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Past Events
Roly Byron-Scott Memorial Talks December 2008
"Waves Climatology for SA" by Matt Collopy (BoM) "
Tropical Island Convective Rainfall" by Matthew Bass (Flinders Uni) "
Desalinisation Plant in Spencer Gulf" by Craig Brokensha (Flinders Uni)
Talk September 2008
"The Southern Australia Intergrated Marine Observing System: Phylosophy, Implementation and Progress" by Laurent Saeuront, SARDI West Beach, Adelaide. Talk June 2008
Abstract: The Southern Australia Integrated Marine Observing System, or SAIMOS, is one of five nodes operating as part of the nation-wide Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). This is a collaborative program designed to observe Australia’s oceans, both coastal and blue-water. One of the key goals of IMOS is to provide free, open and timely access to data streams by anyone with an interest in the Ocean environment. To this end, IMOS will provide data to support research on critical marine issues facing Australia, including climate change and sustainability of ecosystems.
The SAIMOS infrastructure consists of (i) HF Radar to monitor real-time surface currents on the South Australian Shelf, (ii) Oceanographic Moorings on the continental shelf and slope, including a real-time meteorological and oceanographic reference station near Kangaroo Island, (iii) Ongoing repeat oceanographic surveys of biological and physical parameters on the shelf and slope from the MRV Ngerin, (iv) Unmanned marine gliders, for continuous ocean profiling, (v) Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for seabed surveys and (vi) Fish Tag Curtains, for marine mammal tracking.The data collected will be used to determine the nature and dynamics of two key, and unique coastal upwelling systems ( Kangaroo Island-Eyre Peninsula and the Bonney Coast ). SAIMOS will also provide direct input to other nodes through observations of key ocean current systems that connect the regions of W.A., the Southern Ocean and N.S.W. through processes that occur on weekly to El Nino time scales. Preliminary results from the first SAIMOS ocean surveys will be presented.
"Global Atmospheric Watch and a personal review of a long career in meteorology" by Derek Reid.
Abstract: The WMO Global Atmospheric Watch was set up to monitor atmospheric gases at 23 sites remote from sources of pollution. Australia maintains one of these sites at Cape Grim. While staying with my wife at the Danum Wildlife centre in Sabah, North Borneo, in August 2007 I was able to visit the nearby GAW station. My presentation is a pictorial guide to this GAW station and the environment in which it functions.Then a brief talk about my career before retirement in 1983, and what I have been doing after that, inclusive of
- Recovery of early data sets and meteorological history
- Georg Neumayer's 300 voyages, digitising now complete and ready for publication
- Tropical meteorology
Derek joined the Met Office in 1939 as an assistant and completed their forecasting course
(No 16) in 1942, before being posted to Coastal Command stations in 1943. After mobilisation within the RAFVR he was attached to the Army 3rd Division for the invasion of Normandy, and to 30 Corps for the campaigns in Holland and Germany. Following further training and a sequence of Met Office appointments Derek arrived in Melbourne in 1949, joining the Bureau in 1950 he pursued a range of activities including radiosonde data management, upper analysis and compilation of Equivalent Headwinds for the Australian Region with Henry Phillpot before he joined the CSIRO Meteorological Physics group at Highett in 1954.
Talk March 2008
"Frost risk in cereal crops in southern Australia" by Bronya Alexander, PIRSA – SARDI.
Abstract: Compared to wheat grown in the northern hemisphere, Australian wheat crops are grown in warm to hot conditions. However radiation frosts associated with slow moving high pressure systems in spring are a low frequency but high consequence risk.
Crop losses due to frost damage are estimated to cost the Australian grains industry around $100 million a year, with wheat crops being most susceptible around the time of flowering in September and early October. Researchers and farmers alike have long known about the trade-offs between sowing wheat crops early for milder spring conditions at grain fill, but late enough to avoid frost at flowering.
This presentation looks at the trade-off between risk and return from a range of sowing times and maturity types at locations in the southern Australian grains belt, and identifies some of the current limits of predictability in terms of frost and flowering time. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of ENSO on the number of frosts and the date of the last frost each year.
Roly Byron-Scott Memorial Talks December 2007
"South Australian Dust Storm, 2 April 2005" by Belinda Gibson, Bureau of Meteorology" Talk September 2007 Radar Oceanography: Electromagnetics meets Hydrodynamics" by Stuart Anderson, Defence Science and Technology Organisation Edinburgh SA 5111.
