WEEKLY CLIMATE NEWS

14-18 December 2009

DataStreme Earth's Climate Systems will return for Spring 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 January 2010. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Climate News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Responses made on "climategate" -- Over the last two weeks, much attention has been focused upon the release of stolen emails that had been sent by climate scientists at the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia in what has been now called "climategate." NOAA's Administrator, Jane Lubchenco, addressed this issue during her testimony in a hearing called "State of Climate Science" before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. [NOAA News] The United Kingdom's Meteorological Office, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society also issued statements. [UK Met Office]
US Delegation at Copenhagen Climate Conference -- In addition to President Barack Obama, other senior US government officials including Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, were attending the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) being held in Copenhagen, Denmark between 13-16 December 2009. [NOAA News]
NOAA student scholarships announced -- The NOAA Office of Education recently announced that scholarships are available to undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, along with several of the other scientific and technical disciplines that support NOAA's mission and programs. [NOAA Office of Education] These scholars hips include:
- Educational Partnership Program Undergraduate Scholarship: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_undergrad_page.html . The application deadline is 17 February 2010.
- Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program: http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/Hollings_info.html . The application deadline is 29 January 2010.
- Graduate Sciences Program: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_grad_sciences_page.html . The application deadline is 22 January 2010.
- Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program: http://www.fosterscholars.noaa.gov/ . The application deadline is 31 March 2010.
Putting your name on NASA's next climate monitoring satellite -- The public has been invited to put their names onto a microchip that will be flown onboard the Glory mission satellite, the next NASA climate monitoring satellite scheduled to be launched by October 2010. This satellite will carry two sensors that will make measurements of aerosols and the incoming solar irradiance. [NASA GSFC]
Joint Typhoon Warning Center marks its golden anniversary -- The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), a joint U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force office located in Pearl Harbor, HI, celebrated its 50th anniversary. The JTWC, which provides forecasts, advisories and warnings on tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and southern hemisphere, was established in 1959 by the U.S. Pacific Command to consolidate and improve the United States military tropical cyclone forecasting effort. NASA Hurricane Page
A great holiday gift idea -- NOAA's National Weather Service encourages the public to consider purchase of a NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio as a gift for this upcoming holiday season. [NOAA News]

CURRENT CLIMATE STATUS

A first look at global weather and climate for 2009 -- Based upon preliminary data collected during the first eleven months of 2009, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported that the year's global surface temperatures will be well above the long-term average temperature. They project that 2009 could be one of the ten warmest years since global surface temperature records began in 1880. The researchers also found that the annual temperature across the coterminous United States should be above average. [NOAA News]
Changes in West Coast precipitation patterns noted -- Two undergraduate environmental biology students at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona who have been working as interns at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found trends in rainfall patterns along the West Coast that appear to be affected by climate change. Their analysis of 80 years of daily precipitation data across California shows more days with measurable precipitation across northern California, with fewer days across southern sections of the Golden State. [NASA JPL]

CURRENT CLIMATE MONITORING

Jason-1 satellite turns 8 years old -- Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the launch of NASA's Jason-1 satellite, a satellite orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 1336 km that has instruments that measure the surface topography of the global ice-free oceans to an accuracy of 3.3 cm once every ten days. This satellite, which followed its predecessor, TOPEX/Poseidon, has now been jointed by its eventual successor, OSTM/Jason-2 in 2008. NASA Hurricane Page
Heavy tropical cyclone rainfall across Philippines documented by satellite -- Images of satellite-estimated rainfall made from data collected by the instruments onboard NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall-Measuring Mission) satellite shows the locally heavy rainfall totals across the Philippines during 2009 that resulted from at least eleven named tropical cyclones passing over or sufficiently close to this island nation. NASA Hurricane Page
New global precipitation measurement mission advances -- NASA officials recently approved critical elements that will be placed upon the agency's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, which represents a new generation satellite designed to make observations of the global precipitation from space. This satellite, called the GPM Core Observatory spacecraft bus, will be launched in July 2013 and will build upon the success of its predecessor, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). [NASA GSFC]
Instrumented ocean glider makes Trans-Atlantic journey -- The Scarlet Knight, a 7-foot long, 135-pound instrumented glider, recently made a successful 7300-mile trip across the North Atlantic from New Jersey to Spain in 221 days. This glider made continuous measurements of ocean water temperature, salinity and density as it dove to depths of 200 meters as part of the partnership effort among the U.S. interagency Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and European agencies designed to gather information on ocean currents and changes in the ocean environment. [NOAA News]
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 IMPACTS ON THE BIOSPHERE

Wildlife species affected by climate change identified -- In anticipation of the current Copenhagen climate conference and the start of the United Nation's International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, the Wildlife Conservation Society released a new report titled "Species Feeling the Heat: Connecting Deforestation and Climate Change." This report contains a list identifying those animal species considered to be facing threats due to climate change, including those associated with deforestation. [EurekAlert!]

