4
BAMOS
Sep 2019
President’s report
Andrew Marshall, September 2019
I am constantly reminded of the importance of societies like
AMOS for bringing together our atmospheric, oceanographic
and climate science communities, to support our variable
and changing world. Recent news stories have included the
record global heat in July, severe water deficiency in Chennai,
above‑average wildfires in the Amazon, and record‑breaking
melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Closer to home, the
long‑term drought in eastern Australia continues to be of
great concern, more than 130 fires have destroyed bushland
and property in New South Wales and Queensland, and
drier than average conditions are expected across much of
Australia for the remainder of 2019 under the influence of the
Indian Ocean Dipole's positive phase. Compounding the dry
outlook for eastern Australia is the predicted threat of a record
strong Stratospheric Sudden Warming (SSW) event above the
South Pole, which would lead to the development of a strong
negative Southern Annular Mode in spring. Their impacts on
Australia include increased risk of heatwaves and bushfires
across eastern Australia. Since the last SSW in September 2002,
our understanding of these rare events has improved markedly,
as has our ability to forecast their behaviour and impact on
our climate. AMOS works to support advances in scientific
understanding such as these, and to promote the vital work
of our scientific community, for the benefit of the Australian
community. To that end, I would like to share with you some
significant progress in AMOS outreach over the last few months.
Our Position Statement on International Cooperation and
Data Sharing in Meteorology and Oceanography was adopted
by AMOS Council on Friday 26 July. This important statement
addresses a critical and very topical issue for our sciences and
aims to help provide a framework for national dialogue on
the many challenging data issues facing the meteorological
and oceanographic communities. The statement calls for nine
specific actions through which the Australian Government, the
meteorological and oceanographic community and public,
private and academic data providers can further strengthen
the national weather and climate enterprise and its value to
Australia and the world. I have recently shared this statement
with the Australian Academy of Science, Science and Technology
Australia (STA), and some of our international partner societies;
STA has already sent out messages of support through their
digital media channels.
On the topic of position statements and partner societies, the
Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS)
last year released their statement on the IPCC Special Report
on Global Warming of 1.5°C. Through our Memorandum
of Understanding with CMOS we were invited to prepare a
supplementary AMOS Council Statement for Australia and the
neighbouring regions, which was prepared earlier in the year
and adopted on Friday 26 July also.
I would like to thank all those involved in working on these
statements—science leaders Michael Manton and John Zillman
(data sharing), Jo Brown and Andrew King (global warming),
Rob Colman (overseeing the process), and the AMOS members
and councillors who contributed comments and feedback as
part of each approval procedure.
I would also like to congratulate members of our scientific
community whose achievements have been recognised with
prestigious Australian and international awards recently. In May
this year, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX)
Chief Investigator Lisa Alexander was awarded the 2018 Gordon
Manley Weather Prize by the Royal Meteorological Society for
her world‑leading work on global and regional climate. CLEX
Media and Communications Manager Alvin Stone described
it best: "It’s yet another trophy for her bulging cabinet of
scientific acknowledgements". Scott Power from the Bureau of
Meteorology received an Innovation and Research Contribution
Award from the Pacific Meteorological Council in recognition
of outstanding, innovative and exceptional climate change
and climate variability research, and in empowering the next
generation of researchers. A huge congratulations also to UNSW
Canberra Climate Scientist Sophie Lewis, who last month was
named ACT Scientist of the Year. This award places Sophie as the
ACT's science ambassador, inspiring young people to consider
a career in STEM. Also last month we learned that University of
Melbourne's Linden Ashcroft has had her article titled "Letter
to a weather station" published in The Best Australian Science
Writing 2019 Anthology, and ABC TV Meteorologist Nate Byrne
has named Linden Ashcroft and CSIRO's David Karoly in his list
of five living Victorian scientists we should all know about. I
must say I feel very proud to know the recipients of all these
accolades!
In closing, I would like to point you to the Australian Academy
of Science's terrific new resource called STEM Women, an online
directory of women in Australia working in STEM. Developed
in partnership with CSIRO, STA and the Australian Science
Media Centre, STEM Women aims to promote gender equity by
showcasing the breadth of STEM talent in Australia, enabling a
diverse range of women to identify opportunities to progress
their careers and personal capabilities including conference
and speaker invitations, committee and board requests, and
award nominations. To learn more and to create a profile, visit
www.stemwomen.org.au.