The Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP) aims to make significant improvements to seasonal, sub-seasonal and multi-year climate forecasting systems, with a focus on developing products that are useful to Queensland's agricultural industries. Our research focus includes understanding the key drivers of both multi-annual drought and fast developing or 'flash' droughts which can particularly impact primary producers. This work includes research at multiple scales, from the representation of convection, to the influence of large-scale variability (e.g. MJO) and remote teleconnections.
Here, we discuss initial research identifying the key remote controls on Northern Australian precipitation variability at these timescales and how their representation in forecasting systems impacts predictability, with particular focus on the ability of UK Met Office Unified Model to represent these links. We further outline the intended focus of near term future research and invite discussion on our proposed research direction.