Dr Helen Fairweather. Photo by Hugh O'Brien.
Climate science experts at the ACRE Workshop held at the Gold Coast earlier this year.
A fair weather view on climate change
Earth and sea weather records recovered from historical sources are the basis of an international 'climate reanalysis' project in which the Queensland Government is a partner.
Supported by the Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence (QCCCE), the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) project is filling in temperature gaps in our historical records.
ACRE is digitising records from written archives, such as ship log books from the days of explorers like Charles Darwin and Captain Cook.
The project is also pioneering state-of-the-art climate modelling and super computer applications to estimate what the past climate was like anywhere on the globe.
This research is helping to illustrate stronger links between climate change and extreme weather events such as droughts and cyclones.
Chief Scientist of Climate System Research Dr Helen Fairweather said her work is focused on developing applications from the latest dataset to help government, the community and industry with future planning, and to help provide better responses to climate change.
'Improved climate modelling tools will help us reassess flooding risks across Queensland's regions and determine the patterns that drive extreme weather events,' Dr Fairweather said.
'We will be able to reproduce the cyclonic events that have impacted Queensland over the last 200 years and examine the combined impact of these events with sea level rise.'
QCCCE (external site) is looking forward to using these datasets in partnership with service delivery agencies as a basis for making decisions on climate change policies.
In September, Dr Fairweather visited the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and the Walker Institute at Reading University. While there, she shared her knowledge with her UK counterparts as part of QCCCE's international fellowship program.
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Last reviewed: 30 September, 2009
Last updated: 1 October, 2009
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