South Australian Rainfall Variability and Climate Extremes" by Alex Evans, Flinders University"
Determination of Inversion Heights in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer" by Octavianus Satya, Atmospheric Physics University of Adelaide
Abstract: Radar observation of the ocean surface is an established discipline or, more precisely, a number of disciplines, since the frequencies involved range from 106 Hz to 1015 Hz. Ocean waves and surface currents impose characteristic spatial and temporal modulations on the scattered radar signals, and these signatures can be extracted and analysed to yield estimates of various oceanographic parameters of interest. In order to address these applications, the radar community has developed or adapted a variety of models to describe (i) sea surface geometry, (ii) sea surface dynamics, and (iii) electromagnetic scattering from rough surfaces. The success or otherwise of radars in remote sensing roles is a direct measure of the adequacy of the models invoked, explicitly or implicitly, in the radar design, operation and echo interpretation.
Recent improvements in radar technology and associated electronic sub-systems have increased the sensitivity and precision of measurements to the point where the dynamic range of the clutter signals of interest can approach ~100 dB. In order to understand the origins of all the contributions to the clutter which are manifest over this range, existing models of the time-varying sea surface geometry and the electromagnetic scattering processes will need to be supplanted by more sophisticated models with an extraordinary degree of fidelity. Such models will not necessarily emerge from simple extensions of existing formulations of the dynamical and electromagnetic problems. It seems more likely that they will be constructed on foundations which exploit underlying physical principles in a more effective and consistent fashion.
This talk will explain and survey some of the achievements of the prevailing physical models, focussing on applications to HF surface wave radar, and outline some of the research underway to develop the next generation.
Talk June 2007
"An overview of South Australian viticulture and grain production in a variable and changing climate" by Dr Peter Hayman, Principal Research Scientist, Climate Application at SARDI. Talk March 2007"A geostatistical model (ASOADeK) for mountain precipitation mapping and its hydroclimatical and hydrometeorological applications" presented by Huade Guan, (Oleg Makhnin, John Wilson, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Enrique Vivoni, and Hongjie Xie)
Abstract: Just as ecologists speak of keystone species, much of rural and regional South Australia is dependent on grains and vines. The sensitivity and impact of climate and the adaptive capacity can be considered on a field, farm/vineyard, regional and industry level. Although South Australian agriculture is sensitive and exposed, there is also a high level of adaptive capacity for future change as evidence from dealing with current variability. The most worrying, but also most uncertain projections are the projections for a drying climate.
Abstract: A physically-based geostatistical model (ASOADeK) has been specifically developed for studying mountain precipitation processes and their spatial distribution. In this model, selected orographic and atmospheric effects on precipitation distribution are auto-searched and used for precipitation mapping. Besides, the model can also be used for diagnosing regional climate settings. Applications of the ASOADeK model include precipitation mapping for mountainous terrains, connecting regional precipitation to large-scale climate variability, examining orographic precipitation processes, RADAR precipitation spatially downscaling and improving. Examples are presented to demonstrate these applications.
Joint AMOS and AMetA sponsored talk, 12 December
The Life of Sir Gilbert Walker and Global Telecommunications" by Dr Robert Allan, UK Meteorological Office
Abstract: Sir Gilbert Walker, during his time as Director General of Observations in the India Meteorological Department (1904-1924) pioneered the statistical approach to seasonal forecasting and introduced the world to the term ‘Southern Oscillation’. Come and hear about his life and achievements and how his early work in global atmospheric pressure observations is being progressed today by the international meteorological community.
Dr Allan, formerly from
Roly Byron-Scott Memorial Talks December 2006
Talk September 2006
"Diffuse Solar Radiation for a Cloudless Sky"* by Warwick Grace
Abstract: A novel analytic model is presented for the broadband diffuse irradiance received at the earth’s surface through a cloudless homogeneous atmosphere containing light absorbing agents and isotropic scattering agents. The model is extended to include the contribution from light re-scattered after ground reflection. The model is validated against (a) a Monte Carlo model based on the same physics, (b) ground-based observations at Adelaide and Alice Springs, and (c) two empirical models.
Warwick will also quickly show some unrelated work, on a climatological definition for a "Goyder-type" line for temperate Australia.
Talk June 2006
"Satellite Remote Sensing of the Marine Environment-South Australia" by Dr Peter Petrusevics
Abstract: Experience over the last 25 years in operating with remotely sensed measurements of sea surface temperature and colour properties of South Australian waters provides encouraging evidence that these techniques are a valid and cost-effective means of monitoring large marine bodies on a regular, and if appropriate, continuous basis. This is a far cry from the restrictions, cost and intermittent character of traditional ship-borne experimentation, which nevertheless retain a cornerstone role in the provision of ground truth information. The NOAA series of environmental satellites used in sea surface temperature measurements and the SeaWiFS mission for ocean colour measurements are recognised as the remote sensing technology pathfinders. These missions are now replaced by a new generation of observational satellites of which the MODIS series (/Aqua/ and /Terra/) together with developments in data processing software by NASA have emerged as a cost effective tool in marine research. The development, application and limitation of such techniques in the relatively shallow waters of the South Australian Gulfs are reviewed.
