CSIRO begins climate project with China

CSIRO and the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) have signed a two-year funding agreement for collaboration between CSIRO statisticians and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science.

The project will investigate climate and rainfall linkages between China and Australia.

"The objective of this project is to improve understanding of the interaction of the Australian and East Asian monsoon systems," said CSIRO Environmental Statistician Dr Bronwyn Harch.

"This research will give us more information about the impacts of climate change, especially in the areas of agriculture and water resource management."

The East Asian summer monsoon carries moist air from the Indian and Pacific Oceans to East Asia. The monsoonal flow interacts with the Australian winter monsoon.

The project will include the analysis of possible relationships between summer rainfall over north China and winter rainfall over southwest Western Australia, and the development and application of statistical models to assess the impacts of the Australian monsoons on summer rainfall over north China.