Main Workshop program for ACCESS Community Workshop 2025
The main ACCESS Community Workshop 2025 program runs across two days from Wednesday 10 to Thursday 11 September. It contains a mixture of combined plenary sessions that occur in a single location, parallel sessions that are run across three separate rooms, and informal discussion sessions.
The program is subject to amendments—please revisit this webpage for the most up-to-date version of the program.
On this page:
Program overview
The two tables below provide a high-level overview of the ACCESS Community Workshop 2025 program and includes speaker details for the plenary sessions. For rooms and speaker details for the parallel sessions, visit the parallel session details section of this webpage. For rooms and more details for the lunchtime discussions, visit the lunchtime discussions details section of this webpage.
Day 1: Wednesday 10 September
| Time | Session | Topic | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:30–09:00 | Arrival | Registration and tea/coffee | Foyer areas, The Lab |
| 09:00–09:30 | Welcome Online access link https://vimeo.com/event/3664844 Pasword: ACCESSNRI2025 | Housekeeping and Welcome to Country | Forums 1–3 |
| Andy Hogg (ACCESS-NRI) ACCESS-NRI update |
|||
| 09:30–10:00 | Session 1 | Chair: Ariaan Purich (Monash University) | |
| Keynote speaker | Gokhan Danabasoglu (National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA) High-Resolution Simulations with the Community Earth System Model (CESM) |
||
| 10:00–10:30 | Plenary talks | Alison Bennett (CSIRO) Australia’s future terrestrial carbon sinks |
|
| Michael Groom (CSIRO) Interpretable forecasts of ENSO phase at multi-year lead times using entropic learning |
|||
| 10:30–11:00 | Morning tea | Food served at The Lab | The Lab, Foyer areas, outside |
| 11:00–12:30 | Parallel session 1 | Three parallel sessions each featuring five 12 min talks and seven 1 min lightning talks. Session themes are: - Forum 1: Linking small-scale processes to large-scale climate - Forum 2: Physical processes impacting Australian rainfall - Forum 3: Projecting future carbon reservoirs | Forum 1, Forum 2, Forum 3 |
| 12:30–13:30 | Lunch | Food served at The Lab | The Lab, Foyer areas, outside |
| 13:00 | Lunchtime discussions | Optional, informal group discussions on specific topics. Discussion themes are: - Improve understanding and simulations of low clouds to constrain climate projection uncertainties - Research directions that integrate physics and biogeochemistry within regional ocean models - Coupling between atmosphere, ocean, and ice - Climate modelling: from model evaluations to model improvements | M01/M02, M03, M07, M13/M14 |
| 13:30–15:00 | Poster viewing | The Launch Pad | |
| 15:00–15:30 | Afternoon tea | Food served at The Lab | The Lab, Foyer areas, outside |
| 15:30–17:00 | Parallel session 2 | Three parallel sessions each featuring six 12 min talks. Session themes are: - Forum 1: Modelling future climate change scenarios - Forum 2: Machine learning for Earth system science - Forum 3: Antarctic and Southern Ocean science, Part 1 | Forum 1, Forum 2, Forum 3 |
| 18:15 | Workshop dinner | Bellarine event space, Hyatt Centric Melbourne, 25 Downie St, Melbourne VIC 3000 |
|
Day 2: Thursday 11 September
| Time | Session | Topic | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:30–09:00 | Arrival | Registration and tea/coffee | Foyer areas, The Lab |
| 09:00–09:05 | Welcome Chair: Ryan Holmes (Bureau of Meteorology) Online access link https://vimeo.com/event/3664844 Pasword: ACCESSNRI2025 | Housekeeping and Acknowledgement of Country | Forums 1–3 |
