Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK TWELVE: 26-30 November 2007

Ocean in the News:

Applications for a prestigious scholarship invited -- NOAA is accepting applications from qualified college undergraduate students interested in pursuing degrees in ocean and atmospheric sciences and education to the Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship. As many as 100 undergraduates could each receive up to $29,050 for their academic studies related to NOAA science, research, technology, policy, management, and education activities. Applications will be accepted through 8 February 2008. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) Desalination using nuclear power -- Researchers who attended the recent Trombay Symposium on Desalination and Water Reuse reported that a solution to the developing worldwide fresh water supply crisis could lie in the use of nuclear power to desalinate ocean water. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) Ocean swells and an oil slick along the Mexican coast --A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station shows the Mexican port city of Mazatlán along with ocean swells in the coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean and an offshore oil slick. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Thurs.) Giant submarine landslide is identified -- Researchers in the United Kingdom have identified the source of the a 1500-km flow of sand and mud in the deep ocean as being from a giant submarine landslide that disintegrated approximately 60,000 years ago. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) "Noah's flood" may have aided the start of European farming -- Researchers at the United Kingdom's University of Exeter and Australia's University of Wollongong report that the rises in sea level approximately 8000 years ago following the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North American that contributed to flooding of the Black Sea and the development of the biblical legend of "Noah's flood" appear to have caused dramatic social change across Europe, including a start of agriculture. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Annual southward migration of right whales has started -- The NOAA Fisheries Service was reminding mariners, fishers and others that the start of the calving season for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale population began in mid-November and continues through mid-April, meaning that these whales, especially the pregnant mothers and new-born calves would be susceptible to ocean traffic as they migrate southward from waters off the Maritime Provinces and New England to winter-over off the Carolinas, Georgia and northeast Florida. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) TRMM marks a decade -- NASA is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch and operation of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) that it built in cooperation with the Japanese Space agency JAXA. This sensor has provided scientists with improved data on the distribution of rainfall across the tropics, including more detailed analyses of the anatomy of hurricanes. [NASA Earth Observatory] More images are available.
(Tues.) A tsunami early-warning system developed -- Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research are field testing a pressure-based acoustically coupled tsunami detector system that they developed, which will become part of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) A variety of Antarctic ice forms detected from space -- An image obtained from data collected in mid-November by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite shows several types of ice along East Antarctica’s Prince Olav Coast, including glacial ice from a continental glacier, fast ice along the coast and sea ice. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Tidal link to earthquakes revealed -- Researchers at the University of Washington believe that they have identified the rise and fall of ocean tides as being responsible for moving tectonic plates and causing the ultra-slow-motion magnitude 6.5 earthquakes with a 14-month periodicity detected across western Washington and British Columbia. [EurekAlert!]
Eye on the tropics --- While the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins did not experience tropical cyclone activity during the last week, the western North Pacific and the Indian Oceans were active.
- In the western North Pacific, Typhoon Hagibis formed near the Philippines at the mid point of last week and moved westward. By Sunday (local time) this typhoon, which had become a category 2 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, had weakened to a tropical storm in the South China Sea off the coast of Viet Nam. Another typhoon, named Mitag, formed farther to the east of where Typhoon Hagibis had formed and traveled westward before curving to the northwest offshore of Luzon in the Philippines, where it was expected to make landfall late Sunday. [USA Today] An image from the Japanese MTSAT satellite shows the clouds surrounding Tropical Storm Hagibis in the South China Sea and Tropical Storm Mitag in the Philippine Sea last week. [NOAA OSEI]
- In the South Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclone Bongwe formed early last week near the Chagos Archipelago and moved southwest, dissipating at the end of the week. An image from the MET-7 satellite shows the clouds surrounding Tropical Cyclone Bongwe; since this tropical cyclone is in the Southern Hemisphere, the spiral bands were in a clockwise direction surrounding the central eye. [NOAA OSEI]
The 2007 hurricane seasons reviewed -- Although tropical storms and hurricanes could continue to form, the official 2007 hurricane season in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific will end this coming Friday, 30 November 2007. [AMS DataStreme Atmosphere]
Co-creator of hurricane intensity scale dies -- Herbert Saffir, a Florida engineer who along with Robert Simpson of the National Hurricane Center designed the popular Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale for rating hurricanes in the 1970s, died last week in Miami at the age of 90. [USA Today]
Effects of Bangladesh tropical cyclone seen -- Two MODIS images obtained a week apart from NASA's Terra satellite shows the flooding from the recent landfall of Tropical Cyclone Sidr on the coastal sections of Bangladesh. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Storm surge model helped save lives -- Scientists at the Louisiana State University using their storm surge model were able to supply detailed storm surge forecast maps to Bangladesh emergency officials that provided 24-hour advance warning of the impending landfall of Cyclone Sidr, which helped save countless lives. [EurekAlert!]
Excursion ship sinks off Antarctica -- An excursion ship, The Explorer, reportedly hit a submerged portion of an iceberg in waters off Antarctica's South Shetland Islands and sank last Friday. All of the roughly 150 passengers and crew abandoned ship and were rescued without injury. [CNN]
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: Climate Feedback Processes

Earth's climate system includes many interacting variables. Some variables are external to the Earth-atmosphere system and some are internal. External variables include solar energy output and Earth-sun geometry (i.e., the Milankovitch cycles). Internal variables include properties of the Earth's surface (e.g., albedo, moisture), the concentration of key atmospheric components (e.g., greenhouse gases, sulfurous aerosols), and cloud cover and thickness.

