WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK ELEVEN: 18-22 November 2013

ITEMS OF INTEREST

A Long Polar Night -- After being above the horizon for only 54 minutes this Monday, the sun set at 1:39 PM Alaska Standard Time (18 November 2013) at Barrow, the northernmost city in Alaska, for the last time this year. The next time the sun will rise above the local horizon in Barrow will be at 1:28 PM AST on 22 January 2014. On that date, the sun will remain above the horizon for 23 minutes. While the sun will be below the horizon for the next 65 days, residents of this city will have roughly three hours of some diffuse sunlight each day that is equivalent to civil twilight, provided the cloud cover is not too thick. To check the sunrise and sunset times of Barrow or any location in the United States go to the US Naval Observatory's on-line, interactive service for the entire year.
Celebrate Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day -- This upcoming week (17-23 November 2013) has been identified as Geography Awareness Week. National Geography Awareness Week, launched by presidential proclamation in 1987, is designed to draw attention to geo-literacy and "the importance of geographic understanding in ensuring our nation's economic competitiveness, national security, environmental sustainability, and the livability of our communities in the 21st century." Since 2013 is the National Geographic Society’s 125th Birthday, this year's Geography Awareness Week theme is "Geography and The New Age of Exploration!" and focuses on how geography enables each person to be an intrepid explorers in a personal way.
In conjunction with Geography Awareness Week, this coming Wednesday (20 November 2013) has been designated GIS Day that commenced in 1999 "provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society." This year's theme "Discovering the World Through GIS." [GIS Day]
"ClimateChangeLive" distance learning adventure webinar scheduled for this week -- The fourth in a series of seven webinars will be available between 7:30 and 9:00 PM this coming Wednesday, 20 November 2013. The series of webinars is designed to raise awareness and understanding of climate change science and is aligned to national science education standards. The collection of science-based, climate education resources and programs have been gathered from at least 19 federal agency and NGO partners that include the US Forest Service, NOAA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The fourth webinar scheduled for this Wednesday is "ClimateChangeLIVE Education Resources Highlights – Part 1." Check http://climatechangelive.org/ for registration details.
Accessing the national climatographies -- NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has produced numerous climatographies that are quantitative descriptions of climate that include tables and charts portraying the characteristic values of selected climatic elements at a station or over an area. Some of these climatographies provide a variety of daily, monthly and annual normal climate data for agricultural, transportation and other interests. This week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth provides the links to selected climatographies from NCDC.

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

Review of October weather and climate across the US -- Preliminary data for October 2013 from across the nation have led scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) to report that the nationwide average temperature for this past month was approximately 0.6 Fahrenheit degrees below the 20th century (1901-2000) long term average, making this recently concluded month the 37th coolest October since a comprehensive national climate network began in 1895. Most of the states from the Plains westward to the Pacific Coast reported below average statewide temperatures, with Oregon experiencing the 11th lowest October statewide temperature in 119 years. Florida and states across the Northeast had above average October temperatures, with Delaware having an October temperature that was tenth highest on record. Near average temperatures were reported across the Mississippi Valley and sections of the Southeast.
Preliminary precipitation records for October 2013 indicate that the month was slightly wetter than the 20th century average, with the monthly average precipitation for the 48 coterminous states being approximately 0.12 inches above average. States along the West and East Coasts experienced an unseasonably dry October, with below to much below average monthly precipitation totals. Along the West Coast, California and Oregon both had their eleventh driest October in 119 years. In New England, Rhode Island reported its fourth driest October, Massachusetts the ninth driest and Connecticut its twelfth driest. Above average monthly statewide precipitation was reported across the nation's midsection, with South Dakota reporting its second wettest October on record, North Dakota and Wyoming their third west and Nebraska its eighth wettest since 1895. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
NOTE: A description is provided of the climatological rankings employed by NCDC for their monthly and seasonal maps. [NOAA/NCDC]
October drought report -- The National Climate Data Center has posted its October 2013 drought report online. Using the Palmer Drought Severity Index, approximately seven percent of the coterminous United States experienced severe to extreme drought conditions at the end of October, while 14 percent of the area had severely to extremely wet conditions.

