WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK 7: 19-23 October 2009

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Half-century of studying climate from space is celebrated -- A 50th-anniversary celebration of the launch of Explorer 7 will be held at next month in Madison, WI, to honor University of Wisconsin-Madison Professors Verner Suomi and Robert Parent, along with their colleagues who built a radiometer that provided the first global scale measurements of the Earth's energy budget. This instrument package on the Explorer 7 satellite not only predated the launch of TIROS-1, the first weather satellite, but also helped revolutionize remote sensing of the planetary climate. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News] [Space Science and Engineering Center]
NOAA researchers honored for their publications -- The NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research has recently announced the recipients of the office's 2009 Outstanding Scientific Paper Awards. These awardees included:
- Three Seattle (WA)-area scientists for their publications describing their discoveries on oceanic and atmospheric conditions that affect the West Coast. [NOAA News]
- Ten Boulder (CO)-area scientists for their publications on discoveries that are expected to help improve weather forecasting and offer scientists a potential new tool to improve understanding of the global carbon cycle. [NOAA News]
- Five Princeton (NJ) researchers for their publication on a study that provides new insights on climate change.
- Five Norman (OK)-area researchers for their publication that expected to enable earlier warnings for severe storms. [NOAA News]
  [NOAA News]
Report on tsunami damages -- Comparison of images were obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite one week ago with those in 2004 show the destruction to the vegetation on the southern shoreline of Upolu, the easternmost of the Samoan islands due to the recent deadly tsunami that struck the islands following a major earthquake. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Review of September 2009 global temperatures -- Preliminary data analyzed by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center indicated that the global average temperature for the September 2009 was the second highest September temperature since global temperature records began in 1880. The monthly temperature of the land surface for this recently concluded month was the second highest September temperature on record, while the ocean surface temperature for the month was the fifth highest in 130 years. Arctic sea ice coverage during September was the third lowest for any September since satellite surveillance began in 1979. [NOAA News]
New environmental geosynchronous satellite prepared for launch -- Engineers from NASA and Boeing Corporation are preparing and testing the instrument package that will be placed on the GOES-P satellite, scheduled to be launched in March 2010. Once launched, this GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) will be operated by NOAA to monitor atmospheric and oceanic environmental conditions across sections of the Americas. [NASA GOES]
An All-Hazards Monitor--This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAAWatch]

CLIMATE FORCING

Monitoring a solar prominence -- The instruments onboard NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Reflection Observatory (STEREO) mission recently recorded a hot gas prominence emanating from the Sun's surface, which are available as a picture in ultraviolet light. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Volcanic ash seen by astronauts -- A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station shows the plume of volcanic ash emanating earlier this month from the Soufrière Hills Volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. [NASA Earth Observatory] [Editor's note: The US Virgin Islands reported some light dust fall from this volcano during the past week. EJH]
One quarter of world's carbon currently trapped by Arctic -- Research conducted by a scientist with the US Geological Survey and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks indicates that approximately 25 percent of the global carbon is currently trapped by within the Arctic basin. However, he warns that rapid changes in Arctic climate could eliminate this sink and even cause the Arctic to become a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide. [University of Alaska Fairbanks] [EurekAlert!]
Two historical droughts of 20th century studied for trigger mechanisms -- Scientists at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory have been studying two of the nation's major droughts of the 20th century, finding these resulted from two different causes. They conclude that the drought across the northern Plains in the early 1930s that led to the "Dust Bowl" was not caused by ocean conditions, but by random changes in the atmosphere. However, they claim that the drought across the southern Plains in the 1950s was caused by global sea surface temperatures. [NOAA News]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Official winter weather outlook released -- Late last week, forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released their 2009 Winter Outlook for meteorological winter (the three months of December through February) across the nation. They feel that the winter weather across the nation will be influenced by El Niño conditions, an anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regime that tends to favor higher sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. Specifically, the forecasters foresee a better than equal chance for above average winter temperatures across the northern and central sections of the Rockies, the Plains and the Upper Midwest, while the Middle Atlantic, the Southeast and the Gulf Coast States would have a good chance of experiencing below average temperatures. They also call for better than even chances that California and the southern tier of states from Arizona east to the Florida should have above average winter precipitation. On the other hand, the northern Rockies and the mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio Valleys appeared to have a good chance of below average precipitation. Elsewhere, near equal chances that above or below average precipitation could occur this winter. [NOAA News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Object that produced impact crater near India may have been the dinosaur killer -- A team of researchers from Texas Tech University claim that the massive petroleum-rich Shiva basin, a submerged depression west of India, may have be the largest impact crater on earth and could have been caused by an extraterrestrial object that slammed into the Earth 65 million years ago, causing an abrupt climate change that killed off the dinosaurs. This impact crater is larger than the crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, commonly thought to have killed the dinosaurs. [Geological Society of America]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

