WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

21-25 December 2009

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 January 2010. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the AMS DS Earth's Climate Systems Central Staff!

Ed Hopkins

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Happy Winter Solstice! The winter solstice will occur during the midday hours of Monday (officially, on 21 December 2009 at 1747Z, or 12:47 PM EST, 11:47 AM CST, etc.). At that time, the earth's spin axis will be oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest south in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical winter, the British call that day the "Midwinter Day", as the apparent sun will begin its northward climb again. For essentially all locations in the Northern Hemisphere, Sunday night will be the longest and the daylight on Monday will be the shortest of the year. Starting Tuesday, the length of darkness will begin to shrink as we head toward the summer solstice on 21 June 2010 at 1128Z.
Director of National Climate Center answers climate science questions -- As a guest for a recent live webchat with Washington Post readers entitled " Global Warming: What the Science Tells Us", Tom Karl, Director of NOAA's National Climate Data Center, answered questions about the science of climate and climate change. [NOAA News]
"Climate Wizard" visualization tool made available -- The Nature Conservancy recently unveiled a new and easily accessible web tool called "Climate Wizard" designed to generate color maps of temperature and precipitation changes that have been observed across the globe over the last 50 years, as well as maps of the temperature and precipitation changes projected for the next 50 and 100 years based upon 16 of the climate change models used in the recent IPCC assessment. The Climate Wizard is based upon a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, the University of Washington, and the University of Southern Mississippi. [EurekAlert!] [Editor's note: Access to the Climate Wizard is through http://www.climatewizard.org/ . EJH]
Colliding aurorae put on a light show -- A team of scientists from NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of California Berkeley, the University of Calgary, and the University of Alaska have discovered spectacular outbursts of light when vast curtains of aurora borealis (northern lights) collide. The discovery came when movies were assembled from a network of sensitive cameras deployed across the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic as part of the THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) mission of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. [NASA Heliosphysics News Team]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

State and city weather extremes for November 2009 -- The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted a listing of some of the notable extremes in temperature, precipitation and other weather elements across the nation for the recently completed month of November in "Selected U.S. City and State Extremes for November 2009." Note that this site may be updated during the following several weeks as more data are received and analyzed.
November drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its November 2009 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately nine percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of October, while 26 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Satellite detects groundwater loss in California -- Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine have employed data collected from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) to determine that the aquifers in California's Central Valley and along the Sierra Nevada Mountains have lost nearly eight trillion gallons of water since these satellite observations commenced in October 2003. The researchers attribute this loss to an extended drought across the West and the increased pumping for irrigation. [NASA JPL]
Warming of California lakes seen from space -- Analysis of data collected by the MODIS sensors on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers on the European Space Agency's satellites by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, Davis and the United Kingdom's University of Leicester have resulted in the determination that the temperatures of six large lakes along the California-Nevada border have been increasing during the last decade at rates of approximately 0.2 Fahrenheit per year. [NASA JPL]
California's carbon budget calculated with space-age aid -- A researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center has produced a carbon emissions inventory report for California based upon the amount of carbon dioxide and methane gases emitted to the atmosphere, as determined from NASA satellites and carbon models. [NASA Ames]
NASA's Terra satellite is 10 years old -- Ten years ago last week, NASA launched its Terra satellite, which was the first of three flagship missions in the agency's Earth Observing System that has been designed to examine the interactions between the atmosphere, land and ocean within the planet Earth system. The Terra satellite, which is in a sun-synchronous orbit about the Earth, can be considered a multi-national, multi-disciplinary mission, as the five instrument packages that it carries were built involving partnerships between the US, Canada and Japan. The five instruments are ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer), CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System), MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer), MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere). [NASA JPL] [EurekAlert!] Three graphics show the global distribution of snow cover, cloud fraction and reflected solar radiation obtained from the data collected recently from the MODIS and CERES instruments onboard Terra. [NASA Earth Observatory] Another product obtained from data collected by the ASTER sensor onboard Terra satellite is a new Global Digital Elevation Model that has a spatial resolution ranging between 50 and 300 feet. This model can be used by climate researchers for monitoring climate change. [NASA]
Investigating what lies beneath the Greenland -- Researchers from Ohio State University, the University of Colorado-Boulder/NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been studying the role that water under the Greenland ice sheet plays on the melting of these glaciers. [Ohio State University News]
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]
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]