| 09:05–09:35 | Keynote Speaker | Cat Vreugdenhil (University of Melbourne) Ocean convection, circulation and ice shelves: A fine-scale numerical simulation approach to modelling ocean processes |
|
| 09:35–10:20 | Plenary talks | Clothilde Langlais (CSIRO) Modelling the reef’s past and future: Upwelling, warming, and resilience in a changing climate |
|
| Qinggang Gao (University of Melbourne) Towards enhancing climate projections through improved understanding and simulations of marine low clouds |
|||
| Georgina Falster (University of Adelaide) The role of Indo-Pacific SST variability in global drought occurrence |
|||
| 10:20–10:30 | Lightning talks | Aidan Heerdegen (ACCESS-NRI) Robust and reliable climate software: Looking backwards and forwards | |
| Paige Martin (ACCESS-NRI) From PhD to RSE: Training the next generation of Research Software Engineers and getting help on the ACCESS-Hive Forum |
|||
| Charles Turner (ACCESS-NRI) The ACCESS-NRI Intake Catalog: Updates & improvements |
|||
| Owen Kaluza (ACCESS-NRI) Visualising Earth Systems using the ACCESS-Vis python library and ACCESS-Visualisation-Recipes example notebooks |
|||
| Minghang Li (ACCESS-NRI) ACCESS Experiment Generator: Automating parameter sensitivity experiment setup for ACCESS models |
|||
| Jasmeen Kaur (ACCESS-NRI) ACCESS-NRI Training for climate modellers: What's working, what's missing, what's next? |
|||
| 10:30–11:00 | Morning tea | Food served at The Lab | The Lab, foyer areas, outside |
| 11:00–13:00 | Parallel session 3 | Three parallel sessions each featuring seven 12 min talks and six to ten 1 min lightning talks Session themes are: - Forum 1: Tropical/extra tropical coean and atmosphere processes and interactions - Forum 2: High-resolution and regional modelling - Forum 3: Antarctic and Southern Ocean science, Part 2 | Forum 1, Forum 2, Forum 3 |
| 13:00–14:00 | Lunch | Food served at The Lab | The Lab, foyer areas, outside |
| 13:30 | Lunchtime discussions | Optional, informal group discussions on specific topics. Discussion themes are: - Scientific frontiers in km-scale modelling - Development and integration of open-source ice sheet modelling tools and technologies across the Australian community - Developments for ACCESS-ESM on a post CMIP7-FASTTRACK timeline - Let’s Connect: Research Software Engineers (RSEs) in Climate and Weather Science | M01/M02, M03, M07, M13/M14 |
| 14:00–15:30 | Poster viewing | The Launch Pad | |
| 15:30–16:00 | Afternoon tea | Food served at The Lab | The Lab, foyer areas, outside |
| 16:00–16:30 | Final Session Chair: Wilma Huneke (ANU) Online access link https://vimeo.com/event/3664844 Pasword: ACCESSNRI2025 | ||
| Keynote speaker | Renato Braghiere (California Institute of Technology and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA) Mind the Carbon Gap: Bridging Observations and Process-Based Understanding for Earth System Modeling Innovation | Forums 1–3 | |
| 16:30–16:45 | Plenary talk | Navid Constantinou (University of Melbourne), Kate Milligan (University of Sydney), Louise Devenish (Monash University) and Aaron Wyatt (Monash University) Dark Oceanography: A musical performance that integrates ocean science with experimental music |
|
| 16:45– 17:00 | Final discussion and wrap up | Andy Hogg (ACCESS-NRI) Poster & lightning talk prizes and announcement of selected visualisations EoI |
|
Parallel session details
The three tables below provide the speaker details for the parallel sessions. These sessions are spread across the three separated Forum rooms and are run simultaneously. Each of the 12-minute talks have a link to an abstract on the ACCESS-Hive Forum.
