3-7 May 2010

DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 30 August 2010. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

• May is National Wetlands Month -- The US Environmental Protection Agency, along with other federal agencies and environmental groups, has announced that May has been designated as American Wetlands Month in an effort to increase public awareness of the importance of protecting and preserving the nation's wetlands. This year's observance is the 20th annual National Wetlands Month. [EPA-Wetlands]
• "Be Air Aware" --
National Weather Service and the US Environmental Protection Agency have announced that this upcoming week (3-7 May 2010) is Air Quality Awareness Week and they are urging Americans to "Be Air Aware." [NOAA Air Quality] Individual states and localities will have specific Air Quality Awareness Week activities
• Between equinox and solstice --
Last Saturday (1 May 2010) was May Day, which had its origins as a great Celtic festival Beltane. This date is close to the traditional "cross quarter" day, roughly halfway between the vernal equinox (20 March 2010) and the summer solstice (21 June 2010). This day (Note that late Tuesday, 5 May 2010 is closer to the halfway point between the equinox and solstice. EJH)
• Spring comes to interior Alaska --
The ice on the Tanana River at Nenana officially went out last Thursday morning (29 April 2010 at 9:06 AM, Alaska Standard Time). The jackpot for the famous 94th annual Nenana Ice Classic was $279,030.00. The median date for ice-breakup is 5 May. [Nenana Ice Classic] Check -- As of Sunday, Ice Classic officials were determining the winner of the prize. The winner(s) will be announced at the start of this week. [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner] NOTE: A graph of the date of ice-out for each year since the Classic was started in 1917 has been plotted by this editor. EJH
• Global forum on oceans --
The United Nations and the French government will be hosting the 5th Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts and Islands during this upcoming week (3-7 May 2010) at UNESCO in Paris France. The theme of this conference is "Ensuring survival, preserving life, improving governance." This conference is also celebrating 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity and the 50th anniversary of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. [Global Form on Oceans, Coasts and Islands]
• First thermal images of Earth from new weather satellite --
NOAA and NASA scientists released a set of the first thermal images of Earth obtained early last week from the new GOES-15 spacecraft that had been launched into a geosynchronous orbit back in early March. This satellite, which was launched by NASA and then placed under NOAA's operational control, has sensors that provide images in four infrared bands (shortwave window, water vapor, longwave window and a CO2 sensitive band), as well in one visible band. [NOAA News]
• Oil spill in Gulf having widespread environmental impact --
A change in the prevailing winds has caused the oil slick created after last week's explosion and sinking of the Deep Horizon oil rig to approach the environmentally sensitive Delta region along the southeastern Louisiana Gulf Coast. [USA Today] Various groups within NOAA, including the Office of Response and Restoration in NOAA's Fisheries Service, have been providing on-scene support for the other federal, state and local organizations. [NOAA NOS] A variety of images satellite images show the spreading oil slick, including images from the MODIS sensors on NASA's Terra satellite [NASA GSFC] and the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) and Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on board the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite. [ESA]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

• IceBridge Mission passes its midpoint -- Within the last two weeks, the 2010 Operation IceBridge mission to the Arctic, a NASA sponsored airborne survey of the Earth's polar ice, passed its halfway point. During the previous four weeks, NASA scientists flew 14 successful missions over the Arctic Ocean and the Greenland Ice Sheet with several aircraft including NASA's DC-8 research airplane, collecting data that could show changes in glacial and sea ice over time. [NASA Earth Science News Team
• 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

