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This map, based on satellite data, shows where sea level was higher than normal in 2012 (blue areas), and lower than normal (brown areas). Overall, global average sea level was 1.4 inches higher than the 1993-2010 average. (Map: NOAA)
The State of the Climate in 2012 report came out today, and I’ve been going through it to find some newsworthy nuggets that may not have been widely reported already. (Check out Climate.gov for highlights; download the full report here.)
The peer-reviewed report, compiled by 384 scientists from 52 countries, was published as a supplement to the August 2013 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. It goes into detail on things you may have heard already. For example, 2012 ranked among the warmest 10 years on record, and Arctic sea ice continued to decline in extent (but Antarctic sea ice expanded).
But here’s something I had not heard and maybe you missed it too: It turns out that in 2012, sea level rose to its highest value seen in the satellite record (which began in 1993).
I think it’s newsworthy because sea level actually declined sharply in 2011 — a point that climate change skeptics didn’t hesitate to emphasize. In fact, at least one accused scientists of trying to hide the decline. Read More
The moon passing in front of the sun today as imaged by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. (Image: NASA)
|See updates below| The moon passed between the Sun and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, which snapped this picture of the event today.
NASA posted it to its Facebook page devoted to the SDO mission. But the agency hasn’t released any information about the event yet. Suffice it to say, these spectacular “lunar transits” aren’t all that unusual. They happen two or three times a year, according to NASA. But they sure are spectacular.
As soon as the agency posts some information about this one, I’ll jump in with an update. And possibly a video of the transit as well. So stay tuned.
| Update 4:30 p.m., 8/6/13: The first video of the lunar transit is up on NASA’s SDO site. Here it is: Read More
Numerous wildfires are seen burning in California and Oregon in this image captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 4, 2013. (Image: NASA)
By promoting exceptionally dry and unstable conditions in the atmosphere, climate change may promote larger, more extreme wildfire in the Western United States, a new study suggests.
As part of the research, published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, scientists used multiple regional climate models to simulate how atmospheric conditions may change in mountainous parts of the West during August under a shifting climate.
Specifically, they looked at something called the Haines Index — a measure of dry and unstable air in the lower atmosphere. The simulations indicate that from 2041 to 2070 there will be more days with high HI values, and more consecutive days with high values as well.
“This suggests that future atmospheric environments will be more conducive to erratic wildfires in the mountainous regions of the western U.S.,” the researchers write. Read More
Looks may be deceiving. Or not…
| SEE BELOW FOR THE ANSWER — AND THE WINNER | When I first started ImaGeo, I did a few posts that included a spectacular but mysterious natural feature, and I invited readers to guess what they were looking at. (Here’s an example, and another one too.) When I spotted the features in the image above, I thought it would be fun to try a visual mystery like that again.
What do you think you’re looking at? To keep you from going too far off track, I’ll stipulate that these features are not microscopic or biological. I’ll also say that your eye would not perceive the colors this way. Lastly, these features may, or may not, be found on Earth.
Leave your guesses in the comments section. The first person to guess correctly gets the glory of having their name in lights at ImaGeo. (Or at least a prominent mention.)
May the best person win!
| UPDATE 8/4/13: In their comments below, two people came closest to guessing the correct answer. See the comment from Fred, as well as from Bill Koury.
The two features were indeed made of clouds. But there was no snow-capped region below them, as Fred guessed. And they were definitely storms, but they were not headed for landfall, as Bill Koury surmised.
Of the two guesses, Bill definitely came closest. So I hereby declare him the winner!
The image was captured by NASA’s Terra satellite on July 30th. The false color shows brightness temperature, which can give meteorologists a handle on the structure of a storm and how high the cloud tops are rising into the atmosphere.
The storm on the right was at that time a tropical storm named Gil. It became a hurricane the next day. It has since weakened into a tropical depression.
The storm on the left was a low pressure system dubbed 91E. And off the frame to the right was another system named 90E.
Here’s a broad view of the scene, in natural color, so you can see where the storms were located:
A broad view of the Pacific Ocean captured by NASA’s Terra satellite on July 30th shows Tropical Storm Gil sandwiched by two low pressure systems: System 91E to the left and System 90E to the right. (Image: NASA)
I was struck by all this activity in the Pacific, and how close together these developing storms were. Evidently, so was NASA, which posted this image and an accompany story on Aug. 2.
Thanks to everyone who participated. And please check back. I hope to do more contests.
The map above shows how temperatures departed from the long-term average in Siberia July 20-27, 2013. (Image: NASA Earth Observatory)
Last Sunday I posted a story about fires blazing in Siberia, which had been baking in near-record temperatures for over a week. Now, NASA’s Earth Observatory has produced this map with an accompanying piece documenting just how hot temperatures have been in the region.
The reddest colors indicate where high temperatures were more than 15 degrees C warmer than the long term average between July 20 and 27. The northern city of Norilsk is in one of those red areas. Daily high July temperatures there typically average 16 degrees C (61 degrees F). But during that week they soared to 32 degrees C (90F).
Norilsk, among other places, is not expected to see much relief for awhile. Highs in the upper 80s and low 90s are forecast for the weekend. And much warmer than normal temperatures are forecast for all of next week. (You can check the weather in Norilsk here.)
By blocking weather systems that would bring rain and cooler temperatures, a persistent high pressure system is the proximate cause of the high temperatures, according to NASA. But by making high temperatures even higher than they otherwise would be, human-caused global warming also plays a role.
