WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK TWO: 14-18 September 2009

ITEMS OF INTEREST --

Monitoring California wildfires continues -- The Station Fire in the mountainous sections of southwestern California near Los Angeles continued to burn. An image obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite early last week shows the extent of this fire, the Golden State's fifth largest wildfire since 1933. [NASA Earth Observatory] Although the Station Fire reached NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it did not disrupt the laboratory's Deep Space Network, an international network of antennae that send and receive information to interplanetary spacecraft . [NASA JPL]
NOAA Class of 2009 Graduate Sciences Program awardees announced -- NOAA recently announced the names of nine exceptional graduate students from around the nation that have been selected to participate in the agency’s 2009 Graduate Science Program that provides tuition to selected students pursuing graduate degrees in atmospheric, environmental, or oceanic sciences or remote sensing technology. [NOAA News]
Tracking space junk -- The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is tracking all space junk or human produced debris larger than 10 centimeters orbiting the earth in order to minimize the potentially disastrous collisions between spacecraft and space junk. Two major rings of debris have been detected, with one close to the Earth and the other higher ring corresponding to the orbits of geosynchronous satellites. [NASA Earth Observatory]
A rogues gallery of major tropical systems -- NASA's Earth Observatory mission is displaying a collection of images obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites that feature the strongest tropical cyclones (hurricane, cyclone, or typhoon) from any ocean during each year commencing with 2000. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

US Weather and climate reviewed for Summer 2009 -- Based upon preliminary data, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center report that the recently concluded meteorological summer of 2009 (June, July and August) was the 33rd coldest summer across the coterminous United States since sufficiently reliable climate records began in 1895. In addition, August 2009 was also colder than the 20th century average. Many of the states in the Mississippi River basin experienced below average temperatures, with the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan experiencing much below average statewide temperatures, with some ranked within the ten coldest of record. States along the West Coast and across the South had above to much above average temperatures. Washington State, Texas and Florida had much above average summer temperatures. The Northeastern states received much above average statewide precipitation for summer 2009, along with Idaho in the Northwest. Many other states across the central Plains and the West had above average rainfall. A number of the states across the Upper Midwest together with southern tier of states reported below average statewide precipitation. Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina had much below average precipitation, ranking within the top six driest summers in the last 115 years.. [NOAA News]
August drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its August 2009 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately 13 percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of June, while 19 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.
A record warm winter in Australia -- Climatologists with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology recently reported that August 2009 across Australia was the warmest August on record, culminating a meteorological winter season (June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere) that also was the warmest on record. Some areas of Australia continued to experience drought conditions. [BBC News]
An outcome from World Climate Conference-3 -- The US delegation to this month's World Climate Conference-3 in Geneva, Switzerland by Dr. was pleased with the decision to establish a Global Framework for Climate Services that would improve the development and delivery of climate services to a variety of interests, offers untold economic, environmental, human health, and national security benefits. A statement was made by Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA director, who led the US delegation to this conference. [NOAA News]
A four-page pdf file that is a copy of "NOAA Climate Services Fact Sheet" can be downloaded. [NOAA Fact Sheets]
Historic Turkish rains monitored from space -- An image generated from data collected by NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite shows the distribution of the heavy rain that fell earlier this month across northwestern Turkey including the city of Istanbul, which resulted in significant and deadly flooding. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Increased tornado threat could accompany larger Gulf hurricanes -- Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology who studied nearly 90 years of hurricane statistics claim an increase in the frequency of tornadoes that are spawned by landfalling hurricanes along the Gulf Coast appear to be a reflection of the increase in size and frequency of large hurricanes that do make landfall. [Georgia Institute of Technology]
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

