November 2011
And so here I am in the Male International Airport, waiting to board my plane back home. It was a wild ride on the 50-seater from Gan to Male, though I should've expected that from radar and satellite images revealing intense convective activity there over the past few days.

Jackson Tan's Maldives research: entry 9
03 November 2011
The radars deployed here on Gan Island run 24/7 until the end of the DYNAMO field campaign in March next year. Consequently, every day is a working day. This is the nature of fieldwork.

More blogs >>

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