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Giant iceberg calves off Antarctic glacier -- Over the previous weekend, a large iceberg (identified as Iceberg B-31) separated from the front of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier and was moving away from the coast as documented by the Operational Land Imager on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite. The dimensions of Iceberg B-31 are roughly the same size as Singapore or New York City's Manhattan Island. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Researchers at the United Kingdom's University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre will track the iceberg and attempt to predict its path using satellite data. [National Oceanography Centre]
Ocean acidification monitored by new generation of micro sensors -- Engineers and scientists from the United Kingdom's University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Center have developed and successfully tested a new and cost-effective micro sensor for long-term monitoring of ocean acidification. A computer chip in the micro sensor measures the pH, a measure of the acidity of the ocean water. The goal is to make in-situ measurements of ocean acidity over time as increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are dissolved in the ocean waters. [National Oceanography Centre]
New satellite designed to improve weather forecasts -- A new satellite, called the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory satellite, is scheduled to be launched in February 2014 that will create a unified international weather data system designed to provide precipitation updated from around the globe every three hours. This satellite, which represents a partnership between NASA and Japan's space agency JAXA, will build upon the successes of and the data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, also a collaboration between these two agencies, that was launched in 1997. This new satellite, the largest assembled at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will have a GPM Microwave Imager and the Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar. The goal of the GPM is to provide sufficiently accurate precipitation data that will help meteorologists make more accurate predictions during severe weather, as well as improved local weather forecasts. [Popular Mechanics]
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 AND THE BIOSPHERE

Different climate divisions in Himalayas seen from space -- A near-infrared image obtained from data collected last week from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite shows differences in vegetation that are related to differences in regional climate. Different image colors distinguish between the lush vegetation in the more humid climate to the south of the crest of the Himalayas and the less vegetation in the drier climate to the north of the mountain crest. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Visualizing the distribution of nutrients in deep waters of eastern Pacific Ocean -- Two maps that were produced as part of NOAA View shows the concentrations of dissolved phosphate at the ocean surface and at a depth of 500 meters across the eastern half of the North and South Pacific Oceans. These maps show distinct differences in the phosphate concentrations in different layers of the ocean that are associated with strong upwelling of nutrient-laden water off the western coast of North and South America. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]

CLIMATE FORCING

Weather and climate extremes could have an impact on air and water quality -- Scientists from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at Wisconsin, and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites at North Carolina recently published a report that identifies extremes in weather and climate such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, cold waves, heavy snowfall and flooding can affect air and water quality across the nation, ultimately impacting human health. Their report summarized the current state of scientific knowledge regarding observed and projected changes in weather and climate extremes along with their impact on air and water quality. [NOAA/NCDC News]
Link made between changes in global precipitation patterns and human-induced changes in climate -- Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have demonstrated that observed changes in the global distribution of precipitation over land and ocean are directly affected by human activity and cannot be explained solely by natural variability in weather and climate. The researchers point to the release of gases by humans that are both heat trapping and ozone depleting. The increased atmospheric concentrations would result in thermodynamic changes where increased temperatures would increase precipitation over wet areas and decrease precipitation over dry areas. In addition, the increased levels of these gases would also change large scale atmospheric circulation patterns that would displace storm tracks and subtropical dry zones toward the poles in each hemisphere. The researchers made comparisons between climate model predications with the global observations from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project between 1979-2012. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory News]
Snow melts faster under forest canopy in mild climates -- Researchers at the University of Washington report that snow cover tends to melt faster under the canopy of trees in a forest than in open areas in the relatively mild climate on the western slopes of the Cascades to the east of the Seattle (WA) metropolitan area. The researchers used small battery-powered thermal sensors to record soil temperatures under a canopy of second-growth conifers. Downwelling long-wave radiation from the tree canopies in relatively mild climate forests contributes to snow melting under the canopy at a faster rate than in open fields. [University of Washington News]
New inventory of global forest losses and gains made from satellite data -- Researchers from the University of Maryland and colleagues have compiled 12 years of data collected from the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat 7 satellite to produce maps of forest loss and gains from around the world between 2000 and 2012. This project revealed the effects of deforestation, wildfires, windstorms and insects upon global forests in unprecedented detail. During these 12 years, approximately 888,000 square miles of forest were lost, while 309,000 square miles regrew. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Ancient seawater body identified under Chesapeake Bay -- Hydrologists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) have identified a body of high-salinity groundwater that was discovered more than 1000 meters below Chesapeake Bay along the US East Coast represents remnant water from the Early Cretaceous North Atlantic Sea and is probably 100-145 million years old. This sizeable body of seawater, which is the oldest to be identified worldwide, apparently was preserved until present by a massive comet or meteorite that struck the area approximately 35 million years ago, creating Chesapeake Day, the nation's largest estuary. [USGS Newsroom]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

