UNSW Climate Change Research Centre
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ccrc.bsky.social
UNSW Climate Change Research Centre
@ccrc.bsky.social
A multi-disciplinary research group based at UNSW, Australia. Affiliated to @21stcenturyweather.bsky.social and @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social

CCRC houses research expertise in the key areas of Earth's climate: atmospheric, oceanic & terrestrial processes
Exciting news 🎉 Our CCRC scientist Andréa Taschetto and team have just released “Meteorology and Climate of the Southern Hemisphere” book, an updated edition of David Karoly’s 1998 monograph, published by Cambridge University Press. +
Available at lnkd.in/g4SFsM9k

www.cambridge.org/au/universit...
Meteorology and Climate of the Southern Hemisphere | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
December 19, 2025 at 2:47 AM
If you're interested in drought and AI, our PhD student Matt Grant and researcher Dr Sanaa Hobeichi have been featured in this UNSW Newsroom! It shows Australian droughts are lasting longer (especially SE & SW), with AI ++

www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/new...

#Drought #ClimateChange #AI #UNSWResearch
Study shows droughts lasting longer across Australia
UNSW research shows droughts are lasting longer in Australia, particularly in regions where most people live.
www.unsw.edu.au
December 15, 2025 at 12:08 AM
🚨Paper

Congrats to Mohammad, @neginnazarian.bsky.social, and Gloria on their new paper. They assessed passive thermal retrofits via energy modelling & operative temp analysis for extreme indoor conditions in Sydney high-rise social housing under future warming.
Read paper: doi.org/10.1007/978-...
Evaluating Combined Passive Retrofits for a High-Rise Social Housing Under a Future Climate Condition
Global warming and urban heat pose severe risks to residents of often outdated, non-HVAC social housing in Australia, particularly vulnerable low-income households experiencing energy poverty. These r...
doi.org
December 14, 2025 at 11:59 PM
🚨New paper

This new study by Ying Lung Liu, Lisa Alexander and
@jasonpevans.bsky.social disentangles ENSO and IOD influences on Australian spring climate, showing ENSO’s dominant role and underscoring the need for large ensembles for robust attribution.
Full Paper: doi.org/10.1175/JCLI...
December 9, 2025 at 11:37 PM
🚨New paper
CCRC scientist Andrea Taschetto and team have published a comprehensive review of ENSO impacts in Australia in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com. This is an important and long-overdue synthesis, building on foundational studies such as McBride & Nicholls (1983). ++
Climate impacts of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on Australia
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment - El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) profoundly affects Australian weather, climate, ecosystems and socio-economic sectors. This Review presents...
rdcu.be
December 9, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Proud of our CCRC and @21stcenturyweather.bsky.social scientist team in Paris this week at the IPCC AR7 Lead Author meeting: @jasonpevans.bsky.social @melissatraveler.bsky.social, @sarahinscience.bsky.social, @juliearblaster.bsky.social, @nicolamaher.bsky.social & Jo Brown! Big things coming for AR7
December 4, 2025 at 1:20 AM
🚨CCRC researchers @drjucker.bsky.social, Laurie Menviel and Valentina Guzmán joined other leading and emerging climate scientists across Australia to produce a new review of the Southern Annular Mode and its impacts. The study just published in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com. doi.org/10.1038/s430...
Southern Annular Mode dynamics, projections and impacts in a changing climate - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) has shifted towards its positive phase owing to ozone depletion and increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. This Review discusses the dynamics, trends and projections...
doi.org
December 3, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Congrats to Michael Eabry et al. on their paper showing how synoptically varying sub-monthly episodes, SAM phase transition (cf. Zonal Wave 3 activity) and ocean/ice-cover preconditioning were important for the 2016 Antarctic sea-ice decline.
Read more: doi.org/10.1175/JCLI...
November 11, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Congratulations to Alex Sen Gupta for his Nature opinion piece. A sharp look at how future AI could reshape PhD research, when a student collaborates with a simulated advanced AI to write a paper, raising big questions about authorship and academia.
Full read: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
PhD training needs a reboot in an AI world
As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs.
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Many congratulations to Thomas Schmaltz, chosen as one of 18 outstanding Australians to receive the prestigious John Monash Scholarship! This award will support his PhD in Glaciology abroad, exploring how our planet’s frozen frontiers are changing.
So proud of you, Tom!
November 3, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Congratulations to Matt Grant and the CCRC team! Recent work shows that while Australian droughts have declined since the early 1900s,some regions have risen recently.Machine Learning reveals multiple drivers, not just rainfall, that shape these trends.
Full Read: hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/...
Historical trends of seasonal droughts in Australia
Abstract. Australia frequently experiences severe and widespread droughts, causing impacts on food security, the economy, and human health. Despite this, recent research to comprehensively understand ...
hess.copernicus.org
October 30, 2025 at 1:54 AM
CCRC’s Lisa and Loan found that regional precipitation datasets are systematically drier than global ones, a puzzling bias that remains after testing multiple explanations. This raises new questions about how rainfall is represented across scales.
Read more: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...
October 20, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Excited to welcome Sam Dahl to the CCRC!
He joins us from the University of Arizona, where he completed his BSc and MSc in Atmospheric Science. Sam’s PhD, supervised by Lisa Alexander, will explore sub-hourly extreme rainfall prediction using convective-permitting models over Australia.
October 20, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Reposted by UNSW Climate Change Research Centre
🎥 On-camera media training session at UNSW yesterday with our early career researchers @fabiobdias.bsky.social and Zhi Li! Great questions, plenty of enthusiasm, and lots of behind-the-scenes action 📸