An important consideration in understanding how Earth's climate system responds to some perturbation is feedback. Feedback is defined as a sequence of interactions among variables in a system that determines how the system responds to some initial perturbation in one or more of the variables. Variables in Earth's climate system may interact in such a way as to either amplify (positive feedback) or lessen (negative feedback) a change in climate. An example of positive feedback is the ice-albedo effect described in Chapter 12 of the DataStreme Ocean textbook. Less ice cover in the Arctic greatly reduces the albedo of the Arctic Ocean causing higher sea surface temperatures and accelerated melting of the multiyear pack ice.

Consider an example of negative feedback. Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide enhances the greenhouse effect causing global warming. Global warming in turn raises sea surface temperatures and increases the rate of evaporation. A more humid atmosphere means more persistent and thicker cloud cover but clouds have both a cooling and warming effect on the lower atmosphere. The relatively high albedo of cloud tops causes cooling whereas absorption and emission of infrared radiation by clouds causes warming by contributing to the greenhouse effect. Satellite measurements and numerical models indicate that cooling would dominate.

In general, negative feedback tends to dominate over positive feedback in Earth's climate system, limiting the magnitude of climate change. The great thermal inertia of the ocean is the principal reason for dampening the planetary temperature response.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Feedback in Earth's climate system that amplifies climate change is described as [(positive)(negative)] feedback.
In general, [(negative)(positive)] feedback tends to prevail in Earth's climate system.

Historical Events:

26 November 1703...Bristol England was damaged by a hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
26 November 1778...Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy became the first European to discover Maui in the Sandwich Islands (later renamed the Hawaiian Islands). (Wikipedia)
26 November 1847...LT William Lynch, USN, in Supply sailed from New York to Haifa for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area. (Naval Historical Center)
26 November 1888...A late season hurricane brushed the East Coast with heavy rain and gale force winds. The hurricane passed inside Nantucket and over Cape Cod, then crossed Nova Scotia. (David Ludlum)
26 November 1966...The world's first tidal power station was opened at Rance estuary in the French province of Brittany. This power plant, fitted with reversible turbines, generates 500 million kilowatt-hours annually. (Today in Science History)
26-28 November 1898...The "Portland" storm raged across New England producing gale force winds along the coast and heavy snow inland. A foot of snow blanketed Boston, MA, and 27 inches fell at New London, CT. Winds at Boston gusted to 72 mph, and wind gusts to 98 mph were estimated at Block Island, RI. A passenger ship, the S.S. Portland, sank off Cape Cod with the loss of all 191 persons aboard, and Boston Harbor was filled with wrecked ships. The storm wrecked 56 vessels resulting in a total of 456 casualties. (26^th- 28^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
27 November 1703...The first Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of Devon, England (approximately 14 miles southwest of Plymouth) was destroyed in the "Great Storm," and killed its builder Henry Winstanley. This first light was in an octagonal wooden structure built in 1698. The "Great Storm" is reported to have killed more than 8000 people. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
27-28 November 1905...Heavy snow and wind blasted the western Great Lakes with as much as seven inches of snow in northwestern Wisconsin and sustained winds of 42 mph recorded at Duluth, MN for 29 straight hours and 65 mph winds for 13 continuous hours. Severe drifting resulted. Eighteen ships were destroyed or disabled on Lake Superior. The ship Mataafa was grounded and broke in two in Duluth harbor. Nine of the fifteen crew of the Mataafa froze to death despite running aground within 100 yards of the shore. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
28 November 1520...Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the treacherous South American strait that now bears his name in a 38-day passage. He was the first European to sail into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic to the east. (The History Channel)
28 November 1960...A severe storm produced waves 20 to 40 feet high on Lake Superior. Duluth, MN was buried under a foot of snow, and clocked wind gusts to 73 mph. The northern shore of Lake Superior was flooded, and property along the shore was battered. Thousands of cords of pulpwood were washed into Lake Superior, and up to three feet of water flooded the main street of Grand Marais. Thunder accompanied the "nor'easter". (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
1 December 1969...Ocean swells generated by a storm more than 1000 miles to the north-northwest of the French Frigate Shoals produced 50-foot high surf along the outer shoals of Tern Island, submerging the 300-foot wide island under two to three feet of water. The 19-member Coast Guard contingent was evacuated, but considerable damage was done to buildings. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
1 December 1990...Workers from the United Kingdom and France on the Channel Tunnel construction project met approximately 120 feet beneath the English Channel seabed, to establish the first ground connection between the British Isles and mainland Europe since the last Ice Age. (Wikipedia)
2 December 1755...The second Eddystone Lighthouse near Plymouth, England was destroyed by fire. This light had replaced an earlier light that had been destroyed in the "Great 1703 Storm." The current structure is the fourth light to be constructed at that site. (Wikipedia)