Australia Weather News

The Bureau of Meteorology is celebrating 40 years of atmospheric research at its Cape Grim Air Pollution Baseline Station.

The station is one of just three premier World Meteorological Organization (WMO) global reference stations for the measurement of greenhouse gases.

Its location on the northwestern tip of Tasmania means that the station samples some of the cleanest air in the world, after it leaves South America and travels over 9000 kilometres across the Southern Ocean before reaching the weather station.

This allows the Bureau and CSIRO to gather and analyse comprehensive data on greenhouse gas levels, ozone depleting chemicals, solar radiation and wind, air pressure and humidity.

According to Dr Andrew Johnson, Director of the Bureau of Meteorology, the station has enabled scientists to track changes in the earth’s atmosphere over the past 40 years.

"The information and data collected at the Cape Grim Station for the past 40 years has allowed scientists across Australia, and the world, to further understand our changing climate and strengthened our ability to track the progress of our response."

The birthday celebrations have been tempered somewhat by the release of the latest WMO Status of the Global Climate report.

With data compiled for the first nine months of the year, the WMO is almost certain that 2016 will be the hottest year on record, topping 2015’s record temperatures.

The WMO reports that temperatures from January through to September are 0.88 degrees Celsius higher than the 1961-1990 baseline average and 1.2 degrees higher than pre-industrial levels. Including this year, 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred this century.

The temperature spike is largely explained by a powerful El Niño event in the early months of the year, but the long-term indicators suggest that 2016 is part of a growing trend of rising temperatures, falling sea ice levels and rising sea temperatures and sea levels.

Data from Cape Grim, and the Hawaiian and Canadian reference stations, reveals that Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen above 400 parts per million for the first time.

Of further concern for Australians is the fact that coral bleaching has killed up to 50% of coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef, causing significant disruption to the marine ecosystem.