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CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Past Seminars

CSIRO Auditorium

Peter G. Baines
CAR

EVIDENCE FOR AN ABRUPT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ACROSS THE LATE 1960S, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

It is demonstrated that a number of significant properties of the atmospheric circulation underwent large coordinated monotonic changes over a short period of several years spanning the late 1960s. These changes were largest in equatorial regions and the Southern Hemisphere. Some of these, such as the decrease in rainfall in the African Sahel, are well known, others are new, but the magnitude and extent of them is global, and dynamical linkages are evident. The list of affected variables include patterns of sea surface temperature; tropical rainfall in the African Sahel, the Amazon basin and the West and Central Pacific; various branches of the southern Hadley circulation and the southern subtropical jet stream; and the Southern Hemisphere storm track and the southern sea ice boundary. Possible causes for this abrupt global change are evaluated. These results provide optimism that the causes and prognosis of long-term droughts in the Australian environment (for example) may be determined.

CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
Nugzar Margvelashvili, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 62325142
Peter Thompson, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5298
Keith Hayes, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5298
Leanne Armand, Antarctic CRC & IASOS, University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2509

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