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CCRC personnel aim to better understand atmospheric processes, dynamics and thermodynamics. One reason is to reveal the behaviour of a fascinating and important component of the planet, about which many things remain surprisingly mysterious. The work also helps to develop better models for weather and climate prediction, of clear importance for agriculture, power, and other industries like water management, aviation, tourism and of course the general public. Achieving a fundamental understanding based on sound mathematical and physical principles has become ever more pressing in light of climate change, which will cause future weather and climate patterns to be different from past ones, making it harder to get by on empirical "rules of thumb."

Our investigations range from questions of global importance to particular issues affecting Australia. Projects ongoing at the CCRC vary, but an area of current focus is the factors that control Australian rainfall and drought. This includes study of the physics of storms, convection, and clouds and how they interact with climate; atmosphere-ocean dynamics and teleconnections to regional rainfall variability and change associated with climate patterns like El-Nino, and regional modelling of the Australian climate system. We also study changes in atmospheric extremes such as extreme heat and heavy precipitation events, and investigate theories to explain these changes.

CCRC academic staff currently active in this area of research

• Prof. Steve Sherwood
• Prof. Lisa Alexander
• Prof. Jason Evans
• A/Prof. Andrea Taschetto
• Dr Martin Jucker
• Professor Jeremy Bailey (School of Physics, ºÚÁÏÍø´óʼÇ)

The dependence on fossil fuel energy sources since the industrial revolution has undoubtedly shaped economic prosperity for the developed world. However, an unfortunate by-product of fossil fuel combustion is the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), an important greenhouse gas that is known to influence long-term climatic variations through its ability to absorb infra-red radiation.

Human emissions of CO2 have resulted in atmospheric levels higher than any period over the last 20 million years. The continued emission of CO2 will lead to widespread climate change related impacts.

Researchers within the Climate Policy and Carbon Cycle sub-program aim to quantify and understand both the human sources and natural sources and sinks of carbon dioxide with the goal to examine international policies required to bring about mitigation of future climate change.

Direct oceanic effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and biogeochemistry (for example, ocean acidification or coral reef calcification) are also examined through the use of both observations and mathematical modelling techniques.

Another major focus is on how the terrestrial carbon cycle responds to rising atmospheric CO2 and climate change. In particular, the work focuses on the capacity for increasing atmospheric CO2 to stimulate photosynthesis and, in turn, the rate of future climate warming.

Researchers at the CCRC also study climate-carbon cycle interactions on millennial timescales. A particular emphasis is made on past changes in ocean circulation and their impact on the marine carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2.

CCRC staff currently active in this area of research

• A/Prof. Laurie Menviel
• Prof. Katrin Meissner

CCRC research focuses on the nature of climate states in the past, present, and future.

Using coupled climate models in combination with observations data, CCRC is investigating the factors that influence global and regional climate variability on time-scales of days, seasons and centuries.

This work encompasses many diverse aspects of the physical climate system.  A few focus areas are:

• The extratropical and high latitude climate system, including coupled modes of ocean-land-atmosphere variability in the southern hemisphere.
  
• The El Nino - Southern Oscillation and related phenomena in the Tropics, and their impacts on regional climate.
• Temperature and rainfall variability and extremes, and how these are affected by land processes on regional scales.
• Atmospheric dynamics on scales from kilometres to global and its interactions with tropical convection, clouds, the land and the oceans.
• Modelling of climates in Earth's geologic past and their lessons for today.
• The present and future impact of global warming and carbon dioxide/ocean acidification on life in the oceans and on land.

This list is not exhaustive and new topics are always emerging, so please consult the web pages of CCRC staff for more information!

CCRC academic and research staff currently active in this area of research

All staff