Climate effects of atmospheric haze made less hazy -- The researchers from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and colleagues from NASA's Langley Research Center and the United Kingdom's University Leeds have been constructed a global energy budget that involves new research based on the observations of airborne particles called aerosols. These researchers report that these atmospheric haze producing aerosols from human sources have a net cooling effect upon the planet. [NOAA News]
Newly found energy transfer mode at work in Earth's magnetosphere -- Atmospheric scientists at the University of California Los Angeles and colleagues at South Korea's Chungbuk National University in South Korea and SRI International in Menlo Park, CA have discovered that convection, a basic energy transfer mode, can be used to explain how energy from the currents associated with the electrically charged particles arriving in the solar wind is transferred to the planetary magnetosphere. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND THE BIOSPHERE

New research emphasis needed for Arctic climate change studies -- Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and their colleagues at other research centers in the US, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and France are calling for more research into the ecological changes including those to humans that are occurring in the circumpolar Arctic due to changes in climate associated with increasing global temperatures. [Institute of Arctic Biology - University of Alaska, Fairbanks]
Warmer Arctic causes sea geese to winter over in Alaska -- Research conducted by the US Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center indicates that increased numbers of the Pacific brant, a small, dark sea goose, to winter over along the coast of Alaska rather than migrating to Mexico, apparently because of higher temperatures of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea over the last 40 years. [USGS Newsroom]
Robotic submersible used to monitor climate change impact -- A new submersible robot called the Benthic Rover developed and built by a team of engineers and scientists associated with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has been traveling across the deep seafloor off the California coast to monitor the impact of climate change on deep-sea ecosystems. [Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

New supercomputers will boost US weather and climate forecasts -- Jack Hayes, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, recently announced completion of the final phase of a nine year, $180 million contract by installing the newest generation of IBM supercomputers that will allow NOAA to run more complex computer models for weather and climate prediction. [NOAA News]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

More free oxygen would make colder climate -- Researchers in Denmark and Uruguay analyzing banded iron formations have found that a correlation exists between atmospheric and oceanic free oxygen concentrations and planetary temperature fluctuations over the last three billion years, with increased oxygen levels corresponding to periods of lower global temperatures. [University of Copenhagen] These researchers also found that the rise in atmospheric oxygen levels at 580 million years ago caused oxygenation of the oceans that was followed closely by the evolution of animal life. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Smart Growth guide designed to help coastal planning efforts -- NOAA, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, the International City/County Management Association and Rhode Island Sea Grant, recently released a guide called "Smart Growth for Coastal and Waterfront Communities" that provides ten guidelines designed to bring smart economic growth to coastal and waterfront communities, while maintaining the coastal environment and quality of life in these communities. [NOAA News]
Wind power could allow China to meet future energy needs -- Environmental scientists from Harvard University and China's Tsinghua University using meteorological data from the Global Earth Observing Data Assimilation System (GEOS) at NASA Goddard have demonstrated that wind power conversion systems could provided the needed energy to meet essentially all of China's electricity demands projected for 2030. [EurekAlert!]
New director of NOAA's Great Lakes Laboratory selected -- Marie Colton, PhD, a physical oceanographer with experience with environmental satellite applications, has been selected as the new director of NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, MI, the national laboratory focusing on environmental issues across the Great Lakes basin. [NOAA News]
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]
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: Arctic Sea Ice Cover Approaching Tipping Point?

A tipping point is a threshold in a system when some new and perhaps irreversible development takes place. Some scientists propose that the Arctic sea ice cover is approaching a tipping point and will soon disappear in summer. Since about 47.5 million years ago, the climate of northern latitudes has been cold enough to support an ice cover on the Arctic Ocean albeit with seasonal and long-term variations in extent. Beginning in the 1950s, measurements from ships and aircraft detected shrinkage in the summer minimum extent of ice whereas the winter maximum remained nearly constant. By the mid-1970s, surveillance by satellites and submarines found that the winter maximum extent of ice was also declining. In 2007, the extent of end-of-summer sea ice cover reached a record low.

Shrinkage of Arctic sea ice cover is likely to trigger a feedback mechanism that will accelerate melting of sea ice and amplify warming of the Arctic region. Sea ice insulates the overlying air from warmer sea water and reflects much more incident solar radiation than ocean water. As sea ice cover shrinks, the greater area of ice-free ocean waters absorbs more solar radiation, sea-surface temperatures rise, and more ice melts-an example of positive feedback.

