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Snowfall increase in coastal East Antarctica linked with southwest Western Australian drought
Citation
van Ommen, TD and Morgan, VI, Snowfall increase in coastal East Antarctica linked with southwest Western Australian drought, Nature Geoscience, 3, (4) pp. 267-272. ISSN 1752-0894 (2010) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
DOI: doi:10.1038/NGEO761
Abstract
The southwest corner of Western Australia has been subject to a serious drought in recent decades. A range of factors, such as natural variability and changes in land use, ocean temperatures and atmospheric circulation, have been implicated in this drought, but the ultimate cause and the relative importance of the various factors remain unclear. Here we report a significant inverse correlation between the records of precipitation at Law Dome, East Antarctica and southwest Western Australia over the instrumental period, including the most recent decades. This relationship accounts for up to 40% of the variability on interannual to decadal timescales, and seems to be driven by the meridional circulation south of Australia that simultaneously produces a northward flow of relatively cool, dry air to southwest Western Australia and a southward flow of warm, moist air to East Antarctica. This pattern of meridional flow is consistent with some projections of circulation changes arising from anthropogenic climate change. The precipitation anomaly of the past few decades in Law Dome is the largest in 750 years, and lies outside the range of variability for the record as a whole, suggesting that the drought in Western Australia may be similarly unusual.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | East Antarctica, Snowfall increase, Western Australia, drought |
Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
Research Group: | Physical geography and environmental geoscience |
Research Field: | Palaeoclimatology |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences |
UTAS Author: | van Ommen, TD (Dr Tas van Ommen) |
UTAS Author: | Morgan, VI (Mr Vincent Morgan) |
ID Code: | 97705 |
Year Published: | 2010 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 83 |
Deposited By: | CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems |
Deposited On: | 2015-01-09 |
Last Modified: | 2015-02-10 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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