CLIMATE FORCING

Link seen between solar activity and Earth's thermosphere -- Using data collected from NASA's TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) satellite, scientists at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have found that a dramatic cooling in the Earth's thermosphere (at altitudes above 100 km) correlates with the declining phases of the current solar cycle. These researchers claim that their results show a link between the Sun and the climate of the thermosphere that can be used to help make more accurate predictions of climate change in the upper atmosphere. [NASA LaRC]
Satellite data helps in greenhouse gas research -- Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a new tool that permits the acquisition of daily measurements of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere (altitudes between 3 to 7 miles) from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. This product represents the first-ever global carbon dioxide data set obtained solely from observations. Global transport of carbon dioxide can also be tracked. In another major finding, scientists using AIRS data have removed most of the uncertainty associated with the role of water vapor in atmospheric models. These data represent the strongest observational evidence for how water vapor responds to a warming climate. [NASA JPL]
Satellites used to study noctilucent clouds -- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Hampton University have assembled a comprehensive global-scale view of the nature and occurrence of noctilucent ("night-shining") or Polar Mesospheric Clouds, based upon high-resolution data collected from sensors on NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite. Their study indicates that the cloud season turns on and off like a "geophysical light bulb" and that high altitude mesospheric "weather" may follow similar patterns to surface weather patterns. [NASA GSFC]
Black soot on Himalayan ice threatens Earth's "Third Pole" -- Scientists from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently reported that temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau, dubbed Earth's "third pole", have increased by 0.5 Fahrenheit degrees per decade over the last 30 years, which is twice the rate of global temperature increase during that same time span. The researchers suggest that the temperature increase across the Tibetan Plateau has been caused by the increased absorption of solar radiation from the carbon black soot generated by human activity that has been deposited onto the Himalayan glaciers. They also warn that some of the glaciers could disappear by 2050. [NASA Earth Science News Team]
Volcano could erupt in the Philippines -- An image obtained from the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite shows the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines that was threatening to erupt after tremors and minor ash falls were observed during mid December. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate from the region around this volcano. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Alaska's Arctic coast continuing to erode -- Researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder, the USGS, the Naval Postgraduate School and Stratus Consulting have determined that sections of northern Alaska's Arctic coastline have been eroding at annual rates reaching 45 feet per year because of a combination of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity. These researchers do not foresee an end to this situation in the near future. [University of Colorado]
Indian monsoon rain appear affected by landscape changes due to human activity -- Armed with satellite data and more than 50-years of precipitation data from 1800 recording stations, scientists at Purdue University and the Indian Space Research Organization have shown that anthropogenic changes to India's landscape have affected Indian monsoon rains, with increased agricultural irrigation causing a decrease in rainfall in rural areas, while increased urbanization has resulted in increased heavy rainfall. The researchers suggest that land-use decisions play an important role in climate change. [Purdue University News]
Air pollution could affect isolated thunderstorm cells -- An atmospheric scientist from the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has claims that her research indicates that aerosols from anthropogenic pollution sources can affect the development of isolated cumulonimbus clouds and associated thunderstorm cells. Depending upon the wind shear conditions, increased pollution could hamper thunderstorms in strong wind shear, but increase thunderstorm development in weak wind shear situations. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Marine hypoxia areas tend to increase during climate warming episodes -- A new study made by Oregon State University researchers of Pacific Ocean sediments collected by the Ocean Drilling Program off Chile's coast indicates that offshore waters experienced hypoxia conditions, or systematic oxygen depletion, during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 years ago. [Oregon State University]
US wine and corn production could be impacted by global warming -- Using a very high resolution computer model, scientists at Stanford University warn that projected increases in global temperature would affect the timing of phenological events and thereby could significantly impact US agriculture, including the nation's wine and corn production during the next three decades. [EurekAlert!]
Cold-weather Sonoran Desert flowers respond to climate warming -- Researchers from the University of Arizona have found that during the last 25 years, cold-adapted species of flowering annuals that germinate and grow during the winter season in the Sonoran Desert appear to becoming more common. Apparently, the change in climate has shifted the winter storm track to bring winter rains to the Sonoran Desert, providing increased moisture to the cold-adapted flower species. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Solar storms could increase radiation exposure for commercial airline travelers -- Scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center have been developing a real-time model that would calculate and show the radiation exposure risk for flight crews and passengers on commercial airline flights due to powerful solar storms. Ultimately, this model would be able to log the accumulated radiation exposure over longer time periods for pilots and flight crews. [NASA LaRC]
Website for human dimensions of climate change -- An interagency effort within the US federal government that included NOAA, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service, has resulted in a website called HD.gov (for HumanDimensions.gov) that provides users, such as natural resource managers, with information on the human dimensions on a variety of topics of interest such as climate change. [HD.gov]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