The result: Read More
A screenshot of an animation depicting dust streaming from the Sahara into the Atlantic Ocean. Click on the image for the animation. (Animation: NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory)
Satellites have spied a massive plume of dust blowing off the Sahara out into the Atlantic Ocean. The dry and dusty air could reduce the odds that hurricanes will form during the first week of August.
The screenshot above is from an animation showing how the plume is forecast to travel over the next few days. Click on it to see the animation, which was created by scientists at NOAA using an aerosol model.
Here is a satellite image of the dust streaming from the Sahara: Read More
A hole in the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, is visible in this screenshot from an animation of images from NASA’s SOHO spacecraft. It’s the roughly triangular dark region in the image, which emphasizes light in the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Click on the image to watch the animation. (Source: NASA/SOHO)
|See updates below | In case you haven’t heard about it, a huge chunk portion of the sun’s corona has indeed gone missing. But even if you have heard about this so-called “coronal hole,” click on the screenshot above. It’ll take you to a new animation of the phenomenon posted to the web today by NASA. It’s really dramatic.
| Update 7/31/13: After posting this piece, I had second thoughts about my use of the word “chunk” in the original headline (which read “Why is a Huge Chunk of the Sun Missing”) and in the first paragraph. A huge portion of the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, has indeed gone missing. (See the explanation below.) But the word “chunk” implies that a really thick piece of the sun is gone. That’s not true. So I’ve changed the headline and the first paragraph to reflect this. |
The animation consists of images sent back to Earth by NASA’s Solar & Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft, or SOHO. The large, roughly triangular dark area is the coronal hole.
The animation above dates to July 16th. Click here to see another animation, covering July 20-22.
Corey Powell, who writes the awesome “Out There” blog here at Discover, was interviewed about the phenomenon today on the Fox News program America’s Newsroom. Check out the interview in its entirety here.
Corey’s money quote: Read More
Sediments and nutrients darken the waters of the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River and its distributaries, as seen in this image captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on May 6, 2013. (Image: NASA)
This summer’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico measures some 5,840 square miles, or roughly the size of Connecticut, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A dead zone is an area where oxygen levels in the water drop so low that most forms of life cannot survive. Thanks to huge amounts of nutrients coursing down the Mississippi River from America’s agricultural heartland, formation of a dead zone along the Louisiana coast has become an annual occurrence, threatening commercial and recreational fisheries valued in 2011 at $818 million.
This map shows the extent of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico along the Louisiana coast this summer. (Source: LUMCON/Rabalais)
A wet spring that brought more runoff of fertilizer from farmlands was projected to trigger formation of a larger than average dead zone this summer. But windy conditions in the Gulf of Mexico churned and oxygenated the waters, limiting its size to only slightly above average.
Even so, it’s more than 3,000 square miles larger than the goal being pursued by a task force consisting of federal and state agencies and Indian tribes. And while American farmers have become more efficient in their use of fertilizer, “we don’t see less in the way of nutrients coming out at the end of the Mississippi, and we still have dead zones,” says Alan Townsend, a scientist at the University of Colorado who conducts research on the cycling of nitrogen, a key nutrient, on global and regional scales.
For more of Townsend’s perspective, keep reading. But first, how do dead zones form? The image at the top of this post, captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on May 6th, helps illustrate the process. Read More
| UPDATE 4 p.m. MDT, 7/29/2013: I was mistaken in my first update below. I should not have been looking at water vapor. Here’s an animation of GOES satellite images in the visual end of the spectrum. The center of Tropical Storm Flossie’s circulation is clearly seen tracking north of the Big Island and headed toward Maui. (Look for the cyclonic pattern in the clouds.)
The center of Tropical Storm Flossie’s circulation is seen headed for Maui in this animation of GOES satellite images. (Animation: NOAA)
But the Big Island may still be hit with a lot of rain.
| UPDATE 2 p.m. MDT, 7/29/2013: The Central Pacific Hurricane Center has shifted Tropical Storm Flossie’s projected track a bit to the north, which would have the center of the storm making landfall in Maui today, rather than the Big Island. But I just checked the satellite imagery, and it sure looks like Flossie is taking dead aim on the Big Island — almost momentarily:
In this false-color GOES satellite image emphasizing water vapor, Tropical Storm Flossie appears to be headed straight toward the Big Island of Hawaii. (Animation: NOAA)
We’ll see how it develops. What follows below is this morning’s original post.
A sequence of infrared images from the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite shows Tropical Storm Flossie approaching the Big Island of Hawaii. The second image was captured at night, the other two during the day. (Image: CIMSS Satellite Blog)
Residents of Hawaii are bracing for heavy rain and possible flash flooding as Tropical Storm Flossie approaches this morning from the east.
You can see her getting a bit disorganized in the sequence of three infrared satellite images above from the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite. With dry air aloft and wind shear, Flossie has weakened.
Even so, she is still producing sustained maximum winds of 50 miles per hour. She will hit the shore of the Big Island very soon, and when she does she is forecast to bring surf as high as 10 to 20 feet on east-facing shores. And lots of rain: six to 10 inches, and up to 15 inches in some places, according to the National Weather Service in Hilo. Read More
Astronaut Karen L. Nyberg took this photograph of patterns etched in clouds somewhere over Earth on July 26th — from her perch on the International Space Station. (Photograph: Karen L. Nyberg/NASA)
There really isn’t anything to say about this other than the word I used in the headline. This stunning photograph by astronaut Karen Nyberg speaks for itself.
Check out her Twitter feed. Nyberg is picking up where Chris Hadfield left off...
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