WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

DataStreme ECS WEEK 8: 26-30 October 2015

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Education packet for "Global and Great Lakes Climate Change" --The CLEAN (Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network) Review Process has reviewed an activity and teachers guide produced by the Ohio Sea Grant Program that has middle and high school students work with data to analyze local and global temperature anomaly data to look for warming trends. This activity focuses on the Great Lakes area. [NOAA Climate.gov Teaching Climate Series]
Debunking the legend of the woolly bear caterpillar and winter severity -- The long-held folklore legend that the size of the band on the midsection of the woolly bear caterpillar in early autumn can be used to forecast the severity of the upcoming winter is described and shown to be a myth. [National Weather Service Forecast Office, La Crosse WI]
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

Recent floods in South Carolina set streamgage records -- According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the flooding following the excessive rain event across South Carolina at the start of this month of October 2015 was responsible for setting record highest peak streamflow and/or river height at 17 of the USGS streamgage across the Palmetto State. [USGS Newsroom]
September 2015 weather and climate for the nation and globe reviewed -- Scientists at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) recently reported on their analysis of preliminary weather data collected from around the world during the month of September 2015. They found that this recently concluded month was the warmest September since sufficiently detailed global climate records began in 1880 as the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for September 2015 was 1.30 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century (1901-2000) September average of 59.0 degrees Fahrenheit. This new September global temperature record was 0.19 Fahrenheit degrees above the previous record, set only one year ago (September 2014). When considered separately, last month's temperature over the oceans and over land were each the highest for any September since 1880. Sea-surface temperatures across the equatorial and northeastern Pacific Ocean were at record levels in September because a strong El Niño event was currently underway.
The researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center noted the areal extent of the Arctic sea ice for September 2015 was the fourth smallest since satellite surveillance began in 1979. On the other hand, the extent of the Antarctic sea ice was the 16th smallest in the 37-year satellite record. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate] A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for September 2015 is available from NCEI.
Comparing Sierra Nevada snowpack during wet and dry years from space -- A comparison can be made between true color images of the Sierra Nevada Range in California and adjacent Nevada obtained near the midpoints of the wet 2011 water year (1 Oct 2010-30 Sep 2011) and the dry 2015 water year (1 Oct 2014-30 Sep 2015) from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite. Dramatic differences in the sizes of the snowpack between the two years are apparent, with the recent image made in March 2015 showing the effects of the historic drought that has gripped the West during the last several years. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Comparisons made of annual maximum extent of sea ice in Southern Ocean over last three seasons -- Following the occurrence of the annual maximum extent in the sea ice cover on the Southern Ocean around Antarctica for the 2015 winter season (Southern Hemisphere) on 6 October, a graphic was produced that shows the seasonal variations of sea ice cover over the last three winters (2013-2015) along with the long-term (1981-2010) average variations obtained from data collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensor on Japan's Global Change Observation Mission 1st–Water (GCOM-W1) satellite. [NASA Earth Observatory]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Website provides daily view of Earth from one million miles away -- Early last week NASA launched a new website http://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/ that provides color images of the full, sunlit side of the Earth every day obtained by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) from a vantage point of one million miles from Earth (near the L1 Lagrange point). EPIC's images of Earth can be used to study daily variations over the entire globe in such features as vegetation, ozone, aerosols, and cloud height and reflectivity. DSCOVR is a partnership between NASA, NOAA and the US Air Force. The new website also features an archive of EPIC images searchable by date and continent. [DSCOVR:Deep Space Climate Observatory News] [NASA Earth Observatory]

CLIMATE FORCING

Common coolants found to contribute to ozone depletion -- A study made by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientists and their colleagues using a NASA-derived atmospheric chemistry climate model shows that a class of widely used chemical coolants known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) contributes to stratospheric ozone depletion by a small, but measurable amount. Focusing on five types of HFCs expected to contribute the most to global warming by mid 21st-century, the researchers found that the gases indirectly contribute to ozone depletion. HFC emissions cause increased warming of the stratosphere by acceleration the rates of chemical reactions that destroy ozone molecules. In addition, they also decrease ozone levels in the tropics by accelerating the upward movement of ozone-poor air. These results run counter to a decades-old assumption that HFCs destroyed negligible amounts of ozone. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Press Release]
Deep-sea bacteria may help sequester atmospheric greenhouse gases -- Researchers at the University of Florida have discovered a type of bacteria living at the bottom of the ocean that could be employed to sequester large quantities of industrial carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, thereby neutralizing some of the buildup of this greenhouse gas. The bacterium that was discovered is Thiomicrospira crunogena that produces carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme that helps remove carbon dioxide in organisms. [University of Florida News]
Solar storms and active space weather can affect infrastructure on Earth -- A news brief made by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) describes what could happen to such infrastructure such as telecommunications, banking systems, GPS and the energy grid following a large coronal mass ejection from the sun. As an example, a severe geomagnetic storm produced by a CME resulted in a power disruption that left six million people across sections of Quebec and adjacent Canadian provinces in March 1989. The NOAA/NASA/US Air Force deep space weather satellite called DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) was launched in February 2015 to monitor the solar wind on a real-time basis at an altitude of approximately one million miles from Earth. [NOAA NESDIS News]