Parallel Session 1: Day 1 from 11:00–12:30
| Session type | Time | Forum 1: Linking small-scale processes to large-scale climate Chair: Davide Marchegiani (ACCESS-NRI) | Forum 2: Physical processes impacting Australian rainfall Chair: Charmaine Franklin (Bureau of Meteorology) | Forum 3: Projecting future carbon reservoirs Chair: Tilo Ziehn (CSIRO) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 min talks | 11:00–11:15 | Aditya Narayanan (University of Southampton, UK) Compound Drivers of Antarctic Sea Ice Loss | Peter Dobrohotoff (CSIRO) Exploring differing southern Australian rainfall projections in ACCESS-ESM1.5 and CM2 | Alexander John Norton (CSIRO) Improving land surface processes in ACCESS-ESM1.6: New Australian vegetation types and model updates |
| 11:15–11:30 | Madelaine Rosevear (21st Century Weather, IMAS, University of Tasmania) Impact of submesoscale sea surface temperature variability on bulk air-sea fluxes | Zoe Gillett (Bureau of Meteorology) Interactions between Pacific and Indian Ocean variability and impacts on Australian rainfall | Tyler Rohr (IMAS, University of Tasmania) Emergence of top-down controls on biomass in the 21st century |
|
| 11:30–11:45 | Xuebin Zhang (CSIRO) Ocean-CORDEX: Advancing regional ocean climate projections through international coordination | Fadhlil Rizki Muhammad (University of Melbourne) Convectively coupled tropical waves and their influence on rainfall in tropical Australia: Observations and predictability | Benoit Pasquier (Independent Researcher) Diagnosing the ocean's sequestration efficiency using ACCESS-ESM1.5 transport matrices |
|
| 11:45–12:00 | Chris Chapman (CSIRO) Assessing air-sea interactions at very high resolutions using the Dutch Atmospheric Large Eddy Simulation | Eun-Pa Lim (Bureau of Meteorology) Stratospheric ozone as a driver of the Victorian autumn rainfall variability and trend | Yinghuan Xie (AAPP, University of Tasmania) Testing air–sea equilibration timescales: Resolution dependence and advancing modelling tools to constrain marine CDR effectiveness |
|
| 12:00–12:15 | Sougata Basak (IMAS, University of Tasmania) Amplified SST variability along the Indonesian Throughflow pathways: Role of remote and local ocean dynamics | Surendra Prasad Rauniyar (Bureau of Meteorology) Abrupt shifts in Victorian rainfall: Historical occurrence and future likelihood | Annika Oetjens (University of Tasmania) How well does WOMBAT capture export variability? New insights from BGC-Argo |
|
| 1 min lightning talks | 12:15–12:30 | Robin Wedd (Bureau of Meteorology) Augmenting Argo quality control with machine learning | Christine Chung (Bureau of Meteorology) Projections of ENSO, IOD, and SAM, and their seasonal teleconnections to Australian rainfall in CMIP6 models | Annie Adelson (Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies) Physical mechanisms influencing nutrient fluxes in the Indonesian Seas |
| Helen Macdonald (ACCESS-NRI) Regional and coastal ocean modelling at ACCESS-NRI | Kimberley Reid (University of Melbourne, 21st Century Weather) Fog: A hazard and a resource | Claire Carouge (ACCESS-NRI) CABLE developments in offline and coupled modes |
||
| Paul Anthony Gregory (21st Century Weather) ACCESS rCM3: Plans for a regional coupled model for Australian weather and climate research | Shuxian Liu (Monash University) Variability of East Australian extreme rainfall in the BARRA2 reanalysis datasets | Jiachen Lu (UNSW Sydney) Implementation of urban climate models in ACCESS-AM3 |
||
| Ryan Holmes (Bureau of Meteorology) Subseasonal to seasonal sea level prediction for coastal flooding outlooks | Hongyan Zhu and Debbie Hudson (Bureau of Meteorology) The impact of convection schemes on forecasts of TC-Kirrily | Mathieu Mongin (CSIRO) A novel method to derive surface reflectance from optically active constituents in the global BGC model (WOMBAT) |
||
| Phellipe Pereira Couto (UNSW) Integrating SEACOFS into the Coastal Modelling Commons: A pilot framework for collaborative coastal and regional ocean modelling in Australia | Lynn Zhou (Bureau of Meteorology) Beyond the ocean: Connecting atmospheric forcing to extreme wet conditions in Australia during the 2020–2022 triple La Niña | Qi Cheng (Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW) AMOC weakening and ocean carbon flux changes in ACCESS-ESM |
||
| Elio Campitelli (Monash University) Simulating Antarctic sea ice with a surprisingly simple statistical model | Irina Rudeva (Bureau of Meteorology) Wet summer 2023–2024: Climate drivers and ACCESS-S2 forecast | Rachel Law (CSIRO) Land carbon simulations with ACCESS-AM3 |