• Soil microbes may not be that big a contributor to global warming -- Researchers at the University of California-Irvine, Colorado State University and Yale University have found that soil microbes such as bacteria and fungi become less efficient in converting carbon in soil into carbon dioxide as global temperatures increase. Therefore, the conclusion could be drawn that over time, these microbes could be less of a contributor to climate warming than previously thought. [University of California-Irvine Today]
• Plants' role in global warming studied --
Researchers affiliated with the United Kingdom's University of Edinburgh and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research report that despite the release of small amounts of methane, green plants remain one of the most effect means for countering the effects of increased carbon dioxide release that appear responsible for increases in global temperature. These researchers claim that plant leaves account for less than one per cent of the Earth's emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas considered to be approximately 25 times more effective than carbon dioxide at global warming. [EurekAlert!]
• "Ozone hole" chemistry studied from space --
Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and their colleagues have been using data collected from the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on NASA's Aura satellite together with a sophisticated atmospheric chemical model to study how chlorine monoxide, a key chemical in stratospheric ozone destruction, can be affected by nighttime stratospheric temperatures in polar latitudes. [NASA JPL]
• Sea ice melting may be a major cause of Arctic warming --
Recent research conducted at Australia's University of Melbourne indicates that the rapid melting of sea ice in the Arctic during the last two decades has been responsible for increased temperatures across the basin the lack of sea ice increases the amount of solar radiation that is absorbed by the seawater. [EurekAlert!]
• Melting icebergs cause a rise in sea level --
Using a combination of satellite observations and a computer model, scientists at the United Kingdom's University of Leeds have discovered that recent losses of floating ice in the polar oceans have resulted in a rise of sea level by approximately 49 micrometers per year. These researchers caution that the amount of sea ice melting could increase in the future. [EurekAlert!]
• Major ocean current discovered in Southern Oceans --
Japanese and Australian researchers have discovered a major ocean current at a depth of least three kilometers below the surface of the Southern Ocean southwest of Australia. This current not only transports large quantities of oxygen-rich water that sinks around the Antarctic continent northward, but also influences climate patterns through its interaction with the global ocean current network. [CSIRO]
• Non-organic mechanism for nitrous oxide production discovered in Antarctica --
Scientists from the University of Georgia, Southern Illinois University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Montana State University and NASA's Ames Research Center have discovered an extremely saline pond in the Antarctica's Dry Valleys where nitrous oxide, an important greenhouse gas, is produced by a non-organic chemical reaction. [EurekAlert!]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

• Reconstructing climate history of Antarctica's glaciation from ocean cores -- An international team of scientists participating in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Wilkes Land Glacial History Expedition have collected geological samples from 2000-meter long sediment cores drilled in the seafloor off the Antarctic coast. These new cores should help reconstruct the climatic history of Antarctic glaciation, extending back approximately 53 million years. [EurekAlert!]
• Ancient "megafloods" may have inundated Alaska --
Scientists at the University of Washington report that their research indicates that at least four "megafloods", defined as a flood with a flow of at least 1 million cubic meters of water per second, covered the Copper River Basin in southeastern Alaska following the breaching of the 3500-square mile Glacial Lake Atna approximately 17,000 years ago. [EurekAlert!]
• Underwater asphalt volcanoes discovered --
Using the research submersible Alvin, scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of California at Davis, the University of Sydney and the University of Rhode Island have discovered several large underwater "asphalt volcanoes" located on the bottom of southern California's Santa Barbara Channel. These researchers estimate that these columns of solidified petroleum located at depths of 700 feet below the surface developed approximately 40,000 years ago when the petroleum seeped from the ocean floor.  [EurekAlert!]
• Ancient glaciation may have altered planetary carbon cycle --
Geologists from Princeton University, the University of Adelaide and Northwestern University claim that world-wide continental glaciation during the Neoproterozoic Era at approximately 720 million years ago that produced what is often known as the "snowball Earth" could have dramatically altered the Earth's carbon cycle, which then may have triggered subsequent ice ages. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

• 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:

• 6 May 1933...Charleston, SC was deluged with 10.57 inches of rain, an all-time 24-hour record for that location. (The Weather Channel)
• 6 May 1978...A record late season snowstorm struck Colorado. Denver checked in with 14 inches for its greatest May snowstorm on record. (Intellicast)
• 7 May 1964...The temperature at White Mountain 2, located in California, dipped to 15 degrees below zero to set a record for May for the continental U.S. (The Weather Channel)

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.