CLIMATE AND SOCIETY

Adaptation planning efforts made for sea level rise along nation's Atlantic Coast -- A team of researchers recently produced a paper supported by the US Climate Program Office that represents a synthesis of science needs concerning sea level adaptation planning requested from coastal communities in Florida, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. The paper, "Science Needs for Sea-Level Adaptation Planning: Comparisons among Three U.S. Atlantic Coastal Regions," was based upon a series of workshops held in the summer of 2012 in these three states attended by attendees from federal, state and local governments, universities, businesses and nongovernmental organizations to work on ways to improve their coastal communities' resilience to coastal inundation and sea level rise. five themes were determined to be priority topics: analytic tools, communications, land use, ecosystem management and economics. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Concept of the Week: Feedback in Earth's Climate System

In Earth's climate system, feedback consists of a process where a change in one variable interacts with other variables of the system to alter that original variable. If the change reinforces the original quantity, it is known as a positive feedback. If the change suppresses the original quantity, it is a negative feedback. Feedbacks in Earth's climate system are significant--thought to be responsible for more than half the global warming expected from human activities.

Consider examples of positive and negative feedback. A warming trend in climate is likely to accelerate the rate of melting of snow and ice, producing more bare ground that absorbs more solar radiation, further raising the air temperature. A cooling trend prolongs snow and ice cover in spring and summer so that less solar radiation is absorbed, more reflected to space, bringing about additional cooling. In both cases, feedback is positive because the initial change in temperature is amplified.

Consider an example of negative feedback. While feedbacks among temperature, cloud cover, and radiation are not well understood and depend upon circumstances (e.g., type and height of clouds), they could be either positive or negative. It is thought that a warming trend in climate should increase the rate of evaporation of water from Earth's surface and thereby increase low cloud cover. A thicker and more extensive low-cloud cover reflects more solar radiation to space thereby inhibiting a further rise in surface temperature. Hence, this negative feedback would dampen the initial temperature change.

Understanding feedback in the climate system is essential for modeling and predicting climate change. If some agent or mechanism alters the climate, then feedback may either amplify (positive feedback) or dampen (negative feedback) the change in climate. As demonstrated later in this course, many agents and mechanisms can bring about climate change (e.g., variations in solar energy output, regular fluctuations in Earth-Sun geometry). While these climate forcing agents and mechanisms drive climatic change, processes within the planetary climate system involving feedbacks significantly impact the magnitude of climate change.

Overall, which type of feedback prevails in Earth's climate system, positive or negative? A system in which positive feedback prevails is unstable. For Earth, this would move the climate regime toward an extreme characterized by excessive cold that would encase the planet in snow and ice ("snowball" or "ice ball" Earth) or toward the other extreme resulting in much higher temperatures--the product of a runaway greenhouse effect. Although Earth's climate has varied considerably over the billions of years that constitute geologic time, it appears likely that Earth's climate system has been nearly stable with negative feedbacks generally compensating for positive feedbacks.

Concept of the Week: Questions

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

The magnitude of a climate change [(largely depends upon)(is independent of)] positive and negative feedback phenomena operating in Earth's climate system.
Through much of Earth history, it appears that [(positive feedbacks)(negative feedbacks)(a general balance between positive and negative feedbacks)] have (has) prevailed.

Historical Events:

27 October 1929...A snowstorm dumped 27 inches upon Ishpeming, MI in 24 hours to establish a state record. (David Ludlum)
28 October 1936...The temperature at Layton, NJ dipped to 9 degrees above zero to establish a state record for the month of October. (The Weather Channel)
28 October 1991...Yakima, WA recorded 2.4 inches of snow, equaling the record for October. (Intellicast)
29 October 1917...The temperature at Soda Butte, WY the mercury plunged to 33 degrees below zero, an U.S. record for the month of October. (David Ludlum)
29 October 1991...Bismarck, ND received 15.9 inches of snow on the 28^th and 29^th. This brought the October snowfall total to 23.5 inches, a new record. (Intellicast)
30 October 1925...Nashville, TN was blanketed with an inch of snow, their earliest measurable snow of record. (The Weather Channel)
31 October 1987...Yakima, WA reported measurable rainfall for the first time since 18 July. The 103-day long dry spell was their longest of record. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
31 October 1991...A severe winter storm dubbed the "Great Halloween Mega Storm" struck the upper Midwest. Minnesota bore the brunt of the storm. By the time the storm finally ended on 2 November, Duluth received 37 inches of snow and Minneapolis 28 inches, which were new all time records for single storm totals. These two cities received nearly half their normal seasonal snows in this one storm. In Wisconsin, 35 inches of snow was reported at Superior and 30 inches at Iron River. (Intellicast)
31 October 1993...Corpus Christi, TX dropped to 28 degrees to set the October (and November) record. Brownsville dropped to a monthly record 35 degrees. (Intellicast)

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