||
| Nazli Raudhati (IPB University) Spatial analysis of blue carbon potential in the mangrove ecosystem at Muara Gembong Beach-Indonesia, as a climate change mitigation effort |
Parallel Session 2: Day 1 from 15:30–17:00
Parallel Session 3: Day 2 from 11:00–13:00
| Session type | Time | Forum 1: Tropical/extra tropical ocean and atmosphere processes and interactions Chair: Alex Norton (CSIRO) | Forum 2: High-resolution and regional modelling Chair: Vassili Kitsios (CSIRO) | Forum 3: Antarctic and Southern Ocean science – PART 2 Chair: Taimoor Sohail (University of Melbourne) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 min talks | 11:00–11:15 | Ashok Luhar (CSIRO) Global nitrate aerosol: Production from lightning, and impact on atmospheric composition and radiative forcing | Shaun Cooper (Bureau of Meteorology) ACCESS-AE: A national, km-scale numerical weather prediction ensemble system | Hannah Dawson (University of Tasmania) Investigating the role of deep ocean warming in Antarctic sea ice loss |
| 11:15–11:30 | Matthew England (UNSW) ACCESS-OM2-01 model simulations of the 2023 extreme North Atlantic marine heat wave | Chris Chambers (University of Melbourne) ACCESS-rAM3 sensitivity simulations of thunderstorms over the Tiwi Islands | Julia Neme (Australian National University) The Ross Gyre and its role on heat delivery to the Antarctic margins |
|
| 11:30–11:45 | Ellie Ong (Monash University) Understanding model discrepancies in equatorial Pacific SST patterns using OM2 with ESM forcings | Thi Lan Dao (University of Melbourne) Joint modulation of coastal rainfall in Northeast Australia by local and large-scale forcings | Polina Sholeninova (Australian National University) Seasonal and interannual variability of Antarctic Bottom Water |
|
| 11:45–12:00 | Julie Arblaster (Monash University) An evolving Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 7 (CMIP7) and Fast Track in support of future climate assessment | Corey Robinson (Monash University) Using ACCESS-rAM3 to examine the role of latent heating in large poleward moisture transport events | Wilton Aguiar (Australian National University) Does the Antarctic Slope Current control the heat transport towards Antarctica? |
|
| 12:00–12:15 | Jemma Jeffree (ACCESS-NRI, Australian National University, 21st Century Weather) On the origins of noise (when forecasting ENSO) | Matt Woodhouse (CSIRO) Simulated marine cloud brightening poses a low risk of precipitation changes in north-eastern Australia | Patrick James Brett (Monash University) The idealised Southern Ocean response to freshwater distribution |
|
| 12:15–12:30 | Harun Rashid (CSIRO) An analysis of ENSO simulation biases in ACCESS-CM2 for CMIP6 | Ian White (Bureau of Meteorology) Exploring regional LFRic simulations for Australian case studies | Wilma Huneke (Australian National University) Dense Shelf Water formation and export in coarse resolution models |
|
| 12:30–12:45 | Elio Campitelli (Monash University) ACCESS-S2 experiments suggest tropical oceans, not Antarctic sea ice, drove 2024 Southern Hemisphere stratospheric warming | Mathew Lipson (21st Century Weather) Dry bias in regional climate simulations linked with surface roughness changes | Ariaan Purich (Monash University) Seasonality in the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere response to Southern Ocean freshwater input |
|
| 1 min lightning talks | 12:45–13:00 | Ashneel Chandra (University of Melbourne) Evaluation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation in ACCESS-CM2 pacemaker type simulations | Dragana Zovko-Rajak (Bureau of Meteorology, National Hazards Research Australia) A case study of a severe thunderstorm outbreak and squall line mesovortices in Adelaide, South Australia on 12 November 2022 | Ankit Bhadouriya (University of Melbourne) Role of overshooting convection in controlling winter mixed layer under Antarctic sea ice |
| Jemma Jeffree (ACCESS-NRI, Australian National University, 21st Century Weather) Journey to the centre of a coupled climate model | Joel Aldo Treutlein (Australian National University) Does downscaling improve microclimate predictions? | Anran Duan (University of Melbourne) Observations of ocean wave attenuation and sea ice morphology in the marginal ice zone across seasons |
||
| Pardeep Pall (University of Melbourne) Exploring uncertainty in CMIP6 multi-model climate projections of extremes | Mathew Lipson (21st Century Weather) High-res global urban fraction data now available in ACCESS-rAM | Shixue Li (Monash University) The impact of southern ocean cooling under different model resolutions |
