Space gravity: squeezing the last drop of hydrological information out of current and future missions. Australia needs space gravity measurements in order to estimate regional-scale total water storage changes on our continent. This project will deliver the analysis capability required to exploit all the measurements of the current Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and to place Australia in a state of readiness for the 2017 GRACE Follow On mission.
Back to the Future: Interglacial Warming and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . The Antarctic is highly-sensitive to abrupt changes caused by the passing of tipping points within the climate system. Crucially, the instrumental record is too short to resolve major uncertainties surrounding future warming. The Last Interglacial (125,000 yrs ago) was 2°C warmer than today and experienced 6-11 m higher global sea levels. The role of Antarctica is vital for constraining sea-level projections. This Austra ....Back to the Future: Interglacial Warming and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . The Antarctic is highly-sensitive to abrupt changes caused by the passing of tipping points within the climate system. Crucially, the instrumental record is too short to resolve major uncertainties surrounding future warming. The Last Interglacial (125,000 yrs ago) was 2°C warmer than today and experienced 6-11 m higher global sea levels. The role of Antarctica is vital for constraining sea-level projections. This Australian-led international project aims to determine the mechanisms and impacts of past interglacial Antarctic warming up to 2°C (relative to pre-industrial). Innovative techniques integrating horizontal ice cores and high resolution marine records will help identify polar tipping points and better plan for impacts in Australia.Read moreRead less
Risks of rapid ocean warming at the Antarctic continental margin. This project aims to comprehensively understand the interconnected processes by which oceanic heat is circulated towards Antarctica. The risk of rapid ocean warming at the Antarctic margin is profound, with change already detected via deep ocean warming, land-ice melt, and ice shelf collapse. Yet this region remains poorly understood, with only limited observations due to both a harsh environment and a lack of standard data stream ....Risks of rapid ocean warming at the Antarctic continental margin. This project aims to comprehensively understand the interconnected processes by which oceanic heat is circulated towards Antarctica. The risk of rapid ocean warming at the Antarctic margin is profound, with change already detected via deep ocean warming, land-ice melt, and ice shelf collapse. Yet this region remains poorly understood, with only limited observations due to both a harsh environment and a lack of standard data streams. This project will use high-resolution global and regional ocean/sea-ice models to examine mechanisms for rapid warming of Antarctic continental shelf waters via both large-scale drivers and fine-scale processes, including mesoscale eddies, tide-topography interactions, and bottom boundary flows. This work will better constrain future rates of ice melt around Antarctica by providing vital knowledge of the ocean processes, dynamics, and feedbacks relating to warm water intrusion onto the Antarctic continental shelf.Read moreRead less
The Governance of Defiance. Defiance is a threat to social order. For this reason sanctioning institutions are in place to punish the defiant through legal, financial and sometimes physical means. The institutional rationale is that, at worst defiance will be silenced and at best, compliance will take its place. Increasingly, adverse and unexpected consequences of dealing with defiance in this way have been exposed. To be accountable for their actions, therefore, authorities have begun to develo ....The Governance of Defiance. Defiance is a threat to social order. For this reason sanctioning institutions are in place to punish the defiant through legal, financial and sometimes physical means. The institutional rationale is that, at worst defiance will be silenced and at best, compliance will take its place. Increasingly, adverse and unexpected consequences of dealing with defiance in this way have been exposed. To be accountable for their actions, therefore, authorities have begun to develop more responsive and deliberative systems. But they also need to know how to read defiance. When is defiance an inappropriate response to a more than reasonable request? And when is defiance a reflection of institutional failure? This project can inform such decision making.Read moreRead less
GRACE follow-on: validation of measurements and initial results. This project aims to advance knowledge to quantify ongoing mass loss of Earth’s polar ice caps and glaciers, increases in sea level, and changes in continental water storage. The project expects to improve the capability to monitor changes on Earth using satellites and to enhance analysis by exploiting data from new instrumentation on the GRACE Follow-On space gravity mission, due for launch in 2018. Expected results aim to improve ....GRACE follow-on: validation of measurements and initial results. This project aims to advance knowledge to quantify ongoing mass loss of Earth’s polar ice caps and glaciers, increases in sea level, and changes in continental water storage. The project expects to improve the capability to monitor changes on Earth using satellites and to enhance analysis by exploiting data from new instrumentation on the GRACE Follow-On space gravity mission, due for launch in 2018. Expected results aim to improve computational tools and to develop expertise to analyse the new data. Other expected outcomes include reliable methods to monitor significant sea-level rise and associated societal and economic disruptions.Read moreRead less
Interactions of physical processes for Southern Ocean dynamics. The Southern Ocean circulation is a major component of the earth’s climate system. Its behaviour depends strongly on the interactions of physical processes that are poorly understood and are not well represented in ocean models. This project will use laboratory experiments and fully-resolved flow simulations with appropriate scaling to examine the dynamics of key interactions between convection, mixing, wind-driven flow, eddies and ....Interactions of physical processes for Southern Ocean dynamics. The Southern Ocean circulation is a major component of the earth’s climate system. Its behaviour depends strongly on the interactions of physical processes that are poorly understood and are not well represented in ocean models. This project will use laboratory experiments and fully-resolved flow simulations with appropriate scaling to examine the dynamics of key interactions between convection, mixing, wind-driven flow, eddies and large-scale currents, while translating the results to improve ocean models. The project will develop the fundamental physics of the deep overturning circulation, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, response timescales and heat uptake in a warming world, and improve predictions of oceanic and climate change.Read moreRead less
Melting and circulation in Antarctic ice shelf cavities. This project will explore and model the mechanisms causing the observed increased rate of melting of Antarctica’s ice shelves. This understanding is essential for accurate predictions of sea level rise and global thermohaline circulation over the next century, so that their impact on society can be planned for and mitigated.
A new energy budget for the global circulation of the oceans. The energy sources and sinks that govern the global circulation of the oceans will be re-evaluated, building a new picture of the energy budget of the oceans. This will lead to new knowledge of the circulation of the deep oceans, to better ocean and climate-prediction models, and ultimately to more reliable estimates of future climate change.
Optimal taxation when the allocation of time matters. This project aims to incorporate evidence-based models of time allocation, which go beyond the simple division between work and leisure, in optimal tax settings. This approach will help to inform the public policy debate on child support, by questioning whether, and if so how, to subsidise childcare, where parental time use plays a crucial role.
Economic Inequality: Trends, Causes and Consequences. Measuring inequality and understanding its determinants is important for three reasons. First, knowing the causes and consequences of inequality is critical to making trade-offs between equity and efficiency. Second, the degree of economic mobility over the lifecycle determines how much opportunity people have to move upwards, and how much risk they face on moving downwards. This informs policies that guard against risk (eg. social insurance) ....Economic Inequality: Trends, Causes and Consequences. Measuring inequality and understanding its determinants is important for three reasons. First, knowing the causes and consequences of inequality is critical to making trade-offs between equity and efficiency. Second, the degree of economic mobility over the lifecycle determines how much opportunity people have to move upwards, and how much risk they face on moving downwards. This informs policies that guard against risk (eg. social insurance) and those that encourage risk (eg. entrepreneurship). Third, by learning more about intergenerational mobility, we can improve policies that seek to boost the life chances of children in disadvantaged households. Read moreRead less