WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK TEN: 10-14 November 2014

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Free admission into the National Parks -- The National Park Service has been designated Veterans Day (Tuesday, 11 November 2014) as being a part of its fee-free days program, which in this case is to honor the nation's veterans. This fee waiver will cover entrance and commercial tour fees in many of the national parks and monuments administered by the Park Service. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]
Participate in helping document satellite cloud pictures from ground level -- Scientists from NASA's Langley Research Center are inviting the public to participate in a "citizen science" effort to provide "ground truth" for satellite cloud images by taking photographs of clouds from ground level. The cloud pictures taken and documented by location by the public will be compared with satellite based cloud observations made simultaneously by at least one of the NASA satellites, such as CloudSat, CALIPSO, Aqua, Terra and the Suomi NPP. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Online Regional Snowfall Index viewer unveiled-- NOAA's National Climatic Data Center recently unveiled an online tool designed to permit examination of the geographic distribution of its Regional Snowfall Index (RSI) of individual major snow storms for the entire nation or specific regions scaled down to states or specific communities. The RSI ranks snowstorm impacts for significant snowstorms that impact the eastern two thirds of the nation on a scale from 1 to 5. [NOAA/NCDC News]
Newest IPCC report for policy makers released -- During this past week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its IPCC 5th Assessment Synthesis Report for Policy makers, a document that distills and integrates the findings of the three working group contributions to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. This comprehensive assessment of climate change was produced by hundreds of scientists from around the world. The 40-page Synthesis Report (in pdf format) is available for download. [IPCC Fifth Assessment Report]
Linking weather and climate -- Read this week's Supplemental Information.. In Greater Depth for a description the distinction between atmospheric conditions that can be considered as weather events, which may last for time spans of up to a week, from those events with longer time spans of a month to three months that can be considered within the ream of climate analysis or forecasting.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Monitoring changing seasons with satellite imagery -- Natural-color satellite images made from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite of the Middle Atlantic States and the eastern Great Lakes in late September and in early November show a change in seasons as manifest by the changes in the colors of the foliage on the Appalachian Mountains. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over Southern California from new satellite -- A map showing the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over a section of Southern California's Los Angeles Basin was recently made from data collected in early September by NASA's recently launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2). This satellite, launched in July 2014, is the first spacecraft dedicated to studying the natural and human-generated sources of carbon dioxide, as well as the natural "sinks" for this greenhouse gas. The data collected by OCO-2 compared closely with that collected by ground-based data collected by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) station at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Examination of early satellite images shows variability in Antarctic sea ice in the 1960s -- Researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center recently completed a recovery process of long-lost satellite images of Antarctic sea ice generated from data collected by the first Nimbus satellites in the mid-1960s, more than a decade prior to the beginning of the modern-day satellite record in 1979. The satellite images, which were on black-and-white file reels and data tapes stored at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, were digitized by the team. NOAA has since released a report based on these earlier images showing the interannual variability of the sea ice extent, noting that the recently declared record maximum extent of Antarctic sea ice in September 2014 just surpassed the level of sea ice detected back in September 1964. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Online site to display streamflow across most of North America -- The US Geological Survey and the Water Survey of Canada are jointly producing the "North America WaterWatch" online website that displays streamflow conditions throughout both the US and Canada, which constitutes a major portion of North America. The bilingual (English and French) site will deliver maps and graphics that will show real-time and past streamflow data for thousands of stream gages across the two nations. [USGS Newsroom]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Life in Earth's ancient oceans was starved for sulfate -- An international team from Canada, the US and Denmark analyzed rocks older than 2.5 billion years and found that the Earth's primordial oceans contained much lower concentrations of sulfate, a key biological nutrient, than previously thought. Since organisms require sulfur as a nutrient, the finding of lower concentrations of sulfate would have had an impact on the planet's early biosphere and primitive marine life. Organisms played a central role in regulating atmospheric chemistry and global climate. [University of British Columbia News]

CLIMATE FORCING

Levels of atmospheric chloride compound rebuild in Northern Hemisphere -- An international team of researchers from nine countries recently reported that their analysis of atmospheric data indicates that concentrations of atmospheric hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the stratosphere over the Northern Hemisphere have increased by several percent since 2007. This increase in HCl appears to be caused by a temporary shift in atmospheric circulation patterns rather than an increase in emissions of this ozone-destroying compound that was banned by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Updated El Niño outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their El Niño watch, lowering the odds of an El Niño this upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter (December through February) to 58 percent from their previous month's outlook of a 65 percent chance. They envision that an El Niño event that could emerge late this year would likely be weak and last into the Northern hemisphere spring (March through May) 2015. A description of the forecasters' reasoning for the slightly reduced probability levels is provided. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]

CLIMATE MODELING

New index developed to measure magnitude of heat waves -- Scientists from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and colleagues from five research organizations have developed a new Heat Wave Magnitude Index designed to measure the magnitude of heat waves and make comparisons of heat waves over space and through time. These researchers have found that this heat index, based upon an analysis of daily maximum temperatures, has increased in recent decades with some major heat waves occurring as often as once every two years across southern Europe, North and South America, Africa and Indonesia. They also project extreme heat waves will become the norm by the end of the 21st century. [Joint Research Centre News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

