INTERVIEW – Gulf oil spill might have surpassed Exxon Valdez

May 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill may already be bigger than the massive Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and could have dumped as much as 13 million gallons (49 million litres) of crude into waters off the U.S. coastline, a Florida oceanographer said on Friday.

Ian MacDonald, a biological oceanographer at Florida State University, said official estimates that 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 litres) have poured into the Gulf each day since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded two weeks ago were much too conservative.

The real flow rate from the undersea well, based on aerial images of the oil slick and estimates of the thickness of the oil itself, is probably closer to 25,000 barrels (1,050,000 gallons) per day, MacDonald said in an interview.

“We’ve been looking at … data and we see that the area of the Gulf which is covered by oil has been increasing rapidly, at a rate well in excess of a 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) a day,” he told Reuters.

“We see in excess of 10,000 (3,860 square miles) perhaps as much as 16,000 square kilometers (6,178 square miles) of oil-covered water, or water which has some indication that there’s oil there,” he said.

“We think that to get that much oil coverage we would to have to have flow rates well in excess of the 5,000 barrel per day rate and we’re putting this out as a high-end estimate,” MacDonald said.

A spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has been monitoring the oil spill, said no one was immediately available to comment on possible revisions of the oil spill’s size.

MacDonald said the official estimate, used by NOAA, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard, had never been explained in detail and appeared to be little more than a guess.

The Exxon Valdez tanker ship spilled about 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, in one of the world’s worst environmental disasters ever.

If his own estimate is accurate, MacDonald said BP’s oil spill was already bigger than its 1989 rival.

“Our belief is that the overall amount of oil out there well exceeds the 5,000 barrel per day rate,” MacDonald said.

“I’m providing a thorough documentation of the methods that we’ve used,” he added.

MacDonald acknowleged that any estimate of the size of the spill, based on the surface area of the oil slick, could be flawed by a failure to correctly gauge the oil’s average thickness.

But he said he had worked together with NASA, and used some estimates provided by BP itself, to calculate the flow rate from the offshore oil well, almost 1 mile (1.6 km) below the Gulf of Mexico surface.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Xavier Briand)

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Quiet Sun bombards earth with fierce solar streams

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 18 (ANI): A new study has found that Earth was bombarded last year with high levels of solar energy at a time when the Sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.

The study was led by scientists at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in cooperation with scientists at NOAA and NASA.

“The Sun continues to surprise us,” said lead author Sarah Gibson of the NCAR. “The solar wind can hit Earth like a fire hose even when there are virtually no sunspots,” she added.

Scientists for centuries have used the number of sunspots, which are dark patches of concentrated magnetic fields on the solar surface, to determine the approximately 11-year solar cycle.

At solar maximum, the number of sunspots peaks.

During this time, intense solar flares occur daily and geomagnetic storms frequently buffet Earth, knocking out satellites and disrupting communications networks.

Gibson and her colleagues focused instead on another process by which the Sun discharges energy.

The team analyzed high-speed streams within the solar wind that carry turbulent magnetic fields out into the solar system.

When those streams blow by Earth, they intensify the energy of the planet’s outer radiation belt.

This can create serious hazards for weather, navigation, and communications satellites that travel at high altitudes within the outer radiation belts, while also threatening astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS).

For the new study, the scientists analyzed information gathered from an array of space- and ground-based instruments during two international scientific projects: the Whole Sun Month in the late summer of 1996 and the Whole Heliosphere Interval in the early spring of 2008.

The solar cycle was at a minimal stage during both the study periods, with few sunspots in 1996 and even fewer in 2008.

The team found that strong, long, and recurring high-speed streams of charged particles buffeted Earth in 2008.

In contrast, Earth encountered weaker and more sporadic streams in 1996. As a result, the planet was more affected by the Sun in 2008 than in 1996.s sunspots became less common over the last few years, large coronal holes lingered in the surface of the Sun near its equator.

The high-speed streams that blow out of those holes engulfed Earth during 55 percent of the study period in 2008, compared to 31 percent of the study period in 1996. (ANI)

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Sea levels rose as much as 2 feet this summer along the US East Coast

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 12 (ANI): Reports indicate that sea levels rose as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) higher than predicted this summer along the US East Coast, surprising scientists who forecast such periodic fluctuations.

According to National Geographic News, though the immediate cause of the unexpected rise has now been solved, the underlying reason remains a mystery.

Usually, predicting seasonal tides and sea levels is a pretty cut-and-dried process, governed by the known movements and gravitational influences of astronomical bodies like the moon, according to Rich Edwing, deputy director for the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

But, NOAA’s phones began ringing this summer when East Coast residents reported higher than predicted water levels, much like those associated with short-term weather events like tropical storms.