Talk March 2006
"A Review of Oceanography from Esperance to Robe" by John Middleton (SARDI West Beach) and John Bye (Melbourne University)
Abstract: A review is made of the complex shelf and slope circulation of Australia’s Southern Shelves. The circulation is highly seasonal and dependent on local and remote wind forcing, (density driven) thermohaline circulation, surface heating, evaporation and ENSO events in the west Pacific. Uniquely, the long, zonal shelf is subject to an equatorward Sverdrup transport from the Southern Ocean that gives rise to the Flinders Current (FC) -- a small sister to the world’s major Western Boundary Currents. The FC is trapped to the 600 m isobath where the current speeds can reach 20 cm/s and the bottom boundary layer is upwelling favourable. The FC may be important in upwelling in the many submarine canyons of the region. During winter, the warm inflow of the Leeuwin Current (LC) is largely trapped to the shelf break and the associated thermohaline circulation can account for around 35% of the total shelf transport off the Eyre Peninsula. The westerly winds drive some 47% of this transport and the eastward currents average up to 20 - 30 cm/s. The currents associated with the intense coastal-trapped wave (CTW) field (6 -12 day band) are of order 25-30 cm/s and can peak at 80-90 cm/s. These winds and wintertime cooling also lead to downwelling to depths of 200 m or so. The net evaporation also leads to the outflow of dense salty water from the Gulfs and to depths of 300 m. During summer, the coastal winds reverse and the surface heating leads to the formation of warm water in the western Bight and Gulfs. The winds lead to weak average coastal currents (< 10 cm/s) that flow to the north-west. In the Bight, the wind stress curl can lead to an anticyclonic circulation gyre that can result in shelf-break downwelling in the western Bight and an eastward S.A. Current. These relatively weak circulation features can be modulated or overwhelmed by variations in the wind and thermohaline circulation. In the east, upwelling favourable winds and Coastal-Trapped Waves can lead to deep upwelling events off Kangaroo Is and the Bonney Coast that occur over 3-10 days and some 2 to 4 times a season. The alongshore currents here can be large (~ 40 cm/s) and the vertical scales of upwelling are of order 150 m (off Kangaroo Is) and 250 m (off the Bonney Coast). Increasing evidence suggests that El Nino events (4-7 year period) can have a major impact on the winter and summer circulation. These events propagate from the Pacific and around the shelf-slope wave-guide of W.A. and into the Bight. During winter El Nino events, the average shelf currents may be largely shut-down. During summer, the thermocline appears to be raised by up to 150 m and impacts on the upwelling off Kangaroo Is and the Bonney Coast.
Roly Byron-Scott Memorial Talks December 2005
Talk September 2005
"Development of a numerical model to study the seasonal circulation in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia" by Paul Sandery of Flinders University.
Abstract: The three-dimensional ocean model COHERENS, a coupled hydrodynamic-ecological model, has been developed to study seasonal patterns of circulation and water mass modification in Bass Strait. This is achieved by extending model boundaries away from the region of interest and including the effects of tides, winds, density-driven flows and surface atmospheric forcing in the form of temporally and spatially varying monthly long-term means from various sources. Initial conditions and far-field effects are incorporated using temporal harmonics from the CSIRO Climatological Atlas of Regional Seas. Tidal data from the National Tide Centre is used as open boundary forcing to simulate mixing. Climatologically averaged heat, salt and momentum fluxes over the annual cycle are resolved. Model co-tidal charts are in good agreement with existing co-tidal charts. The ability of the model to predict water mass modification in response to atmospheric forcing and boundary forcing is assessed by comparison with atlas data, hydrographic surveys and previous studies. An Eulerian conservative multi-tracer transport scheme is used to reveal an area of long flushing times, residual circulation, transport of water mass and the relative importance of the main processes driving this.