TV lags other media forms in climate change education -- A study by conducted by a George Mason University communications professor suggests that watching television has no significant impact on viewer's knowledge about climate change issues, while those who read newspapers and use the web, appear to have gained knowledge about these issues. [George Mason University]
Surprises found in improving acid rain control in China -- A scientist at China's Tsinghua University and colleagues have found that attempts made by China to reduce sulfur emissions and, hence, the acidity of precipitation has the unexpected consequence of increasing the nitrogen emissions. These results indicate that a more comprehensive pollution control strategy is needed. [EurekAlert!]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: End of the Growing Season

As we move through autumn, we often contemplate the end of the growing season as daylength shortens and temperatures begin to fall across many areas of the nation. The length of the growing season depends upon the plant species, as well as the climate of the locale, meaning that several ways can be used to define the growing season.

Many crops, especially vegetables and fruits, are sensitive to relatively low air temperatures. In spring, when many crops are emerging and in various stages of development they are more vulnerable to air temperatures near 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But by fall, many of these plants have become hardy. Generally speaking, a killing frost would occur when the temperature around the plant would fall to a point that would kill all but the hardiest vegetation. Sometimes, other terminology is used. When air temperatures fall between 29 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit, a so-called "light freeze" occurs. While tender plants such as tomatoes, peppers, corn and cucumbers would be killed when temperatures fall to around 29 degrees, these conditions would have little destructive effect on other hardier vegetation. A "moderate freeze" typically occurs between 25 and 28 degrees, which would have a widely destructive effect upon most vegetation. For temperatures of 24 degrees or lower, a condition called a "severe freeze", heavy damage would occur with most plants that are not dormant. Apples are damaged when the temperature drops below 20 degrees. Under these conditions, the soil would have frozen solid to a depth dependent upon the duration of the freeze, as well as the soil type and soil moisture.

In most mid latitude climates, the growing season is often used synonymously with the frost-free season, loosely defined as the length of time between the last killing frost in spring and the first killing frost in the autumn. The National Climatic Data Center has produced climatological tables that identify those median dates (a 50 percent occurrence) during spring and fall when the temperature at a station falls to 36, 32, 28, 24 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit for the last time in spring or the first time in autumn. While the exact time span that a plant survives would vary by plant type, the growing season for climatological purposes is often related to the interval when the daily minimum temperature remains above 32 degrees.

Across the continental U.S. the typical lengths of the frost free regions range from about 120 days along the Canadian border to about 220 days in Oklahoma and north Texas and over 320 days in southern sections of Florida and California. Mountainous areas provide a complex pattern, with some higher elevations having lengths that are less than 100 days. By accessing the NOWData (NOAA Online Weather Data) feature on the Climate page of your local National Weather Service, you can find the "first/last dates" for various climate reporting stations around your area.

Concept of the Week: Questions

(Place your responses on the Chapter Progress Response Form provided in the Study Guide.)

Many vegetable crops would succumb when autumn air temperatures fall to [(36),(33),(28)] degrees.
The frost-free season in states bordering Canada would probably be less than [(60),(90),(120)] days.

Historical Events:

20 October 2004...Rain at two stations in Nevada broke the state's previous 24-hour maximum precipitation record of 7.13 inches set previously at Mt. Rose Highway Station (31 January 1963). The new state record of 9.78 inches was established at Mt. Charleston, while Kyle Canyon also broke the old record with 8.75 inches. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
21 October 1996...Portland, ME received 13.32 inches of rain to set a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Pine Tree State. (NCDC)
22 October 1987...Yakutat, AK surpassed their previous all-time yearly precipitation total of 190 inches. Monthly records were set in June with 17 inches, in September with 70 inches, and in October with more than 40 inches. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
24 October 1951...Sacramento, CA reported a barometric pressure of 29.42 inches, to establish a record low for October. (The Weather Channel)
25 October 1977...Dutch Harbor in Alaska reported a barometric pressure reading of 27.31 inches (925 millibars) to establish an all-time record for the state. (The Weather Channel)

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