Over two fair days in Hobart, OWS Senior Forecaster Angelo Portelli attended many and varied presentations at the AMOS Conference held at Grand Chancellor Hotel on February 13-14, 2014.
The Thursday morning sessions provided excellent presentations by Sally Lavender on the influence of sea surface temperature on Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi. Also notable was the presentation of evidence of low-level volcanic ash clouds during the 2008 Chilean eruption by Andrew Prata.
The session attended on Thursday afternoon was the “The weather and climate of the Maritime Continent region in observations and models” including a presentation by Jules Kajtar on the importance of the atmospheric bridge on the Indo-Pacific climate feedback interactions. Another interesting presentation was also provided by Eric Oliver on the Madden-Julian Oscillation and the Gulf of Thailand sea level and circulation variability.
After an excellent dinner at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) the previous night, Friday brought new sessions on “Waves and Coastal Inundation” and “The Structure, Dynamics and Predictability of High Impact Weather”. An update on the operational wave model in the Bureau of Meteorology was provided by Aihong Zhong in the former session, along with an excellent presentation by Joanna Burston on the potential for forecasting of coastal inundation from Tropical Cyclones using case studies from QLD in the latter session.
The latter session included two more interesting presentations specific to tropical cyclone eyewall replacement cycles and then dynamical sensitivity of tropical cyclones to SST. Also, an update on the U.S. CLIVAR Hurricane Working Group activities was provided by Kevin Walsh.
The Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS) is an independent Australian society that supports and fosters interest in meteorology, oceanography and other related sciences, providing a forum for people with a common interest, and by publishing relevant material.