What causes southeast Australia's worst droughts?

Ummenhofer, Caroline C.; England, Matthew H.; McIntosh, Peter C.; Meyers, Gary; Pook, Michael J.; Risbey, James S.; Gupta, Alex Sen; Taschetto, Andréa S.

doi:10.1029/2008gl036801

Cited by 563 publications

(444 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…The IOD, which is associated with coupling of the sea surface temperature dipole and the zonal winds, has immediate effects in the monsoon region with floods observed in East Africa and drought in Indonesia. The regional oscillation has far-reaching teleconnections in Western Australia rainfall extremes and impacts on the northwestern Pacific anticyclones [Ummenhofer et al, 2009;Jiang et al, 2013].…”

Section: Climate Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Periodicity and patterns of ocean wind and wave climate

Stopa

Cheung

2014

JGR Oceans

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The Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) provides a wealth of information spanning 1979-2009 for investigation of ocean wind and wave climate. Preprocessing of the data is necessary to remove the dominant seasonal signals and to create time series of semimonthly averaged wind speed and significant wave height over a 0.5 global grid. We perform an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis to extract the dominant space-time patterns. The results for the three major ocean basins show strong zonal structures in the winds and saturation of the swells corroborating prior works with various data sets. We reexamine the CFSR data in the frequency domain to identify periodic signals associated with published climate indices. The Fourier transform of the preprocessed time series generates spectra ranging from 1 month to 15 years period for an EOF analysis. The results demonstrate the spatial structures and periods of climate phenomena. The Arctic Oscillation dominates the Atlantic basin with a broad range of intra-annual signals off the European coasts. The Indian and Pacific Oceans are strongly influenced by inter-annual cycles of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Antarctica Oscillation. The Indian Ocean also has strong intra-annual components ranging from 50 to 80 days period. The ENSO proves to be a ubiquitous signal around the globe, and in particular, saturates the Pacific with strong influences in the equatorial region and the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies. A commonality of all basins is that the magnitude and the spatial structure of the intra-annual and inter-annual signals are similar suggesting a wide range of periods in each of the climate cycles examined.

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Section: Climate Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Periodicity and patterns of ocean wind and wave climate

Stopa

Cheung

2014

JGR Oceans

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“…During the positive IOD events, strong negative subsurface temperature anomalies exist in the eastern Indian Ocean, with negative surface salinity anomalies in the central and eastern Indian Ocean, resulting in a large pressure gradient force to drive EUC during the August-November. Further, 2011;Ummenhofer et al 2009;Hashizume et al 2012;Feng et al 2014;Guo et al 2015;Yao et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of the IOD-associated temperature and salinity anomalies on the intermittent equatorial undercurrent anomalies

Liang

Tang

et al. 2017

Clim Dyn

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“…Changes in vegetation cover have exacerbated the effects of higher temperatures caused by climate change, resulting in longer-lasting and more severe droughts (e.g. Deo et al 2009;Ummenhofer et al 2009). The droughts and general drying in some parts of the country have reduced runoff into fish habitats such as estuaries, rivers and lakes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projected climate change in Australian marine and freshwater environments

Hobday

Lough

2011

Mar. Freshwater Res.

255

201

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Abstract. Changes in the physical environment of aquatic systems consistent with climate change have been reported across Australia, with impacts on many marine and freshwater species. The future state of aquatic environments can be estimated by extrapolation of historical trends. However, because the climate is a complex non-linear system, a more process-based approach is probably required, in particular the use of dynamical projections using climate models. Because global climate models operate on spatial scales that typically are too coarse for aquatic biologists, statistical or dynamical downscaling of model output is proposed. Challenges in using climate projections exist; however, projections for some marine and freshwater systems are possible. Higher oceanic temperatures are projected around Australia, particularly for south-eastern Australia. The East Australia Current is projected to transport greater volumes of water southward, whereas the Leeuwin Current on the western coast may weaken. On land, projections suggest that air temperatures will rise and rainfall will decline across much of Australia in coming decades. Together, these changes will result in reduced runoff and hence reduced stream flow and lake storage. Present climate models are particularly limited with regard to coastal and freshwater systems, making the models challenging to use for biological-impact and adaptation studies.

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What causes southeast Australia's worst droughts?

Cited by 563 publications

References 30 publications

Periodicity and patterns of ocean wind and wave climate

Periodicity and patterns of ocean wind and wave climate

Impacts of the IOD-associated temperature and salinity anomalies on the intermittent equatorial undercurrent anomalies

Projected climate change in Australian marine and freshwater environments

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