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Extending and understanding the South West Western Australian rainfall record using the Dome Summit South ice core, East Antarctica

A 2038-year South West Western Australia rainfall reconstruction.


The prolonged rainfall reduction in South West Western Australia (SWWA) in recent decades has previously been reported to be unprecedented in the past 750 years. This rainfall reduction has reduced the water supply for both residents and agriculture in SWWA. However, the cause of this rainfall reduction is unclear. The relatively short length of the SWWA instrumental rainfall record limits longterm studies of SWWA rainfall. In this study, SWWA rainfall is reconstructed based on a statistically significant negative correlation between SWWA rainfall and snowfall at Dome Summit South (DSS), East Antarctica. The 2000-year DSS snow accumulation record is used to reconstruct SWWA rainfall from 22 BCE to 2015 CE. With Cumulative Summation (CUSUM) analysis applied to the rainfall reconstruction, it is found that SWWA rainfall started to reduce around 1971 CE. This prolonged rainfall reduction is unprecedented during the past 750 years, but there have been two prior droughts of similar duration and intensity during the past 2000 years. Applying statistical techniques to compare the rainfall reconstruction with climate model simulations, it is found that greenhouse gases are likely to be the dominant driver of the SWWA rainfall drying trend after 1971 CE.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2020-08-27
Date (Publication)
2020-08-31
Citation identifier
doi:10.25959/5f4c50b7b661f

Title
Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
Date (Publication)
2020-08-31
Citation identifier
ISO 26324:2012

Citation identifier
https://doi.org/10.25959/5f4c50b7b661f

Principal investigator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Zheng,Yaowen
IMAS - Hobart
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
ORCID ID >

Collaborator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Phipps, Steven
IMAS - Hobart
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
ORCID ID >

Collaborator

Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), Department of the Environment (DoE), Australian Government - Roberts, Jason
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
ORCID ID >

Collaborator

Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), Department of the Environment (DoE), Australian Government - Jong, Lenneke M
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
ORCID ID >

Credit
Australian Research Council's Special Research Initiative for the Antarctic Gateway Partnership (Project ID SR140300001)
Credit
Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research, a joint research centre between QNLM and CSIRO, and (iii) the Australia’s Antarctic program (AAS 4061, 4062 and 4537)
Credit
IMAS Honours Student Program 2019-2020
Status
Completed

Point of contact

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Zheng,Yaowen
IMAS - Hobart
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
+61410528692
ORCID ID >

Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Extent

N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2019-08-31 2020-06-22
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
Keywords (Place)
  • South West Western Australia
NASA/GCMD Keywords, Version 8.5
  • EARTH SCIENCE | CLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS
  • EARTH SCIENCE | CLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS | DROUGHT/PRECIPITATION RECONSTRUCTION
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research
  • Climatology (excl. Climate Change Processes)
Keywords (Theme)
  • South West Western Australia rainfall reconstruction

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The data described in this record are the intellectual property of the the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania (UTAS), and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD).

Resource constraints

Linkage
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png

License Graphic

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License


>

Website
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

License Text

Other constraints
Cite data as: Zheng, Y., Phipps, S., Roberts, J. and Jong, L.M. (2020). Extending and understanding the South West Western Australian rainfall record using the Dome Summit South ice core, East Antarctica. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS). doi:10.25959/5f4c50b7b661f
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Content Information

Content type
Physical measurement
Name
South West Western Australia rainfall reconstruction

Name
Rainfall Reconstruction

Name
mm/year

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • Microsoft Excel

OnLine resource
DATA ACCESS - SWWA rainfall reconstruction [direct download]

Resource lineage

Statement
The South West Western Australia (SWWA) growing season (May to October) rainfall was reconstructed based on a statistically significant negative correlation between SWWA rainfall and snowfall at Dome Summit South (DSS), East Antarctica. The 200-year DSS snow accumulation record is used to reconstruct SWWA rainfall from 22 BCE to 2015 CE.
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Metadata

Metadata identifier
d7d5ea56-f972-435d-b44b-44fea598150c

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Publisher

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - IMAS Data Manager
Parent metadata
  • 2019-20 Honours project - Extending and understanding the South West Western Australian rainfall record using the Dome Summit South ice core, East Antarctica [THESIS]

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/d7d5ea56-f972-435d-b44b-44fea598150c

Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2021-01-18T11:56:08
Date info (Revision)
2021-01-18T11:56:08

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3:2018
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

South West Western Australia rainfall reconstruction
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research
Climatology (excl. Climate Change Processes)
NASA/GCMD Keywords, Version 8.5
EARTH SCIENCE | CLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS EARTH SCIENCE | CLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE INDICATORS | PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS | DROUGHT/PRECIPITATION RECONSTRUCTION

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Associated resources

Not available


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