||
| Spencer Wong (ACCESS-NRI) Optimising and future-proofing the ACCESS ESM1.6 software infrastructure | Nathan Eizenberg (Bureau of Meteorology) JEDI for ACCESS-NRI: Proposing an open-source, model-agnostic framework for data assimilation | Felicity McCormack (Monash University) How bed topography influences grounding line retreat and sea level projections |
||
| Paul Leopardi (ACCESS-NRI) ACCESS-ESM1.6 input from CMIP7 forcings | Yiyi Guo (University of Melbourne) Improved machine learning estimation of surface turbulent flux using interpretable model selection and adaptive ensemble algorithms | Lawrence Bird (ACCESS-NRI) pyISSM - The Python API for ISSM |
||
| Nayan Meghsham Talmale (University of Melbourne)Understanding the statistics of compound extreme events and their changes in the overshoot scenarios | Lindsey Oberhelman (Australian National University) Update to UM fields files manipulation tools | Qiuhong Liao (UNSW) Sources and drivers of subsurface South Atlantic Ocean warming |
||
| Wangpeng Gui (University of Melbourne) Enhanced basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves by submesoscale eddies |
||||
| Yuhang Liu (University of Tasmania, AAPP) The Antarctic Coastal Current regulates melting of the Denman-Shackleton ice shelf |
||||
| River Shaddock (Australian National University) Laboratory experiments on the ice-ocean boundary layer and small-scale melt patterns with rotational effects |
||||
| Robin L. van Dijk (IMAS, University of Tasmania) Incorporating glacier-melt derived iron supplies in ACCESS-OM3 |
||||
| Cindy Nguyen Dang (University of Tasmania) From Overshoot to Stability: Global Oceans in a Warming Future |
Lunchtime discussion details
As part of the ACCESS Community Workshop, several community members have organised a series of informal group discussions on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 September to discuss specific topics.
These informal discussions will start in the middle of lunchtime and can take as long as the chairs and participants decide. Rooms will be allocated for each session on the day depending on the number of people interested in participating.
| Day | Time | Lunchtime discussion sessions |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 (Wednesday) | 13:00 | Improve understanding and simulations of low clouds to constrain climate projection uncertainties Chairs: Qinggang Gao (University of Melbourne) and Carl Doedens (University of Melbourne) |
| Research directions that integrate physics and biogeochemistry within regional ocean models Chairs: Pearse Buchan (CSIRO) and Tyler Rohr (University of Tasmania) |
||
| Coupling between atmosphere, ocean, and ice Chair: Chris Chapman (CSIRO) |
||
| Climate modelling: from model evaluations to model improvements Chairs: Gab Abramowitz (UNSW), Harun Rashid (CSIRO) and Romain Beucher (ACCESS-NRI) |
||
| Day 2 (Thursday) | 13:30 | Scientific frontiers in km-scale modelling Chairs: Yi Huang (University of Melbourne), Bethan White (University of Melbourne) and Madi Rosevear (University of Tasmania) |
| Development and integration of open-source cryospheric science tools and technologies across the Australian community Chairs: Mike Tetley (ACCESS-NRI), Felicity McCormack (Monash University) and Lawrence Bird (ACCESS-NRI) |
||
| Developments for ACCESS-ESM on a post CMIP7-FASTTRACK timeline Chair: Ian Harman (CSIRO) |
||
| Let’s Connect: Research Software Engineers (RSEs) in Climate and Weather Science Chairs: Paola Corrales (Australian National University), Sam Green (UNSW), Paul Gregory (University of Melbourne) and Paige Martin (ACCESS-NRI) |
Improve understanding and simulations of low clouds to constrain climate projection uncertainties
Chairs: Quinggang Gao (University of Melbourne) and Carl Doedens (University of Melbourne)
The response of low clouds to warming is the greatest source of uncertainty in climate projections. The IPCC AR6 assesses the equilibrium climate sensitivity to be very likely within the range of 2-5°C, which is, however, not directly informed by Earth system model simulations. This is partly because, despite decades of development, low cloud feedback leads to larger model spread in CMIP6 than CMIP5. A better understanding and simulations of low clouds are thus crucial to narrow down uncertainties in climate projections. Here we would like to gather interested researchers to discuss potential avenues to advance the research status.
