Breaking News
admin
May 20 2025
3A new regional climate model is transforming how scientists study extreme weather events and their local impacts across Australia. Developed by the Australian Climate Service (ACCESS-NRI), the ACCESS-rAM3 model provides high-resolution insights into regional weather patterns that global models often overlook.
While global climate models are essential for tracking large-scale changes over decades and across the planet, their lower resolution limits their ability to capture localized events like bushfires, severe storms, and the unique weather effects shaped by features such as mountain ranges. Regional models, in contrast, offer a more detailed and focused lens—much like switching from binoculars to a magnifying glass.
“Global models help us understand long-term planetary trends, but they can't pick up on smaller, high-impact events due to computational limitations,” explains Martin Dix, Associate Director for Model Development at ACCESS-NRI. “For instance, the Blue Mountains are invisible in a global model, yet they significantly influence Sydney’s local weather.”
To overcome this challenge, ACCESS-NRI has released ACCESS-rAM3, a regional atmospheric model specifically tailored to the Australian landscape. The model is based on the UK Met Office's regional nesting suite and includes both atmospheric and land-surface components. One key advantage is that researchers can customize the simulations by choosing specific locations and timeframes to study.
Dr. Heidi Nettelbeck, who leads the Atmosphere Modeling team at ACCESS-NRI, highlights that researchers can also integrate land-surface data from public sources rather than relying solely on restricted operational datasets. “This flexibility is crucial for academic and public research,” she says.
The model supports the research mission of the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, which investigates how Australia's climate and weather patterns are evolving. Dr. Mathew Lipson from UNSW Sydney emphasizes that rAM3’s adaptability allows researchers to simulate past weather events with high fidelity, helping to better understand their societal and environmental impacts.
Dr. Lipson has used rAM3 to study how urban environments affect weather in regions like Greater Sydney. By comparing simulations with and without city infrastructure, researchers can explore the influence of urban heat islands and sea breezes during extreme events such as heatwaves.
One of the model’s standout features is its ease of use. “A decade ago, setting up a climate model could take months,” says Dr. Lipson. “Recently, I helped Ph.D. students with no prior modeling experience get rAM3 running within hours.”
The model is optimized for Australia’s National Computing Infrastructure (NCI), and thanks to ACCESS-NRI’s engineering efforts, it’s plug-and-play for researchers. “You can’t just download a UK model and expect it to run locally,” notes Dr. Bethan White from the University of Melbourne. “ACCESS-NRI has done all the integration work, making the tool truly usable for the Australian research community.”
Future iterations of ACCESS-rAM3 will integrate Australia’s own land-surface model, CABLE, which more accurately reflects local soil and vegetation characteristics. Currently, the model uses the UK’s JULES land component, but enhancements are already underway, including improved soil moisture initialization using datasets like ERA5-Land and the Bureau of Meteorology’s BARRA reanalysis.
ACCESS-rAM3 is not only deepening scientific understanding of Australia's weather—it’s making advanced climate modeling more accessible to researchers than ever before.
Source:https://phys.org/news/2025-05-weather-extremes-lens-regional.html
This is non-financial/medical advice and made using AI so could be wrong.
