Overview
Background
Professor Hamish McGowan is a Geographer and Professor of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences with research interests in: Local and regional scale windfields in complex terrain, Severe weather (thunderstorms, bushfire meteorology), Earth surface – atmosphere energy and trace gas exchanges, Aeolian dust transport (meteorological controls on wind erosion, dust transport and the impacts on regional and global climate dynamics), Palaeoclimate reconstructions, Mountain meteorology and hydroclimate. He leads the Atmospheric Observations Research Group https://sites.google.com/view/uqaorg/home
Hamish received his PhD from the University of Canterbury in 1995. His research interests are in the fields of:
- Meteorological hazards
- Earth surface - atmosphere interactions and energetics
- The Weather and Climates of Alpine and Mountainous Regions
- Long Range Dust Transport and Climate Impacts
- Climate dynamics
- Palaeoclimate reconstruction
Availability
- Professor Hamish McGowan is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science, University of Canterbury
- Masters (Research) of Science, University of Canterbury
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Canterbury
Research interests
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Earth surface – atmosphere energetics
This field of research investigates Earth surface – atmosphere interactions over complex terrain in marine, coastal, mountain and desert environments. Collectively, this research aims to shed new light on thermodynamic behaviour of the lower atmosphere under different weather patterns, teleconnection variability, and the effects of land use heterogeneity. The research has involved significant collaborations with the Centre for Atmospheric Research, University of Canterbury, NZ; the Byrd Polar Research Centre, Ohio State University; Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA and the Geological Survey of Israel. At UQ collaboration has been with the School of Civil Engineering and Advanced Water Management Centre. Notable research in this field has resulted in fundamental advances in understanding of Earth-surface – atmosphere interactions in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica including identification of foehn winds as the cause of air temperature increases > 50°C in 3 to 4 hours. The origin of these winds had remained a mystery since Scott’s exploration of the MDVs almost 100 years ago. On the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, a multi-year investigation that I initiated and led quantified for the first time by direct measurement energy and trace gas fluxes over coral reefs using eddy covariance. Results include first direct measurements of reef-water-atmosphere energy exchanges including during a coral bleaching event, and the first direct measurements of CO2 exchanges. This research has been published widely in journals of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union [see: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029830]. Research in this thematic area is expanding further with research initiatives investigating the atmospheric boundary layer energetics of severe thunderstorms and bushfires in eastern Australia. New projects in this area are also seeking to quantify the energy balance of the Australian seasonal snow pack and energy and trace gas exchanges over coral reefs in the Red Sea.
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Climate Variability
Research I lead under this theme focuses on identifying and unpacking the relevant drivers of climate variability and their associated scales of effect, which are used to develop new climate forecasting tools. I have led research that has improved accuracy and confidence of predictions of future climate which has shown for the first time terrestrial impacts in Australia of Northern Hemisphere climate reversals, and confirmed the causes of inter-annual to inter-centennial drought in eastern Australia. Research in this theme area using peat cores from the remote Kimberley of northwest Australia showed El Niño as the likely cause of catastrophe change in Aboriginal culture during the past 6000 years and confirmed that breakdown of deep water circulation in the North Atlantic under a warming world would likely result in severe and devastating drought in eastern Australia. Collaborations in this area have been with researchers in Australia (Griffith University; NSW Office of Environment and Heritage; CSIRO; University of Wollongong; Kimberley Foundation of Australia), and with international researcher partners at the Planetary Science Institute, USA; Oxford of University; Trinity College, Dublin and United States Geological Survey. A very significant applied aspect of this research theme over the past 15 years has been on identifying cause(s) of variability in the hydrometeorology of south-eastern Australia and the application of this knowledge to enhance water management in the catchments of the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, where releases of water underwrite > $3 billion of agricultural product annually. Research in this area has grown significantly and has led to the development of new interannual hydrometeorological forecasting tools. This research involves substantial collaboration with UWA-Perth including co-supervision of PhD candidates.
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Severe Weather
This field of research is focused on thunderstorm and bushfire meteorology in eastern Australia - an ideal natural thunderstorm hotspot, and the bushfire prone states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It involves substantial collaborations with research partners including the Bureau of Meteorology, NSW Rural Fire Service, Victoria Country Fire Authority and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. Our team’s severe weather research is distinguished internationally by the innovative application of our portable dual polarised x-band Doppler radar (UQ-XPOL) as highlighted in the invited article by Soderholm et al (2016) [https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00212.1] published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Japanese Radar manufacture Furuno is supporting our group’s R&D in this area providing technical support and software upgrades to enable novel radar scanning patterns to observe storm and smoke plume dynamics. We believe this work will have far-reaching application as we develop mobile radar specifically designed for real-time wildfire observation and nowcasting of pyro-convective plume dynamics and atmosphere-fire ground coupling.