Key questions to discuss:
- Which observations do we need to gain insights into which physical processes? Do we need more new observations, or can we further exploit existing observations?
- What are the advantages and limitations of a hierarchy of models for low clouds, from large eddy simulations, kilometre-resolution simulations, to global climate simulations? How can we make the most benefit from a combined use of these models?
- Could laboratory experiments and direct numerical simulations help address the challenge in modelling low clouds?
Research directions that integrated physics and biogeochemistry within regional modelling
Chairs: Pearse Buchanan (CSIRO) and Tyler Rohr (University of Tasmania)
Australia’s capability for high-resolution regional modelling with the ACCESS-OM3 coupled ocean-sea ice-biogeochemical models is nearly here, thanks to the efforts of ACCESS-NRI and some talented and dedicated individuals. This opens many doors. With you, I’d like to facilitate a session where we crack some of these doors open and take a peek inside to see what research treasures they hold. By the end of the session, we should have a feeling for where the community would like to focus its effort, and importantly, which configurations we need to really nail.
Bring your own questions! Optimism and pessimism (i.e., reality checks) are equally welcome. But, just to get things started:
- Testing local deployments of ocean alkalinity enhancement for robust quantification of marine carbon dioxide capture (possible spin-off for a company or at least means for government to assess proposals in the future?)
- An Australian marine carbon budget to match the terrestrial carbon budget that has been around for 20+ years
- Quantification of the frequency of extremes in physical and biogeochemical conditions as climate change unfolds or associated with different modes of climate variability
- How do high frequency events (i.e. mesoscale, submesoscale) scale-up to influence wider biogeochemical cycles like carbon, oxygen and marine productivity?
- Impact assessments of marine infrastructure (e.g., wind farms, large-scale aquaculture)
- How do storm events influence CO2 and N2O fluxes from the northwest shelf / Southern Ocean / Eastern Tropical Pacific?
- What is the role of ice melt, either from ice sheet or sea ice, on patterns of circulation, biogeochemistry and marine productivity on the Antarctic margin?
- How do submarine canyons and other bathymetric features affect carbon export events that support demersal fisheries?
Coupling between atmosphere, ocean, and ice
Chair: Chris Chapman (CSIRO)
Climate modelling: from model evaluations to model improvements
Chairs: Gab Abramowitz (UNSW), Harun Rashid (CSIRO) and Romain Beucher (ACCESS-NRI)
The focus of this discussion is how to inform model development through model evaluations. We will cover: (a) evaluation to understand model fidelity in large scale applications / the state of play / beauty contests, and (b) evaluation specifically aimed at identifying which parts of modelling systems are ripe for improvement, and whether or not they are improving after proposed changes (even if metrics in (a) get worse, as a result of compensating biases). (b) typically needs significantly tighter observational constraint that (a).
A few questions that may be discussed are:
- What do our evaluation metrics actually tell us about the physical processes that need improving? How to link evaluation results to specific process-level deficiencies (e.g., SST bias in the equatorial Pacific → convection, clouds, or coupling issues)?
- How do we balance realism in present-day climate with improved projections for future scenarios? This is an important topic as fixing a present-day bias doesn’t always guarantee better future projections. Discussions of examples where bias reduction did lead to more credible projections, and where it didn’t.
- What kinds of evaluation frameworks best support iterative, continuous model improvement (ESMValTool, etc.)? One-off evaluations give snapshots, but developers need feedback loops between evaluation and development. Integrated evaluation pipelines linking observations to model diagnostics; targeted process experiments and hierarchical modelling? How to make evaluation results actionable for development teams?