President's National Drought Resilience Partnership to help communities in drought preparation - Last Friday the Obama Administration announced an interagency National Drought Resilience Partnership that would help communities help better prepare for future droughts and reduce the impact that drought events have on the livelihoods and the economy. This Partnership, which supports the President's Climate Action Plan, involves Federal participating agencies including NOAA, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE). During the first year, the Partnership create a new web-based portal designed to help ease access to access Federal drought recovery resources. [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]

COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY

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:

18 November 1955...An early season cold snap finally came to an end. Helena, MT experienced 138 consecutive hours of subzero temperatures, including a reading of 29 below zero, which surpassed by seven degrees their previous record for the month of November. Missoula, MT broke their November record by 12 degrees with a reading of 23 below zero, and Salt Lake City, UT smashed their previous November record of zero degrees with a reading of 14 degrees below zero. Heavy snow in the Great Basin closed Donner Pass, CA and total crop damage from the cold wave amounted to eleven million dollars. (David Ludlum)
19 November 1957...Nineteen inches of snow covered the ground at Cresco, IA, a record November snow depth for the state. (The Weather Channel)
19 November 1996...A 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the state of Oregon was established when 11.65 in. of rain fell at Port Orford. (NCDC)
19 November 2009...Adelaide, Australia reported a temperature reading of 109 degrees, which set an all-time record high for the month of November, Elliston had a 111-degree reading, which was its all-time record for any day. The month of November 2009 was the warmest November on record for Australia. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
20 November 1914...The high temperature of 28 degrees at Atlanta, GA was their earliest daily high below the freezing mark. (The Weather Channel)
20 November 1979...A blizzard struck Cheyenne, WY producing a record 19.8 inches of snow in 24 hours, and a record total of 25.6 inches in forty hours. Strong winds created huge drifts stopping all transportation. (19^th-21^st) (The Weather Channel)
23 November 1909...Rattlesnake Creek was deluged with 7.17 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a record for the state of Idaho. (The Weather Channel)
23 November 1943...Northern New Hampshire was in the grips of a record snowstorm that left a total of 55 inches at Berlin, 56 inches at Randolph and many other locations over 40 inches. The 56-inch total at Randolph in Coos County established a 24-hour snowfall record for the state. In Maine, Middle Dam received a record 35 inches of snow in 24 hours. (David Ludlum)
23 November 1974...Bismarck, ND was in the middle of a 5-day snowstorm during which 28.3 inches fell, the greatest on record. (Intellicast)
23 November 1983...A 24-hour snowfall record for Duluth, MN was broken with 16.9 inches. 19.7 inches fell during the entire storm, also a record.
23 November 1991...La Crosse, WI set a new record for 24-hour snowfall with 13 inches. This storm brought the monthly total to 28.2 inches, also a record. (Intellicast)
24 November 1950...The temperature at Chicago, IL dipped to 2 degrees below zero to equal their record for the month established on the 29^th in 1872. On the first of the month that year, Chicago established a record high for November with a reading of 81 degrees. (The Weather Channel)

Return to DataStreme ECS website