Reconstructing historical tropical cyclone records for the Pacific

Project Title:

Reconstructing historical tropical cyclone records for the Pacific

Supervisor(s):

Dr Savin Chand

Contact person and email address:

Savin Chand: s.chand@federation.edu.au

A brief description of the project:

Pacific island countries have high concentration of settlements in close proximities to coastlines. As the impact of climate change on tropical cyclones become increasingly evident, small island countries in the Pacific will be confronted with the need to implement adaptation strategies with greater urgency. However, insufficient high resolution long-term meteorological records of severe tropical cyclones in the Pacific often complicate our ability to separate anthropogenic influences of climate change from the natural variability. In order to understand the nature of variability within the context of future climate change, it is useful to establish a long-term record of tropical cyclones extending back to periods with climate states different from the present day. This project will aim to develop of such temporal records that may extend several thousand years back.