Scientific frontiers in km-scale modelling
Chairs: Yi Huang (University of Melbourne), Bethan White (University of Melbourne) and Madelaine Gamble Rosevear (University of Tasmania)
Kilometre-scale Earth system modelling is rapidly expanding our ability to simulate the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface in unprecedented detail. These models capture many small-scale processes, from convective systems to fine-scale ocean circulation and complex land–surface exchanges, that were previously parameterised. These advances are opening new opportunities for science, but also present challenges: how to fully exploit emerging computational capabilities, bridge scales between process studies and global models, and integrate novel observations and AI methods. This discussion session will explore recent breakthroughs, key uncertainties, and strategic directions for km-scale modelling across the atmosphere, ocean, and land domains.
Key questions to discuss:
- What recent scientific insights have been unlocked by km-scale simulations of atmosphere, ocean, land processes, and their interactions?
- What are the main sources of uncertainty in km-scale models, and how can we better quantify and reduce them?
- How can we design experiments that link km-scale process studies to global climate prediction?
- Which observational datasets (satellite, in-situ, field campaigns) are most critical for evaluating km-scale models?
- What role could AI, machine learning, and hybrid approaches play in accelerating km-scale modelling science
Development and integration of open-source cryospheric science tools and technologies across the Australian community
Chairs: Mike Tetley (ACCESS-NRI), Felicity McCormack (Monash University) and Lawrence Bird (ACCESS-NRI)
In order to develop and support the broader cryosphere research communities across Australia, one of the primary objectives of the ACCESS-NRI Ice Sheet Modelling team is to collaborate with researchers to identify opportunities for the development of new shared tools, scientific software, models and infrastructure resources. In this open and informal session, we invite all attendees with an interest in cryospheric research to join us to explore emerging community needs, current development plans, and identify future community requirements.
Key questions to discuss:
- Where do you see the Australian cryosphere community in 5 years? And how can we bring together more parts of the community to achieve this?
- What does collaboration mean to you, and how would like to see this evolve?
- If funding was not a limitation, what would be the next software / hardware development that you’d like to see?
- As a new member of the cryosphere community, is there anything that you’ve always wanted to know more about?
- What are your big blue sky research questions?
Developments for ACCESS-ESM on a post CMIP7-FASTTRACK timeline
Chair: Ian Harman (CSIRO)
ACCESS-ESM1.6 will be our contributing model to the CMIP7 FASTTRACK and many of the Community MIPs post-FASTTRACK, and is nearly finalised. Now is then a good time to consider the path forward for the future development and application of ACCESS. Developments within the component models of ACCESS, for example our new ground water capability in the land model CABLE, often require additional effort by model developers and software engineers prior to being used and tested within the coupled model. Equally, advances in one component model can require that effort is needed in other component models in order to retain a working, scientifically consistent and satisfactory ACCESS – this effort is often both scientific and technical.
Key questions to discuss:
- What capability advances is the ACCESS community wishing to prioritise and on what timelines?
- How should the community support the scientific work necessary to activate these advances within the coupled model?
- The ACCESS family of models now spans 3 generations of atmospheric model – ACCESS-ESM1.6+ (our fastest model, based on UM7), ACCESS-CM2 (UM10.6), and ACCESS-3 (UM13.1). Our partners at the UK Meteorological Office are also developing an ESM based upon the next generation of atmosphere model (LFRic). The underpinning differences in model structure and time stepping between these versions can act as a barrier to flexibility – we have found that the work to couple other components to the atmospheric model often has to be revisited. Correspondingly, noting resource and time constraints, which version of the ACCESS should be the focus for post-FASTTRACK developments?
- What configurations and resolutions of ACCESS is the community looking to utilise (and hence support)?
- Should the community be looking to undertake a second submission to CMIP7 – with which ACCESS version/configuration, and who would lead?
- How do these development aspirations intersect with other user community needs for the ACCESS models, e.g. regional climate?
Let’s Connect: RSEs in Climate and Weather Science
Chairs: Paola Corrales (Australian National University), Sam Green (UNSW), Paul Gregory (University of Melbourne) and Paige Martin (ACCESS-NRI)
This informal discussion is for those working in research software engineering-type roles in the climate and weather sciences in and around Australia. The goal of this discussion is to connect RSEs across different organizations, and to gauge interest in starting a working group to facilitate communication and collaboration. Whether you’re keen to help shape the direction of such a group or just curious to meet others in similar roles, you’re welcome to join.