Dr Lisa Alexander has an international reputation for her research on climate extremes in Australia and around the world. She uses weather station observations and climate models to understand the natural and anthropogenic processes that drive extreme rainfall and temperature events and to assess how these processes might affect extremes in the future. Her work has found that the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves and other climate extremes across Australia will strongly depend on the amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted.
Dr Alexander holds a BSc and MSc in Applied Mathematics and a PhD in Climate Science from Monash University. Between 1998 and 2006 she was a research scientist at the UK Met Office Hadley Centre with a year on secondment to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW.
Extreme events like heatwaves, droughts and floods have a significant socio-economic impact. Observations indicate that these types of events have increased across large parts of Australia over recent decades and projections indicate that in future these trends will continue. In this talk Dr Alexander will present the evidence for changes in past extremes and will discuss the difficulties in ‘detecting and attributing’ changes that may be due to human interference of the climate system, given Australia’s large natural climate variations. Even so, the evidence points to significant future changes in extremes globally especially for those events that are temperature-dependent such as heatwaves. My own research shows that future changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures in Australia will be strongly dependent on the amount and rate of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This is important information for policy makers who need to make relevant mitigation and adaptation strategy decisions.
Event Manager: Mitchell Piercey
Phone: (02) 6201 9462
Dr Lisa Alexander has an international reputation for her research on climate extremes in Australia and around the world. She uses weather station observations and climate models to understand the natural and anthropogenic processes that drive extreme rainfall and temperature events and to assess how these processes might affect extremes in the future. Her work has found that the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves and other climate extremes across Australia will strongly depend on the amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases emitted.
Dr Alexander holds a BSc and MSc in Applied Mathematics and a PhD in Climate Science from Monash University. Between 1998 and 2006 she was a research scientist at the UK Met Office Hadley Centre with a year on secondment to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW.
Extreme events like heatwaves, droughts and floods have a significant socio-economic impact. Observations indicate that these types of events have increased across large parts of Australia over recent decades and projections indicate that in future these trends will continue. In this talk Dr Alexander will present the evidence for changes in past extremes and will discuss the difficulties in ‘detecting and attributing’ changes that may be due to human interference of the climate system, given Australia’s large natural climate variations. Even so, the evidence points to significant future changes in extremes globally especially for those events that are temperature-dependent such as heatwaves. My own research shows that future changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures in Australia will be strongly dependent on the amount and rate of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This is important information for policy makers who need to make relevant mitigation and adaptation strategy decisions.
Shine Dome,9 Gordon Street Australian Capital Territory false DD/MM/YYYYEvent Manager: Mitchell Piercey
Phone: (02) 6201 9462
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
