Chapter 2 - Climate Data and Monitoring

Climate Monitoring and Analysis > National and Regional Climate Monitoring

The Bureau of Meteorology produces a wide range of climate monitoring products, covering both Australia and more extensive regions. Historically, many of these products have been included in hard-copy publications, but increasingly the Internet is being used as the principal tool for the construction and dissemination of climate information.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s NCC produces a comprehensive suite of climate monitoring maps on the Internet, for the benefit of a broadly based set of users including government departments, academic institutions and the rural sector. The maps cover rainfall and temperature over Australia and its sub-regions, spanning a range of timescales from 1 day to 36 months, and including both observed values of the elements and comparisons with long-term normals.

The NCC also publishes a number of analyses and climate information bulletins, including:

• Drought Review: The Drought Review provides a national overview of areas suffering from prolonged serious rainfall deficiency. The review contains tables of rainfall statistics and maps outlining the areas of serious rainfall deficiency. A Drought Statement is also issued, which is a summary description of areas of serious rainfall deficiency. Both are issued monthly;
• Monthly Rainfall Review: The Monthly Rainfall Review provides a national overview of rainfall for the past one and three months based on statistics compiled for the 107 official rainfall districts. The statistics include the district average rainfall and its decile value, and selected station rainfall. Maps of decile value depict broad areas of above normal rainfall and deficiency;
• Monthly Weather Review: A separate issue of the Monthly Weather Review for each State/Territory provides a detailed summary of the weather influences for each month. Included in this publication are commentaries, tables and charts relating to rainfall, temperature and significant phenomena;
• Weekly Rainfall Update: A web-based weekly update to the Drought Review, which describes the impact of rainfall events, on longer-term deficiencies;
• The El Niño Wrap-Up: A web-based fortnightly review of the status of the El Niño phenomenon (and described more fully in Chapter 3);
• Seasonal Summaries: Three-monthly summaries of the weather and climate, with an emphasis on Australia and the South Pacific, provided to the Australian Meteorological Magazine; and
• Annual Climate Summary: A yearly summary, which provides a month-bymonth overview of rainfall, rainfall deficiencies and temperatures alongside a description of major climatic events for the year. The material for the summary is based on operational climate monitoring products and input prepared for the WMO Annual Statement on the Status of the Global Climate.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s National Meteorological and Oceanographic Operations Centre (NMOC) has been operating a global sea surface temperature (SST) analysis system since 1993. The analysis is performed weekly and is complemented by more frequent high resolution analyses for the Australian region. The SST analyses are used to monitor the variation of ocean temperatures, particularly in the Pacific Ocean where indices in predetermined areas related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation are routinely plotted as time series.

Regular analyses of the upper ocean temperature field are also produced by the Joint Australian Facility for Ocean Observing Systems (JAFOOS) which, as earlier stated, also acts as the WOCE Indian Ocean UOTDAC. All upper ocean thermal data in the Indian Ocean for the WOCE period (1990-1998) have been assembled and quality control applied before analysis on ocean basin scales. The Bureau of Meteorology operates the UOTDAC for the Indian Ocean under the World Climate Research Programme’s CLIVAR Project and the Global Temperature Salinity Profile Project (GTSPP).

The three-dimensional thermal structure of the upper ocean is monitored by an operational NMOC analysis of weekly and monthly temperatures at multiple levels in the ocean down to 500 metres. These operational subsurface analyses are now complimented by three-dimensional ocean analyses produced every three days, as part of the Bureau of Meteorology/CSIRO coupled climate model (POAMA). Input observations for the ocean analyses come from remote sensing satellites, moored and drifting buoys, bathythermograph reports from the ship-of-opportunity program and profiling floats.

As one of the three World Meteorological Centres of the WMO World Weather Watch, the Bureau of Meteorology publishes, in electronic and booklet form, a monthly Climate Monitoring Bulletin (CMB). Monthly mean fields and selected fields of climate anomalies and other statistical indicators, representing the short-term variability of the climate system, are published in the CMB. The routine NMOC global analyses (GASP) form the basis for the derivation of mean and anomaly fields of the atmospheric general circulation. Broadly, the CMB covers the general circulation of the atmosphere together with surface and subsurface ocean temperature characteristics, the latter giving particular insight into the ENSO phenomenon. It also includes summaries of recent rainfall, tem- perature and ozone distribution for the Australian region, and a short commentary on Australian tide and sea height fluctuations supplied by the National Tidal Facility. The CMB is a technical document aimed at the professional meteorological community. It is distributed freely to counterpart National Meteorological Services in many other countries and to meteorological research groups in Australia and overseas.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Northern Territory Regional Office publishes a monthly Tropical Diagnostic Statement and a Weekly Tropical Climate Note and also publishes biannual Tropical Circulation Summaries in the Australian Meteorological Magazine. These products concentrate on the area from 40°N to 40°S and from 70° to 180°E.

In fulfilment of government environmental reporting requirements, Environment Australia’s Second National State of the Environment (Atmosphere) Report was completed in 2000-01. The report included, inter alia, analyses of atmospheric indicators such as the Southern Oscillation Index, mean and extreme rainfall, mean and extreme temperatures, temperatures, occurrence of tropical cyclones, temperatures of the upper atmosphere and ozone concentrations. A technical report has recently been completed which describes these indices, while operational procedures have been developed to support their production in near real-time.