Research Project 1.4
Antarctic Climate Variability of the Past 2,000 Years
The ACE CRC’s R1.4 project team is constructing a detailed 2000-year climate record using ice cores extracted from the Australian Antarctic Territory.
Ice cores are an extremely valuable resource for understanding the forces driving climate change. Snowfall that collects on the Antarctic ice sheet every year captures atmospheric concentrations of dust, sea-salts and other chemicals from natural and human sources, as well as trapped air bubbles. Analysis of the physical and chemical properties of the ice and air bubbles can reveal detailed information about past temperature, atmospheric circulation, snowfall, solar variability, biological activity and sea ice extent. Ice cores can also provide a reliable record of large events elsewhere on the globe such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and droughts.
Understanding the forces that drove and shaped the Earth’s climate over past millennia is vital for predicting and understanding future climate change. It enables climate modellers to test and refine their predictions, and provides a basis for comparing current change with long-term patterns. One of the major gaps in our understanding of the global climate system stems from a lack of well resolved climate records for the Southern Hemisphere. This need was strongly emphasised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its most recent AR5 update.
The ACE CRC’s Antarctic Climate Variability project team is working closely with its Australian and international partners to close these gaps in our knowledge of past global climate conditions, to ensure governments, policy makers and planning agencies can make informed choices about the future.
Project Team
Links
Ice core study finds regular long dry spells, Bruce Mounster, The Mercury Newspaper, 18 December 2014
Cutting-edge ice core facility extracts Antarctic climate secrets, Australian Antarctic Division, 10 December 2014
Antarctic ice core study reveals Australia’s 39 year mega drought, The World Today, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 16 December 2014
Key Publications
Interdecadal Pacific variability and eastern Australian megadroughts over the last millennium, T. R. Vance, J. L. Roberts, C. T. Plummer, A. S. Kiem, and T. D. van Ommen. Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 42, Issue 1, pages 129–137, 16 January 2015
Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia, Ahmed, M., Anchukaitis, K.J., Asrat, A., (…), Yasue, K., Zorita, E., Nature, 2013.
Ice Core Evidence for Antarctic Sea Ice Decline Since the 1950s, M. A. J. Curran, T. D. van Ommen, V. I. Morgan1, K. L. Phillips, A. S. Palmer, Science, 4 November 2003: Vol. 302 no. 5648 pp. 1203-1206, DOI: 10.1126/science.1087888
Snowfall increase in coastal East Antarctica linked with southwest Western Australian drought, Dr Tas D. van Ommen & Dr Vin Morgan, Nature Geoscience 3, 267 – 272 (2010)
current research
R1.1 The Southern Ocean in a Changing climateR1.2 Ocean Forced Evolution of the Antarctic Ice SheetR1.3 Sea Ice Processes and ChangeR1.4 Antarctic Climate VariabilityR2.1 Carbon Uptake and Chemical ChangeR2.2 Biological Responses to Environment ChangeR2.3 Status and Trends in Habitats, Key Species and Ecosystemslatest news & events
Voyage to study impact of submarine volcanoes on ocean ecosystems
Authorised by the CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre October 2019.
The ACE CRC was established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program.
core participants