National water use drops to lowest levels in more than four decades -- A new US Geological Survey report entitled "Estimated use of water in the United States in 2010" reveals that water use across the entire nation had fallen to approximately 355 billion gallons of water per day, the lowest recorded level in nearly 45 years. Although the US population has increased, the reduced levels appear to be the result of conservation efforts, along with improvements in water-use technology and management. [USGS Newsroom]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Evolution of Climate Models

Climate scientists have been building increasingly sophisticated, mathematical climate models to serve two main purposes: test the sensitivity of the climate to altered conditions and simulate climate over time, either back into the past or forward into the future. The simplest, early type of climate model (zero dimensional) was the "energy balance model", which provides an average planetary temperature from incoming and outgoing radiation. A one-dimensional energy balance model determines the surface temperature from the energy balance at individual latitude belts.

More complex models involve the physical equations of motion (gas laws, thermodynamics and radiation interactions) subject to climate forcings, the boundary conditions of solar radiation, surface properties and atmospheric composition. As computers improved, models have included a three-dimensional oceanic circulation ("atmosphere-ocean coupling"), then interactions between the atmosphere, cryosphere and geosphere, with climate feedback mechanisms involving the exchanges of heat and water. Finally, models have been able to incorporate the improved knowledge of the biogeochemical processes. Climate models calculate variables such as temperature at individual points within the three-dimensional grid of cells across the Earth's surface and vertically through the atmosphere, ocean, ice and land. A tradeoff exists between the number of grid points (the spatial resolution) and the number of numerical computations. Time and space accuracy costs increased computational time and expense.

The development of numerical weather prediction models during the 1960s and 1970s spurred the development of General Circulation Models (GCMs) for climate. One of the early atmospheric GCMs was developed at Princeton University's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). By the 1990s, comprehensive climate models were being perfected with three-dimensional oceanic circulation. Ultimately, the term GCM could be used to refer to a Global Climate Model that represents the major climate system components (atmosphere, ocean, land surface and polar ice) and their interactions. The Community Climate Model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research is one of the most comprehensive climate models currently available. This model has been used to determine the future temperature response for several scenarios concerning the release of greenhouse gases through the 21st century as proposed by the IPCC reports.

Concept of the Week: Questions

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

General circulation models are generally [(less), (more)] sophisticated than energy balance models.
Increasing the spatial resolution of a global climate model causes the computational time to [(increase),(decrease),(remain the same)].

Historical Events:

11-12 November 1911...The central U.S. experienced perhaps its most dramatic cold wave of record. During the early morning, temperatures across the Central Plains ranged from 68 degrees at Kansas City to 4 degrees above zero at North Platte, NE. In Kansas City, the temperature warmed to a record 76 degrees by late morning before the arctic front moved in from the northwest. Skies became overcast, winds shifted to the northwest, and the mercury began to plummet. By early afternoon, it was cold enough to snow, and by midnight the temperature had dipped to a record cold reading of 11 degrees above zero. Oklahoma City also established a record high of 83 degrees and record low of 17 degrees by midnight that same day (11/11/11), followed by 14 degrees, another record low, by the next morning. In southeastern Kansas, the temperature at Independence plunged from 83 degrees to 33 degrees in just one hour. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (The Kansas City Weather Almanac) (Intellicast)
12 November 1906...The mercury soared to 106 degrees at Craftonville, CA, a November record for the U.S. (The Weather Channel)
12 November 1959...Between noon on the 11th and noon on the 12th, a winter storm buried Helena, MT under 21.5 inches of snow, which surpassed their previous 24 hour record by seven inches. (The Weather Channel)
12 November 1980...A fringe rain band from Hurricane Jeannie in the Gulf of Mexico let loose a deluge of 23.38 inches of rain in 24 hours at Key West, FL, an all-time 24 hour record. (Intellicast)
12 November 1987...Heavy snow spread across much of New England. The seven inch total at the Logan Airport in Boston was their highest of record for so early in the season, and the 9.7 inch total at Providence, RI was a record for November. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
13 November 1933...The first dust storm of the Great Dust Bowl era of the 1930s occurred. The dust storm, which had spread from Montana to the Ohio Valley the day before, prevailed from Georgia to Maine resulting in a black rain over New York and a brown snow in Vermont. Parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa reported zero visibility on the 12^th. On the 13^th, dust reduced the visibility to half a mile in Tennessee. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
16 November 1958...More than six inches (6.4 inches) of snow fell at Tucson, AZ, one of the biggest ever for that location. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
16 November 1959...The most severe November cold wave in U.S. history was in progress. A weather observing station located 14 miles northeast of Lincoln, MT reported a reading of 53 degrees below zero, which established an all-time record low temperature for the nation for the month of November. Their high that day was one degree above zero. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)

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