With the decline of Arctic sea ice cover to record or near record summer minima, some scientists speculate that Arctic ice may be approaching its tipping point, that is, a complete loss of summer ice may be imminent.

Concept of the Week: Questions

(Each week you will be asked to respond to two questions relating to that week's Concept of the Week topic. Place your responses on the Chapter Progress Response Form provided in the Study Guide.)

In the Arctic Ocean, water is [(more)(less)] reflective of solar radiation than floating ice.
The post-1970 shrinkage of Arctic sea-ice cover is likely the result of a [(warming)(cooling)] at northern latitudes.

Historical Events:

14 September 1937...The mercury soared to 92 degrees at Seattle, WA, a record for September. (The Weather Channel)
14 September 1970...The temperature at Fremont, OR dipped to 2 degrees above zero to equal the state record for September set on the 24th in 1926. (The Weather Channel)
14 September 1987...Barrow, AK received 5.1 inches of snow, a record for September. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
14 September 1988...Pressure in the eye of Hurricane Gilbert moving across the Caribbean Sea fell to 885 millibars (26.17 inches of mercury), the lowest recorded barometric pressure in the Western Hemisphere. Ultimately, 318 died in seven countries across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
15 September 1939...The temperature at Detroit, MI soared to 100 degrees to establish a record for September. (The Weather Channel)
15 September 1982...A snowstorm over Wyoming produced 16.9 inches at Lander to establish a 24 hour record for September for that location. (13th-15th) (The Weather Channel)
16 September 1881...Iowa's earliest measurable snow of record fell over western sections of the state. Four to six inches was reported between Stuart and Avoca. (The Weather Channel)
16 September 1964...The temperature at Concord, NH dropped to 27 degrees ending the shortest growing season on record (100 days). (Intellicast)
16 September 1988...Hurricane Gilbert made landfall 120 miles south of Brownsville, TX in Mexico during the early evening. During its life span, Gilbert established an all-time record for the Western Hemisphere with a sea-level barometric pressure reading of 26.13 inches. Winds approached 200 mph, with higher gusts. Gilbert devastated Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (The Weather Channel)
16 September 2004, Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham, AL set two all-time records for the city as Hurricane Jeanne crossed the city: Lowest sea level pressure on record, 986.8 millibars (29.14 inches of mercury), and the greatest 24-hour rainfall event on record, 9.75 inches. (The Weather Doctor)
17 September 1829...The Siebold Typhoon, Japan's most catastrophic typhoon, inflicted widespread damage over much of Japan. On the southern island of Kyushu, the storm surge off the Ariake Sea kills 10,000. (The Weather Doctor)
17 September 1932...Westerly, RI received 12.13 inches of rain, which set a 24-hour precipitation record for the state. (NCDC)
17 September 1963...Nearly 2.5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, the most intense rain for Yuma, AZ during the period between 1909 and 1977. (The Weather Doctor)
18 September 1991...2.4 inches of snow fell at Duluth, MN to set a new record for September. (Intellicast)
19 September 2004...The single-day rainfall record at Vancouver (British Columbia) International Airport was set 3.59 inches. The accumulation came in a month when rainfall is exceptional across the region. By mid-month, dozens of stations in British Columbia broke all-time September rainfall totals. (The Weather Doctor)
20-23 September 1942…A rainstorm deluged the Maritime Provinces. Four-day totals 13.99 inches at Stellarton, Nova Scotia and 10.83 inches at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Halifax, Nova Scotia recorded 9.40 inches of rain on the 21 September climatological day. (The Weather Doctor)
20 September 1967...Hurricane Beulah moved into South Texas, spawning a record 115 tornadoes for a hurricane. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
20 September 1973...Britain's greatest September daily rainfall floods Kent with 7.51 inches of rain. (The Weather Doctor)

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