One of the first activities of the BMRC, following its formation in 1985, was the organisation of and participation in the Australian Monsoon Experiment during the 1986–7 wet season, in collaboration with scientists from the USA and the Peoples Republic of China. This experiment ran in conjunction with two other international experiments conducted in the same region, namely the Stratosphere/Troposphere Exchange Program and the Equatorial Mesoscale Experiment.

In other areas, BMRC has picked up on the successes of CMRC and ANMRC and taken them even further. Internationally recognised work on the development and application of numerical modelling to the areas of forecasting and climate change is continuing in collaboration with staff from the Division of Atmospheric Research, Monash University, the University of Melbourne and a number of overseas organisations, under the auspices of the National Committee for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (BOM [18]). Other BMRC projects covered in Climate Activities in Australia 1993 [18] include the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation, which is conducting an intercomparison of global climate models, and the US National Aeronautical and Space Administration's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

Recently, BMRC scientists played an important role in a major international experiment being conducted in waters to the north of the Solomon Islands. This project, the Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Research Experiment (COARE) involved some fifteen countries, which combined to conduct a detailed examination of energy transfers between the ocean and atmosphere within the area known as the Western Pacific Warm Pool. Apart from BMRC's role, the Bureau itself made a significant contribution to the success of this experiment through the provision of data monitoring and archival facilities, communications and forecasting support and an enhanced observation program within the wider experimental domain.

Bureau of Meteorology