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Dr Doug Richardson

@dresearchdson.bsky.social

1.9K followers 117 following 30 posts

Climate, energy & compound events @ ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes @ UNSW Sydney github.com/dougrichardson

Posts Replies Media

Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

I had a great time at my first CLEX workshop a few weeks back in Brisbane - met some wonderful people for the first time/first time IRL. Here I am pretending to be an art savant during my lightning lecture...

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Although for much of the globe, its the drying of fuels that leads to more burning (red shading here) - noisy signal though using this 19-year satellite data set.

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Our analysis from last year shows the same thing - a wet year prior to the fire season typically leads to higher burned areas in northern Australia (red shading in this image). From www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

It highlights the role of La Niña-driven rains that increase the fuel load, which then dries out. This year has the highest area burned since 2011, which was also just after La Niña.

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

We also looked at the kinds of weather patterns associated with these droughts.

Weather patterns associated with solar, wind and compound (wind + solar) droughts in autumn.

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

El Niño and other climate modes of variability can affect how likely these droughts are, but this influence is region-specific and may not matter for the grid at-large. BUT – this is just the resource (solar radiation and wind speed) – many other factors at play.

Blue shading shows regions that experience more solar droughts during La Niña winters than during El Niño winters.

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

These ‘droughts’ happen in at least 15 out of 36 Renewable Energy Zones on >50% of days. Winter is the most at-risk season, mostly due to lower solar resource. Renewable Energy Zone = region of high renewable energy potential.

Number of Renewable Energy Zones that experience a wind, solar or compound (wind + solar) drought on the same day.

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 13/11/2023

✨New paper alert*✨ Cloudy, still days might sound mild, but they are bad for renewable energy! This new paper looks at how often Australia experiences compound cloudy, wind-less days. *less new if you read the pre-print. doi.org/10.1038/s416...

Regions of high wind and/or solar resource.

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Dr Doug Richardson @dresearchdson.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

👋 Introducing myself to bsky: I'm a climate scientist! Follow me for any combination of the following: compound events, energy systems, fire weather and forecasting. Here's hoping for a return of the halcyon days of climate twitter.

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