@ccrc.bsky.social
September 30, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Christina Schmidt @christinaocean.bsky.social from CCRC is featured in the UNSW story "Breaking the ice: why study Antarctica?" On the Denman Marine Voyage she analyzed oxygen concentration and saw jade-green icebergs, penguins, and sea ice.
Read more: news.unsw.edu.au/en/breaking-...
Breaking the ice: why study Antarctica?
From unique wildlife to resilient microbes, world-changing climate dynamics to untapped biotechnological potential – four UNSW scientists outline what makes Antarctica a laboratory like no other.
news.unsw.edu.au
October 3, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Huge congratulations to Xinyue Zhang on submitting her PhD thesis! 🎉
Her research shows how dryland vegetation responds to climate change, with most areas continuing to green while some face desertification. This highlights the crucial role of sustainable land management.
We are so proud!
October 1, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Congrats to our recent PhD graduate Elona Rey-Costa on her final thesis paper, just published in Energy Reports. The study shows household electrification in Australia’s NEM could lower system costs by up to 17% and better integrate renewables.
Read more: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The role of household electrification in reducing system-wide energy costs in Australia’s National Electricity Market
Household electrification has been proposed as a strategy to reshape residential energy consumption to better align with the variability of a 100 % re…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 1, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Marine heatwaves are more than skin-deep. A new paper "Lifting the Lid on Marine Heatwaves", led by CCRC’s @neilmalan.bsky.social & Alex Sen Gupta, sets a framework for subsurface heatwaves and how extremes at depth impact ecosystems in a changing climate. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 30, 2025 at 2:08 AM
CCRC Senior Research Fellow @drjucker.bsky.social explains in this Conversation article what is happening above Antarctica right now, and how it might impact us: theconversation.com/air-temperat...
@unswbees.bsky.social
Air temperatures over Antarctica have soared 35ºC above average. What does this unusual event mean for Australia?
The stratospheric polar vortex high above Antarctica has rapidly heated up. These sudden bursts of heat can bring rapid weather changes in Australia
theconversation.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:37 AM
🌏 This week, @jasonpevans.bsky.social and Andrea from CCRC are attending the Pan-CLIVAR meeting in Bali 🇮🇩

Jason is representing two major international climate research programs: GEWEX and CORDEX, and Andrea is a co-chair of the CLIVAR Pacific Regional Panel and a member of the Tropical ++
September 26, 2025 at 1:47 AM
🎉 Huge congratulations to Tanya, who submitted the final revised version of her PhD thesis last week! An incredible milestone marking years of dedication, hard work, and perseverance.

We are so proud to celebrate this achievement with her — onwards to the next chapter!
September 15, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Congrats to A/Profs Laurie Menviel & Negin Nazarian @neginnazarian.bsky.social, IPCC AR7 Lead Authors; affiliates Melissa Hart @melissatraveler.bsky.social & Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick @sarahinscience.bsky.social, and alumni Nicola Maher @nicolamaher.bsky.social, Jatin Kala & Faye Cruz in new roles.
August 26, 2025 at 3:47 AM
New paper🚨: If you are interested in how Sydney's land cover has transformed over the last three decades, and how it can be mapped?

This new study by CCRC’s Shankar Sharma, with @jasonpevans.bsky.social, Andy Pitman, @neginnazarian.bsky.social, @mlip.bsky.social, ++

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Mapping urban dynamics in Greater Sydney – A scalable multi-decadal local climate zone classification approach
Urbanization has significantly altered land surface properties, leading to changes in local micro-climates and impacts on regional climate. To understand these changes, long-term, precise urban land u...
dx.plos.org
August 11, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Are you interested in the drivers of extreme wind gusts in NSW, Australia?
This new study finds that environmental instability diagnostics (MUCAPE, DCP, etc) are more influential than environmental wind speeds and moisture parameters alone in predicting observed extreme gusts (≥25 m/s). Read more:
Distinguishing environmental controls on strong vs. extreme wind gusts
Statistical and theoretical models of wind gusts may be dominated by more common strong events, rather than rare but damaging extreme ones. We address…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 4, 2025 at 1:10 AM
A new paper led by @christinaocean.bsky.social investigates the sensitivity of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation and export to horizontal model resolution
👉 formation of dense shelf waters decrease while the export of AABW increases with finer model resolution
doi.org/10.1029/2024...
Sensitivity of Antarctic Bottom Water Formation and Export to Horizontal Model Resolution
Dense Shelf Water formation decreases when the model resolution is refined from 1/10° to 1/20° to 1/40° due to shelf freshening Antarctic Bottom Water export increases with finer model resolution...
doi.org
July 14, 2025 at 6:06 AM