CSHOR Science Seminar and Committee Meeting at CSIRO Hobart

The CSHOR office recently hosted a CSHOR Science Seminar and a joint CSHOR Steering and International Advisory Committee Meeting at CSIRO, Hobart.

Over 40 guests attended the seminar on Thursday 3 May, including the CSHOR Steering and Advisory Committees. Advisory Committee Members commented that, ‘CSHOR is an excellent team and the science seminar is a great display. The presentations addressed important key questions and highlighted collaboration with other institutions’.

CSHOR project leaders highlighted the year’s research and introduced next year’s research plan at the seminar. A list of projects is found on the ‘Projects‘ page. Links to the various project presentations are found below and also on each project’s web page. Highlights this year include:

A study based on previous Argo float deployments, published in Nature Climate Change (Gao, Rintoul et al., 2017), shows that wind-driven changes in formation and subduction of Subantarctic Mode Water in the Southern Ocean can explain the large increase in ocean heat content in the southern hemisphere oceans
In a paper published in Nature Climate Change (Wang et al., 2017a) we demonstrate that extreme El Niño frequency increases linearly with the GMT towards a doubling at 1.5 °C warming
Southern Ocean researchers aboard the RV Investigator find a shift in a decades-long trend towards fresher, less dense water off Antarctica
CSHOR wins an award at the Chinese International Talents Exchange Meeting in Shenzhen in the category of “Achievement in International Talents and Knowledge Introduction and International Collaboration” the only winner for the category and the only winner from Shandong province.

Our new Postdoctoral Fellows from Australia and overseas gave a talk on their own research interests and the research they are planning with CSHOR.

Professor John Church’s talk on, ‘the uncertainty in sea level projections’, generated considerable discussion. Prof Church, a Professor at The University of New South Wales, collaborates with Dr Xuebin Zhang on the CSHOR Southern Ocean and sea level change project.

The CSHOR Steering and Advisory Committees came together on the following day, Friday 4 May. The Steering Committee approved the 2018/19 budget and project plans to the value of AU$4.6m. The Committee also approved the format for the CSHOR Annual Report. The report is due in July. Both Committees provided the CSHOR Director and research staff with valuable feedback on a draft CSHOR Science Plan which is due for completion in September. It was the second face-to-face meeting of the Steering Committee and the first for the Advisory Committee. A list of Committee Members is found on the ‘Governance’ page.