Professor Tom Lyons - Environmental scientist
Bringing back the rain
Groundbreaking research into cloud formation could help address to WA’s record dry spell.
Murdoch University’s environmental science Professor Tom Lyons has been running a series of spectacular experiments involving extremely low-flying aircraft near Lake King, 460km south-east of Perth. The tests are designed to understand the link between vegetation and rainfall.
Bird’s eye view
The experiments allow scientists to gather vital data to show how changes in large scale land use could actually stimulate rain clouds.
So far the tests have revealed remarkable pictures of blue sky over cleared farmlands on one side of the rabbit proof fence while on the other convective cloud formed over native bushland.
“The native plants are darker and have their stomata closed so more energy goes in but they don’t evaporate as much water,” Professor Lyons said.
The increased turbulence above the native vegetation also means there’s sufficient convection to lift the moisture high enough to form clouds.
Thinking ahead
Professor Lyons said one way to bring clouds back over the agricultural land could be to plant native vegetation over large areas around farmlands.
Another could be to change the colour and roughness of the cereal crops as a way of stimulating the atmosphere.
“Traditional cereal crops grow by using the available energy to transpire moisture to the atmosphere whereas the native vegetation conserves moisture and produces far greater turbulence,” Professor Lyons said.
“Climate change is a reality from which we can no longer walk away. However if we have contributed to this change through local effects then we have the potential to make changes to our land use to reverse the impact.”
The international project has so far received more than one million dollars in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.
It is collaboration between Murdoch University, Airborne Research Australia at Flinders University, the University of Alabama and the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research in Germany.
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