Talk June 2005
"Land Surface Modeling and Data Assimilation for Atmospheric Prediction" Jeffrey Walker, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The University of Melbourne, Australia
Abstract: Accurate flux prediction in response to land surface soil moisture at mid-latitudes has been shown to be as important as sea surface temperature in making accurate precipitation prediction.Unfortunately, land surface models typically give a poor prediction between different model predictions even when using the same parameters, inputs and initial conditions. To overcome this One of the earliest approaches has been the assimilation of screen level air temperature and relative humidity, which are only weakly related to soil moisture and not widely observed in remote areas. A subsequent approach is the assimilation of remotely sensed near-surface soil moisture. While these passive microwave observations yield physical soil moisture content estimates over large areas at 50km resolution, they are only for the top few centimeters of soil and for regions of low to moderate vegetation. Hence, areas such as the Amazon, where land surface feedback has also been shown to be important, are unaffected by this approach. Alternatively, stream flow observations are an integrated response to upstream profile soil moisture conditions that can be used to constrain model predictions, but these measurements typically have a lower spatial resolution than soil moisture remote sensing can provide. A new and novel remote sensing system is the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment, which provides precise measurements of temporal changes in the Earth's gravity field that are related to changes in terrestrial water storage. While this type of observation yields information on profile soil moisture and groundwater and is unaffected by vegetation, these estimates are for very large areas, on order 1000km. Moreover, a key assumption of most of the foregoing approaches is that a correct physical soil moisture content estimate for the land surface model will result in an improved flux estimate. As most land surface models used by atmospheric models have historically used soil moisture as simply a tuning parameter rather than a physical quantity, improved flux prediction is not guaranteed. Since land surface fluxes can be estimated from thermal remote sensing, it is also possible to constrain model soil moisture and temperature predictions using these observations under cloud free conditions. Hence a combination of these approaches is required to yield the accurate flux and soil moisture predictions required for atmospheric prediction.
Talk March 2005
"The effect of the Sumatra tsunami on sea levels and implications for sea level monitoring"
by Bill Mitchell and James Chittleborough of the National Tidal Centre Bureau of Meteorology.
Talk December 2004
Heidi Leffanue (Sea Ice), Anuerin Henry, Duncan Tippins (Oceanography) and Darren
Talk September 2004
Two short talks: Gully Winds and Data Handling with Robust Statistics by Warwick Grace, Bureau of Meteorology
Abstract: Gully Winds - Theory and Circumstances of Downslope Winds with some examples using the simplest possible working model. Eg, how & why do upstream Wind speed and Stability, and mountain height and shape play a role in Downslope winds?
Talk June 2004
"Determination of the fresh water flux at the air/sea interface for climate modelling" by Prof Matthias Tomczak. School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences at Flinders University of South Australia.
Abstract: The concern about a changing climate has led to rapid development of climate prediction models. In most such models an ocean circulation model is coupled to an atmospheric circulation model at the air/sea interface, where the exchange of momentum, heat and freshwater has to be prescribed. Accurate observational determination of the three coupling fields has thus become a high priority in meteorology and oceanography.
This presentation discusses aspects of the freshwater flux, the least well known of the three fields. It compares satellite-derived estimates of rainfall with rain gauge observations on oceanic islands in the Indian Ocean. Satellite-derived rain estimates are shown to significantly underestimate actual rainfall. The discrepancy between island gauges and satellite depends on location and season.
Talk March 2004
School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University
Abstract: Recent mooring observations beneath the Gulf Stream undertaken as part of the SYNOP project have shown that surface meandering is intrinsically coupled to the generation of swift (speed ~50 cm/s) depth-independent cyclones. These cyclones are a principal source of so-called deep-sea benthic storm events that facilitate a substantial lateral transport of deep-sea sediments on basin scales. Existing instability theories do not comprehensively explain the observational findings. I will present and discuss first numerical findings that reveal details of the cyclogenesis process.
Talk 2 September 2003
"The Energy Tower" by Richard Hunwick.
The Energy Tower involves a massive cylindrical structure several hundred metres in diameter and ideally tall enough for its top to be substantially clear of the lower atmospheric mixing zone (a kilometre or more), to enter the dry, warm descending air of the mid-latitude anticyclonic belt. Water (and this can be seawater) sprayed across the top of the tower evaporatively cools and raises the density of this air as it enters the tower, generating a powerful downdraft that may be harnessed to produce electricity via special wind turbines.
The presentation will outline the concept, its development, including how it may be used to desalinate seawater, its status, economics, and environmental and other issues involved in its realisation."
Talk March 2003
"Meteorological Applications of VHF Radar Wind Profilers" by Chris Lucas
School of Chemistry and Physics at University of Adelaide
Abstract. An qualitative overview of the meteorological applications of
wind profilers is given, with a focus on South Australian weather as observed
with the VHF boundary-layer developed at the University of Adelaide. Discussion
will focus on
1.) meteorological interpretation of signal to noise ratio charts;
2.) results from a automated front finding algorithm; and
3.) retrievals of precipitation with a wind profiler.