21 December 1892...Portland, OR was buried under an all-time record 27.5 inches of snow. (21^st-24^th) (The Weather Channel)
21 December 1989...Forty cities in the north central U.S., including thirteen in Iowa, reported record low temperatures for the date. The high for the date of 16 degrees below zero at Sioux Falls, SD was December record for that location. (The National Weather Summary)
23 December 1955...The barometric pressure dipped to 28.97 inches (981 millibars) at Boise, ID, an all-time record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
23 December 1983...The temperature plunged to 50 degrees below zero at Williston, ND to equal their all-time record. Minneapolis, MN reported an afternoon high of 17 degrees below zero, and that evening strong northerly winds produced wind chill readings of 100 degrees below zero in North Dakota. (The National Weather Summary)
24 December 1872...Extreme cold gripped the Upper Midwest on Christmas Eve. Downtown Chicago reported an all-time record low of 23 degrees below zero, which stood until January 1982, and Minneapolis, MN reached 38 degrees below zero. The afternoon high at Minneapolis was 17 degrees below zero. (David Ludlum)
24 December 1963...Memphis, TN set its all-time record low temperature with 13 degrees below zero, two days after a heavy 14.3-inch snowstorm. (Intellicast)
24 December 1982...The "Blizzard of 1982" hit eastern Colorado. Denver recorded 23.6 inches of snow in 24 hours, setting a new 24-hour record. Winds of 60 mph whipped the snow into 4 to 8 foot drifts. Stapleton Airport was closed for 33 hours and most roads were impassable. (Intellicast)
24 December 1983...The barometric pressure reached 31.42 inches at Miles City, MT to establish a high barometric pressure record for the U.S. It was the coldest Christmas Eve of modern record. More than 125 cities reported record low temperatures for the date, and all-time record lows for December were reported at seventeen cities, including Chicago with a low of 25 degrees below zero, and Havre, MT with a reading of 50 below zero. Sioux Falls, SD stayed below zero for eight consecutive days. Great Falls, MT dropped to a frigid 42 degrees below zero. Dayton, OH reached 13 degrees below zero. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
24 December 1989... Christmas Eve 1989 became one of the coldest on record. Fifty-seven cities in the south central and eastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date, including Elkins, WV with a reading of 22 degrees below zero. Key West, FL equaled their record for December with a morning low of 44 degrees. Huntsville, AL hit one degree above zero. The high of just 45 degrees at Miami, FL was an all-time record for that location after a morning low of 33 degrees. It smashed their previous record for the date by twenty degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
25 December 1988...A massive winter storm made for a very white Christmas in the western U.S. Las Vegas, NV reported snow on the ground for the first time of record. Periods of snow over a five-day period left several feet of new snow on the ground of ski areas in Colorado, with 68 inches reported at Wolf Creek Pass. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
25 December 1989...It was a record cold Christmas Day for parts of the southeastern U.S. Morning lows of zero degrees at Wilmington, NC and five degrees below zero at Jacksonville, NC established all-time records for those two locations. Miami Beach, FL equaled a December record established the previous morning with a low of 33 degrees. Erie, PA set an all-time snowfall record for the month as light snow brought the total to 60.3 inches. Tallahassee, FL had a trace of snow, the first ever for Christmas Day. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
26 December 1909...Philadelphia, PA had its record snow to that date with 21 inches. The Delaware state record was also broken with 24 inches. (Intellicast)
26 December 1947...New York City recorded its all-time record snow with 25.8 inches at the Battery and 26.8 inches at Central Park. A record 26.4 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, with as much as 32 inches reported in the suburbs. White Plains had 6 inches in one hour with 19 inches in just 6 hours. The heavy snow brought traffic to a standstill, and snow removal cost eight million dollars. Thirty thousand persons were called upon to remove the 100 million tons of snow. The storm claimed 27 lives. (26^th-27^th) (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
26 December 1983...Miami, FL established a December record with a morning low of 33 degrees. Just three days earlier, and again three days later, record high temperatures were reported in Florida, with daytime highs in the 80s. (The National Weather Summary)
26 December 1993...Bitterly cold air prevailed across the north central states. Sault Ste Marie, MI plunged to 31 degrees below zero to set a new December record. Tower, MN reached a frigid 50 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
26 December 2004...A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale approximately 100 miles off the western coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed. (Wikipedia)

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