CLIMATE MODELING EFFORTS

Studying ocean climate -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre, Southampton have developed high-resolution computer simulations designed to help them to visualize the inflow of North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean and understand how this flow influences ocean climate. [EurekAlert!]
New technique for measuring oceanic carbon dioxide absorption could help in climate change predictions -- A team of European scientists led by the University of East Anglia has developed a new method of measuring the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans that has allowed them to map the uptake of this gas across the entire North Atlantic Ocean. These researchers hope that their work will allow them to develop an "early-warning system" involving changes in the oceanic carbon sink, which would make more accurate predictions on changes in the global climate. [EurekAlert!]
New emissions studies help increase accuracy of climate and air quality models -- An international team of scientists including those at the University of Colorado's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) has discovered that improved "holistic approach" to modeling the atmospheric chemistry involving the organic compounds emitted into the atmosphere has also helped in improving the accuracy of numerical models designed to predict climate and air quality. [CIRES]

CLIMATE FORECASTS

Planet could be warmer next year -- Forecasters at the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office are forecasting that the upcoming year of 2010 could be warmer than 2009, which has been ranked as the fifth warmest since 1850 reliable climate records began. These forecasters base their 2010 forecast on a combination the current El Niño event that has resulted in a warm equatorial Pacific Ocean and "trend analysis" of the global temperature increases from the last several decades attributed to human activity. [UK Met Office]
First Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season -- Last week, Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University released their first forecast for the upcoming 2010 North Atlantic hurricane season, which they believe would have an above average number of named tropical cyclones (tropical storms or hurricanes). They predict that 11 to 16 named tropical cyclones will form next season, of which six to eight should become hurricanes. Between three to five of the hurricanes could become major hurricanes, reaching category-3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale. They also anticipate an above-average probability that at least one major hurricane would make landfall along the coast of the continental US. Currently, they expect the current El Niño conditions to diminish by the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. Subsequent forecast updates will be issued beginning in April 2010. Details of their forecast appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report] (Note this document is in a 34-page pdf file.)

PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION

Earth's atmosphere was extraterrestrial -- Using new analysis techniques to sample the chemistry of the Earth's mantle, scientists at the University of Houston and the United Kingdom's University of Manchester claim that the gases that formed the early Earth's atmosphere and its oceans came from comets and meteors from outer space, rather than from volcanic eruptions from inside the planet as previously thought. [EurekAlert!]
Sea level appears to be rising along East Coast -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Florida International University, Tulane University and the University of Toronto report that their analysis of sediment cores and tide gauge records along the Atlantic coast of the US indicates that coastal subsidence along the Middle Atlantic coast during the 20th century has been faster than over the last 4000 years and more rapid than other sections of the coast. [University of Pennsylvania]

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:

14 December 1924...The temperature at Helena, MT plunged 79 degrees in 24 hours, and 88 degrees in 34 hours. The mercury plummeted from 63 degrees above to 25 degrees below zero. At Fairfield, MT, the temperature plunged 84 degrees in just 12 hours, from 63 degrees at noon to 21 degrees below zero at midnight. (David Ludlum)
14 December 1987...A powerful storm spread heavy snow from the Southern High Plains to the Middle Mississippi Valley, and produced severe thunderstorms in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Kansas City, MO was blanketed with 10.8 inches of snow, a 24-hour record for December. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
15 December 1582...The Spanish Netherlands, Denmark and Norway adopted the Gregorian calendar.
15 December 1945...A record December snowstorm buried Buffalo, NY under 36.6 inches of snow, with unofficial totals south of the city ranging up to 70 inches. Travel was brought to a halt by the storm. (14^th-17^th) (The Weather Channel)
16 December 1890...A big snowstorm at Pittsburgh, PA dropped 23.9 inches in 24 hours, the greatest 24-hour snow for that city. (Intellicast)
16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
17 December 1884...A three-week blockade of snow began at Portland, OR. A record December total of 34 inches was received. (David Ludlum)
17 December 1930...Greensboro, NC experienced its greatest 24-hour snowfall when 14.3 inches fell. (Intellicast)
18 December 1919...The temperature fell to one degree below zero at Central Park in New York City for the earliest sub-zero temperature on record. (Intellicast)
18 December 1989...Unseasonably warm weather continued ahead of an arctic cold front. Miami FL equaled their record for December with an afternoon high of 87 degrees. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
19 December 1911...A 24-hour snowfall record occurred in Oklahoma with 22 inches at Beaver. (Intellicast)
19 December 1924...The Riverside Ranger Station in Yellowstone Park, WY reported a low of 59 degrees below zero, a December record for the contiguous U.S. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
19 December 1967...The second heavy snow in a week brought a total of 86 inches of snow to Flagstaff, AZ with a record snow depth of 83 inches. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum)
20 December 1989... Squalls produced more heavy snow in the Great Lakes Region. Erie, PA received 21 inches of snow, including four inches in one hour, to bring their total snow cover to 39 inches, an all-time record for that location. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
20 December 1990...Snow fell at Santa Maria, CA for the first time since records were kept. (Intellicast)

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