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Dr Tas van Ommen
Dr Tas van Ommen: PhD, BSc(Hons), Dip. Teach.
Principal Research Scientist: Ice Cores and Climate
Phone: +61(0)3-62262981
email: tas.van.ommen@aad.gov.au
Dr Tas van Ommen at Law Dome
| Research interests
My main research interests centre around ice core palaeoclimate studies generally, and in particular, high resolution palaeoclimate work extending back into the last glacial period. Our ice core group has done much of its work on the deep, high resolution Law Dome core which extends back approximately 90 000 years. The group is also involved in obtaining century-scale records from relatively near-coastal sites that give high resolution records like Law Dome.
The focus for a lot of this work is to not only provide detailed climate reconstructions but to obtain calibrations for ice core data streams against modern meteorological data. We are interested in probing high and mid-latitude climate in the Indian Ocean and Australian sector particularly. This includes work to develop longer term climate reconstructions for the Australian region.
I am also interested, and involved through the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS), in developing plans for recovering the oldest ice from the Antarctic ice sheet. As part of this interest, I am also a lead investigator in the ICECAP airborne geophysical survey work covering East Antarctica out of Casey. This work involves collaboration with ice sheet dynamics researchers to link ice sheet dynamics and ice core data, to identify potential locations where oldest ice might be located, and more generally to understand the history and evolution of the ice sheet (see related Australian Antarctic Magazine (AAM) article).
Current projects
Previous projects
National representation
International representation/collaborations
- SCAR Steering Committee member - Antarctica and the global climate system program.
- Secretary of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on Physical Sciences.
- Australian representative on the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) steering committee.
- Member of the IPICS steering committees for Oldest Ice and 2000-year Array projects (aimed at constructing climate records of the last two millennia).
- Contributing author and expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
- Collaborations with groups in the United States, Denmark, Italy and France and strong links with Japan, and through IPICS, to the broader ice core community.
Key outcome areas
The ice core climate research from our group contributes to the overall work of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC). The research produces data and publications which are represented in synthesis reports of the IPCC.
Related links
Selected Publications
Jones, P.D., Briffa, K.R., Osborn, T.J., Lough, J.M., van Ommen, T.D. et al (2009). High-resolution palaeoclimatology of the last millennium: a review of current status and future prospects. The Holocene 19(1). 3-49; AAS Project 757
Mayewski, P.A., Meredith, M.P., Summerhayes, C.P., Turner, J., Worby, T., Barrett, P.J., Casassa, G., Bertler, N.A.N., Bracegirdle, T., Naveira Garabato, A.C., Bromwich, D., Campbell, H., Hamilton, G.S., Lyons, W.B., Maasch, K.A., Aoki, S., Xiao, C., van Ommen, T. (2009). State of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate system (SASOCS). Reviews of Geophysics 47. RG1003, doi:10.1029/2007RG000231; AAS Projects 757, 2669
Schneider, D.P., Steig, E.J., van Ommen, T.D., Dixon, D.A., Mayewski, P.A. (2006). Antarctic temperatures over the past two centuries from ice cores. Geophysical Research Letters 33. L16707, doi:10.1029/2006GL027057; AAS Project 757
Monaghan, A.J., Bromwich, D.H., Fogt, R.L., Wang, S.-H., Mayewski, P.A., Dixon, D.A., Ekaykin, A., Frezzotti, M., Goodwin, I., Isaksson, E., Kaspari, D., Morgan, V.I., Oerter, H., van Ommen, T.D., Van der Veen, C.J., Wen, J. (2006). Insignificant change in Antarctic snowfall since the International Geophysical Year. Science 313. 827-831; AAS Project 757
MacFarling Meure, C., Etheridge, D., Trudinger, C., Steele, P., Langenfelds, R., van Ommen, T., Smith, A., Elkins, J. (2006). Law Dome CO2, CH4 and N2O ice core records extended to 2000 years BP. Geophysical Research Letters 33. L14810, doi:10.1029/2006GL026152; AAS Projects 124, 757
Ferretti, D.F., Miller, J.B.White, Etheridge, D.M., Lassey, K.R., Lowe, D.C., MacFarling Meure, C.M., Dreier, M.F., Trudinger, C.M., van Ommen, T.D., Langenfelds, R.L. (2005). Unexpected Changes to the Global Methane Budget over the Past 2000 Years. Science 309. 1714-1717; AAS Projects 757, 1004
van Ommen, T.D., Morgan, V., Curran, M.A.J. (2004). Deglacial and Holocene changes in accumulation at Law Dome Jacka, T.H. (ed.) Annals of Glaciology 39. 359-365; AAS Project 757
Goodwin, I.D., van Ommen, T.D., Curran, M.A.J., Mayewski, P.A. (2004). Mid latitude winter climate variability in the South Indian and south-west Pacific regions since 1300 AD. Climate Dynamics, 22(8) 22(8). 783-794, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-004-0403-3; AAS Project 757
Curran, M.A.J., van Ommen, T.D., Morgan, V.I., Phillips, K.L., Palmer, A.S. (2003). Ice Core Evidence for Antarctic Sea Ice Decline Since the 1950s. Science 302. 1203-1206; AAS Project 757
Morgan, V., Delmotte, M., van Ommen, T., Jouzel, J., Chappellaz, J., Woon, S., Masson-Delmotte, V., Raynaud, D. (2002). Relative Timing of Deglacial Climate Events in Antarctica and Greenland. Science 297. 1862-1864; AAS Project 757
Palmer, A.S., van Ommen, T.D., Curran, M.A.J., Morgan, V., Souney, J.M., Mayewski, P.A. (2001). High precision dating of volcanic events (A.D. 1301-1995) using ice cores from Law Dome, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research 106, D22. 28,089-28,095; AAS Project 757
van Ommen, T.D., Morgan, V. (1997) Calibrating the ice core paleothermometer using seasonality. Journal of Geophysical Research 102(D8). 9351-9357; AAS Projects 757, 1168, 2132
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