24/05/2005 - Mr Greg Hunt,
Parliamentary Secretary with Ministerial responsibility
for the Bureau of Meteorology and Mr John
Forrest, Federal Member for Mallee, announced
today that scientists will soon have a better
understanding of tropical thunderstorms and
their impacts on our climate, thanks to an
international cooperative meteorological experiment
taking place in Darwin this summer.
"Research aircraft from Australia, the
US and Europe will be flown into storm clouds
to gain an insight into the inner workings
of thunderstorms and cirrus ice clouds, as
part of the Tropical Warm Pool - International
Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) happening between
November and February 2006," Mr Hunt
said.
"The information collected during this
four-month experiment will improve the Bureau's
ability to forecast thunderstorm activity,
and will give us valuable information to improve
the accuracy of climate modelling.
"It will help us better understand cloud
systems - how they form and how rainfall can
be predicted. I thank John Forrest for his
leadership as a national advocate for research
into clouds and I know how important the information
from this experiment will be to him."
Mr Forrest said the experiment will complement
regular monitoring information and produce
one of the most complete sets of tropical
convection data ever collected. He also expressed
his hope that it may provide insight into
further developments in cloud seeding research.
"The information will be used to validate
the accuracy of current satellite data and
improve the way clouds are represented in
present climate models," Mr Forrest said.
"Weather balloons will be launched every
three hours from five sites to collect information
on the heat and water exchange in the atmosphere.
Intensive measurements will be taken in and
around the clouds using several research aircraft
supported by ground and sea-based radar, and
weather satellites. Measurements will include
cloud height, size, thickness, temperature,
size of ice crystals and amount of water vapour."
The TWP-ICE will take place during the Australian
monsoon season and will focus on a 150-kilometre
radius around the Northern Territory capital.
CSIRO research vessel Southern Surveyor will
be positioned west of Darwin and will observe
the interaction of the clouds and the oceans.
The TWP-ICE partners are the Bureau of Meteorology,
CSIRO, Airborne Research Australia, the US
Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation
Measurement (ARM) Program, NASA, and a consortium
of universities in Australia, the US, Canada,
Japan and Europe. RAAF Base Darwin will provide
facilities and logistics support to the experiment.
