Australian-US study tackling climate science 'blind spot' starts in far NW

The CAPE-k project at the Kennaook / Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station will gather data from the Southern Ocean.

It is intended to reduce uncertainty about the role of aerosols in the atmosphere and how they affect the formation of clouds.

Gerald (Jay) Mace, from the US Energy Department's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) outfit, said climate models struggled to simulate clouds over the Southern Ocean.

Dr Mace said that led to a blind spot for the international climate science community.

"One of the key issues is that climate models assume that the Southern Ocean has the same amount of ice nucleating aerosol particles as the rest of the world's oceans, meaning they predict that too much sunlight reaches the ocean," Dr Mace said.

"The collaboration with CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology will enable us to address these knowledge gaps and tie everything together, to get all the seasons and to take advantage of the long-term atmospheric record at this location spanning back to 1976.

"We are excited about the knowledge around aerosols and clouds in this region that these high-quality observations will unlock for the climate science community."

Bureau of Meteorology station manager Sarah Prior said air samples from the site for much of the year were considered baseline because the wind originated over "vast, uninterrupted stretches of ocean", making it representative of much of the Southern Hemisphere.

"Baseline air provides important data on greenhouse gases and other substances like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere," Ms Prior said.

"We're thrilled to be able to add to this work by hosting the CAPE-k campaign at the site."

The new project will run until September next year.