WEEKLY WEATHER AND CLIMATE NEWS

17-21 November 2008

• Eye on the tropics ---
  • No organized tropical cyclones formed in the North Atlantic, eastern North Pacific or central North Pacific basins last week.
  • In the western North Pacific, Tropical Storm Mayask made a loop across the South China Sea and dissipated early last week. A satellite image and additional information on Tropical Storm Mayask can be seen on the NASA Hurricane Page
    Tropical Storm Haishen formed over the western Pacific over this past weekend and was moving to the northeast well to the south of Japan as of early Monday, local time.
    Tropical Storm Noul developed over the South China Sea west of the Philippines on Sunday (local time) and by Monday was traveling to the west toward the central coast of Viet Nam.
  • In the North Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Khai-Muk formed over the Bay of Bengal late last week and after initially traveling northward, it took sharp turn to the west and reached the coast of Indian near Madras. For more information, including satellite imagery on Tropical Cyclone Khai-Muk, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Winter Awareness -- Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee will observe Winter Awareness Week during the upcoming week (16-22 November). In addition, Kansas and Missouri will observe Winter Awareness Day on Wednesday, 19 November.
• New US-Canadian climate data-sharing agreement reached -- Officials from NOAA and Environment Canada recently announced a partnership where by the two neighboring countries would share weather and climate data, using high-tech monitoring stations developed in the two countries in an effort to help provide a more accurate monitoring of climate change across North America. [NOAA News]
• Assessing the global ozone layer -- An assessment report written by a team of 16 scientists from six different federal agencies, including NOAA, as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program indicates that the US has reduced by nearly 98 percent the production of substances judged to be damaging to the stratospheric ozone shield since the late 1980s, at the time of the Montreal Protocol. [NOAA News]
• Start of a new solar cycle detected -- Solar physicists studying the Sun's surface with instruments such as the Michelson Doppler Imager on the European Space Agency/NASA SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft have determined that by the end of October 2008, the sunspots appearing the solar surface heralded the start of a new cycle of solar activity identified as Solar Cycle 24. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Leaf peeping in the Caucasus from space -- An image obtained from the MODIS instruments on NASA's Terra satellite from last week shows the fall colors on the deciduous trees together with snow at the higher elevations on the Asia's Caucasus Mountains. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Ocean ecosystems affected by Arctic sea ice decline -- Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center report that their analysis of NASA satellite images indicates an explosion in the phytoplankton population in the areas of the Arctic that experienced unprecedented open water due to changes in climate. [NASA GSFC]
• Carbon measurements improved for global climate studies -- Using observations from NASA aircraft and atmospheric transport models, researchers at the University of Iowa and their colleagues at other institutions have been striving to increase the accuracy in their estimates of the amount of atmospheric carbon compounds, such as carbonyl sulfide, absorbed by plants in their attempt to improve their climatic modeling efforts. [University of Iowa News Service]
• Unusual microbe could play major role in ocean ecosystem -- Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz claim that an unusual type of photosynthetic bacteria discovered in the waters of the open ocean may require a reconsideration of current theories involving the dynamics of the carbon and nitrogen cycles in the oceans. [EurekAlert!]
• Two approaches used to assess beginning of life -- Scientists at a recent conference in Sicily discussed two approaches to improve their understanding on how life started. One approach involves the application of complex systems theory to the chemistry of the planet that preceded early life. The other approach involves studying information obtained from missions to Mars. [EurekAlert!]
• Studying the highest clouds -- Researchers from the Naval Research Laboratory and several academic institutions have been studying the Polar Mesospheric Clouds, the highest altitude clouds on the planet, using the Laboratory's Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) instrument that has flown on the Space Test Program Satellite-1 (STPSat-1) Extended Mission [EurekAlert!]
• Monitoring global water levels from space -- A team of scientists have been using altimeter data collected from several satellites, including NASA's GRACE mission, to monitor changes in water levels around the globe since 1993. They report an increase of sea level by approximately 3.3 mm per year, due in part to thermal expansion of the ocean and in part to melting of continental ice. Other scientists from the United Kingdom have begun monitoring lake and river levels on land using data from European Space Agency satellites. [EurekAlert!]
• Calculating the cost of freshwater pollution by nutrients -- Researchers at Kansas State University estimate that pollution of freshwater by nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients costs the United States at least $4.3 billion annually. [Kansas State University]
• Predicting the effect of climate upon Pacific salmon stocks -- Researchers at the University of British Columbia claim that they have quantified a relationship between river temperature and salmon mortality rate that would help them accurately predicting the impact of climate change upon threatened Pacific salmon stocks, which could also result in better management strategies. [EurekAlert!]
• Relationship between amphibian declines and global change remains cloudy -- Researchers from Penn State University, the University of South Florida and Australia's University of Tasmania indicate that increased global temperatures do not appear to be completely responsible for the worldwide decline of amphibian populations, but also to the spread of a fungus. [EurekAlert!]
• "Arid aquaculture" could serve as a suitable drylands alternative -- In a report made by researchers associated with the United Nations and the International Centre on Agricultural Research in Dryland Areas, the development of "arid aquaculture" where fish could be raised in ponds of saline water appears to be a potentially effective alternative source of livelihood for peoples suffering from desertification in some of the world's expanding drylands. Several other strategies were also considered. [EurekAlert!]
• Rapid migration of marine invasive species noted -- Researchers recently reported a northward migration of a non-native marine species by approximately 50 km per decade was due in part to the impacts upon the oceans by a changing climate and was much faster than the distance traversed by invasive terrestrial plant species. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean cores used to study past changes in monsoons -- A team of researchers from Scotland, Germany and the US report that an Ocean Drilling Project sediment core obtained from the floor of the South China Sea can be used to establish interpret a lengthy record of the changes in the precipitation eroding the Himalayan Mountains associated with variations in the intensity of the Asian monsoon over the last 24 million years. [EurekAlert!]
• Urgent action plans being developed to aid coral reefs -- During a meeting in Australia last week, a group of coral reef scientists and policy makers from at least a dozen countries in the "Coral Triangle" in the western Pacific with some of the most prominent coral reefs were working to develop urgent action plans designed to rescue these coral reefs, viewed as some of the richest regions of marine biodiversity, from decline. Part of the proposed plan would help with adaptation to climate change. [Coral Reef Studies]
• Satellites viewed as valuable aid for wetland conservation -- The European Space Agency recently released a report on the GlobWetland project that ran from 2003 to 2008 in which its satellite data were used to inventory, monitor and assess wetland ecosystems in collaboration with the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. [ESA]
• New early tsunami warning system becomes operational -- A new Tsunami Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean, GITEWS, was placed into operation last week with the official transfer of operations was made to the BMKG (Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia). This system employs new procedures and technologies developed by Germany's Helmholtz-Association for the Indian Ocean basin since the devastating tsunami of December 2004. [EurekAlert!]
• 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]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2008, The American Meteorological Society.