Works
Search Professor Hamish McGowan’s works on UQ eSpace
2021
Other Outputs
Eddy covariance and environmental data collected Eilat, Israel & Heron Reef, Australia
McGowan, Hamish, Lensky, Nadav, Abir, Shai, Shaked, Yonathan and Wurgaft , Eyal (2021). Eddy covariance and environmental data collected Eilat, Israel & Heron Reef, Australia . The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/87537d3
2021
Journal Article
Multi-year carbon and water exchanges over contrasting ecosystems on a sub-tropical sand island
Lowry, Andrew L., McGowan, Hamish A. and Gray, Michael A. (2021). Multi-year carbon and water exchanges over contrasting ecosystems on a sub-tropical sand island. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 304-305 108404, 108404. doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2021.108404
2021
Other Outputs
A Climatology of Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers Over Australia: Complete Event Catalogue
Borthwick, Kara and McGowan, Hamish (2021). A Climatology of Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers Over Australia: Complete Event Catalogue. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/b092bac
2021
Journal Article
HailTrack — Improving radar-based hailfall estimates by modeling hail trajectories
Brook, Jordan P., Protat, Alain, Soderholm, Joshua, Carlin, Jacob T., McGowan, Hamish and Warren, Robert A. (2021). HailTrack — Improving radar-based hailfall estimates by modeling hail trajectories. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 60 (3), 237-254. doi: 10.1175/jamc-d-20-0087.1
2020
Journal Article
Quantifying hail and lightning risk factors using long‐term observations around Australia
Dowdy, Andrew J., Soderholm, Joshua, Brook, Jordan, Brown, Andrew and McGowan, Hamish (2020). Quantifying hail and lightning risk factors using long‐term observations around Australia. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125 (21) 2020JD033101, 1-14. doi: 10.1029/2020jd033101
2020
Journal Article
Impact of fire on montane snowpack energy balance in Snow Gum forest stands
Schwartz, Andrew J., McGowan, Hamish and Callow, Nik (2020). Impact of fire on montane snowpack energy balance in Snow Gum forest stands. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 294 108164, 108164. doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108164
2020
Journal Article
Evidence of wet-dry cycles and mega-droughts in the Eemian climate of southeast Australia
McGowan, Hamish, Campbell, Micheline, Callow, John Nikolaus, Lowry, Andrew and Wong, Henri (2020). Evidence of wet-dry cycles and mega-droughts in the Eemian climate of southeast Australia. Scientific Reports, 10 (1) 18000, 18000. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-75071-z
2020
Journal Article
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack
Schwartz, Andrew J., McGowan, Hamish A., Theobald, Alison and Callow, Nik (2020). Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types and patterns on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack. The Cryosphere, 14 (8), 2755-2774. doi: 10.5194/tc-14-2755-2020
2020
Journal Article
Identification of optimum temperatures for photosynthetic production in subtropical coastal ecosystems – implications for CO2 sequestration in a warming world
McGowan, Hamish A., Lowry, Andrew L. and Gray, Michael A. (2020). Identification of optimum temperatures for photosynthetic production in subtropical coastal ecosystems – implications for CO2 sequestration in a warming world. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125 (8) e2020JG005678. doi: 10.1029/2020jg005678
2020
Journal Article
Tracking pyrometeors with meteorological radar using unsupervised machine learning
McCarthy, N. F., Guyot, A., Protat, A., Dowdy, A. and McGowan, H. (2020). Tracking pyrometeors with meteorological radar using unsupervised machine learning. Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (8) 2019GL084305. doi: 10.1029/2019gl084305
2020
Journal Article
Streamflow variability and the role of snowmelt in a marginal snow environment
Bilish, Shane P., Callow, J. Nikolaus and McGowan, Hamish A. (2020). Streamflow variability and the role of snowmelt in a marginal snow environment. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 52 (1), 161-176. doi: 10.1080/15230430.2020.1746517
2019
Journal Article
Weather radar insights into the turbulent dynamics of a wildfire‐triggered supercell thunderstorm
Terrasson, Alex, McCarthy, Nicholas, Dowdy, Andrew, Richter, Harald, McGowan, Hamish and Guyot, Adrien (2019). Weather radar insights into the turbulent dynamics of a wildfire‐triggered supercell thunderstorm. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124 (15) 2018JD029986, 8645-8658. doi: 10.1029/2018jd029986
2019
Journal Article
Spatial controls on the distribution and dynamics of a marginal snowpack in the Australian Alps
Bilish, Shane P., Callow, J. Nikolaus, McGrath, Gavan S. and McGowan, Hamish A. (2019). Spatial controls on the distribution and dynamics of a marginal snowpack in the Australian Alps. Hydrological Processes, 33 (12) hyp.13435, 1739-1755. doi: 10.1002/hyp.13435
2019
Journal Article
Insights from a decade of research on coral reef – atmosphere energetics
McGowan, Hamish, Sturman, Andrew, Saunders, Melissa, Theobald, Alison and Wiebe, Andrew (2019). Insights from a decade of research on coral reef – atmosphere energetics. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124 (8) 2018JD029830, 4269-4282. doi: 10.1029/2018jd029830
2019
Journal Article
Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types, patterns, and trends on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack
Schwartz, Andrew, McGowan, Hamish, Theobald, Alison and Callow, Nik (2019). Quantifying the impact of synoptic weather types, patterns, and trends on energy fluxes of a marginal snowpack. The Cryosphere Discussions, 1-47. doi: 10.5194/tc-2019-48
2019
Journal Article
Wildfire and weather radar: a review
McCarthy, Nicholas, Guyot, Adrien, Dowdy, Andrew and McGowan, Hamish (2019). Wildfire and weather radar: a review. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124 (1) 2018JD029285, 266-286. doi: 10.1029/2018jd029285
2019
Other Outputs
Alpine temperature and snowcover reconstructions for the Snowy Mountains, Australia
McGowan, Hamish, Callow, Nik, Soderholm, Joshua and Campbell, Micheline (2019). Alpine temperature and snowcover reconstructions for the Snowy Mountains, Australia. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.154
2019
Other Outputs
Micrometeorological Data Collected at Heron Island
McGowan, Hamish (2019). Micrometeorological Data Collected at Heron Island. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.14
2019
Other Outputs
Synoptic Weather Energy Balance in the Australia's Snowy Mountains
McGowan, Hamish, Schwartz, Andrew and Callow, Nik (2019). Synoptic Weather Energy Balance in the Australia's Snowy Mountains. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.691
2019
Other Outputs
Reconstructed inflows to the headwater catchments of the Murray River, Australia from 1474 - 2005.
McGowan, Hamish, Marx, SK, Denholm, J, Soderholm, J and Kamber, B.K (2019). Reconstructed inflows to the headwater catchments of the Murray River, Australia from 1474 - 2005.. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.157
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Hamish McGowan is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley's past
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Bushfire Meteorological Hazard Identification by Mobile Weather Radar
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Adrien Guyot
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Doctor Philosophy
Unlocking the Archives of Australia's Palaeoclimate
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Designing Farming Systems with Whole Farm Models
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dongxue Zhao, Professor Daniel Rodriguez
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Doctor Philosophy
Understanding the changing risk of severe thunderstorms by novel stochastic modelling of extreme hail and wind hazards
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Matthew Mason
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Radar-based methods for quantifying hailfall across varied spatial scales in Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Matthew Mason
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2021
Doctor Philosophy
Influence of bushfire on Australian snowpack hydrometeorology within Snow Gum forests
Principal Advisor
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Bushfire Thunderstorms: Radar Analysis of Fire-Driven Convection in Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Adrien Guyot
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
The surface-atmosphere energetics of a sub-tropical sand island in eastern Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor David Lockington
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2018
Doctor Philosophy
Unlocking the Kimberley's past: The applicability of organic spring deposits for reconstructing late Quaternary climatic and environmental change
Principal Advisor
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
A synoptic climatology of inflow-generating precipitation for the Snowy Mountains, south-eastern Australia
Principal Advisor
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Quantification of Evaporation from a Small Subtropical Water Storage using Eddy Covariance, Scintillometry and Modelling Techniques
Principal Advisor
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2013
Doctor Philosophy
Exploring the Significance of Aerosol on Cloud Development and Rainfall in South-east Queensland
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Stuart Phinn
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2013
Doctor Philosophy
The Micrometeorology of a Coral Reef: Heron Reef, Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Stuart Phinn
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
The Termination of the Last Glacial Stage in eastern Australia: A High Resolution, Multiproxy Analysis
Principal Advisor
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2007
Doctor Philosophy
A HOLOCENE RECORD OF TRANS-TASMAN DUST TRANSPORT: QUANTIFYING DUST EMISSIONS FROM EASTERN AUSTRALIA USING GEOCHEMICAL PROXIES
Principal Advisor
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2006
Master Philosophy
A 25000 YEAR RECORD OF AEOLIAN SEDIMENTATION FROM EASTERN AUSTRALIA: A PROXY FOR CLIMATE VARIABILITY
Principal Advisor
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2008
Doctor Philosophy
Modelling Land Susceptibility to Wind Erosion in Western Queensland, Australia
Joint Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Stuart Phinn
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
The fate of atmospheric metal pollutants in the landscape, Snowy Mountains, south-eastern Australia
Associate Advisor
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2004
Doctor Philosophy
CLIMATE IMPACTS OF AUSTRALIAN LAND COVER CHANGE
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Stuart Phinn
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Hamish McGowan directly for media enquiries about:
- Climate change and variability
- Climatology
- Coastal meteorology
- Dust storms
- Hydrometeorology
- Weather
- Wind erosion
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