These high seas persisted for weeks, throughout June and July.

The startling rise caused only minor coastal flooding, but puzzled scientists.

Now, a new report has identified the two major factors behind the high sea levels-a weakened Gulf Stream and steady winds from the northeastern Atlantic.

The Gulf Stream is a northward-flowing superhighway of ocean water off the US East Coast.

Running at full steam, the powerful current pulls water into its “orbit” and away from the East Coast.

But this summer, for reasons unknown, “the Gulf Stream slowed down,” Edwing said, sending water toward the coasts-and sea levels shooting upward.

Adding to the sustained surge, autumn winds from the northeastern Atlantic arrived a few months early, pushing even more water coastward.

The higher waters caused inconveniences for some anglers and boaters and rearranged a bit of shoreline.

“A couple of sand beaches we’d normally fish from were eaten up. And the volume of water was higher than it normally would be,” said Paulie Apostolides, owner of Paulie’s Tackle in Montauk on New York State’s Long Island.

Even before the new report, released by NOAA on September 2, Apostolides said that many local fishers had already attributed the sea level rise to the “ferocious” winds from the northeast. (ANI)

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US Navy ship sunk in World War II battle located

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 11 (ANI): A research mission has located and identified the final resting place of the YP-389, a US Navy patrol boat sunk approximately 20 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by a German submarine during World War II.

Six sailors died in the attack on June 19, 1942. There were 18 survivors.

The wreck is located in about 300 feet of water in a region off North Carolina known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” home to US and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and its expedition partners mapped and shot video of the wreck using high-resolution camera equipment, multibeam sonar and an advanced remotely operated vehicle deployed from the NOAA ship Nancy Foster.

Researchers were able to locate and positively identify the YP-389 by reexamining data from the Duke Marine Laboratory expedition that discovered the USS Monitor in 1973.

Today, the relatively intact remains of the YP-389 rest upright on the ship’s keel.

The wreck site is home to a variety of marine life. Much of the outer-hull plating has fallen away, leaving only the intact frames exposed.

“She rests now like a literal skeleton, a reminder of a time long ago when the nation was at war,” said Joseph Hoyt, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary archaeologist and principal investigator for the project.

Built originally as a fishing trawler, the YP-389 was converted into a coastal patrol craft and pressed into service after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The ship was equipped with one 3-inch deck gun to protect the ship from enemy aircraft and surfaced submarines and two .30-caliber machine guns.

However, on the day of the attack by the German submarine U-701, the ship’s deck gun was inoperative, and the YP-389 could return fire only with its machine guns.

Weeks after the attack on the YP-389, the U-701 was sunk by Army aircraft in the same vicinity as the YP-389.

According to Rear Admiral Jay A. DeLoach, USN (Ret), director, Naval History and Heritage Command, “The US Navy considers the YP-389 discovery a grave site and, by law, it is to be left undisturbed.” (ANI)

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Killer whales have to raise their voices to be heard over ship noise

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 11 (ANI): A new research has determined that killer whales have to raise their voices to be heard over ship noise, and the effort may be wearing the whales out as they try to find food amid dwindling numbers of salmon.

According to a report in National Geographic News, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) carried out the research.

The research indicates that the killer whales of Puget Sound, a complex of inland marine waterways in the northwestern part of Washington, US, make more calls and clicks while foraging than while traveling, suggesting that such mealtime conservations are key to coordinating hunts.

“(The killer whales’) call exchange is incredibly important, and vessel noises have the potential to mask these calls,” said research leader Marla Holt of Seattle’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, which is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Holt and colleagues’ previous research had shown that some killer whales make louder calls to be heard over vessel rumblings-just as people raise their voices to talk over the din of a cocktail party.

Now, the researchers think the cacophony could be causing the region’s killer whales to use up more energy during hunts, even as their preferred prey, chinook salmon, are on the decline.

In Puget Sound, a small group of killer whales known as the Southern Residents has been found to be particularly well-suited to eating salmon-even down to the whales’ tooth size.

These animals don’t eat seals or other mammals, as do the transient killer whales that migrate through the sound.

In the mid- to late 1990s, the Southern Resident population mysteriously shrank by nearly 20 percent, from 97 to 88 animals. Today, there are 85 individuals.

In 2005, the federal government listed the population as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act.

No one knows for sure, but the cause was likely a combination of fewer salmon, exposure to toxic contaminants, and vessel noise, according to Lynne Barre of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Regional Office.

Holt’s work adds to existing data that have already prompted NOAA to propose a new killer whale protection law that would make all boats keep at least 600 feet (200 yards) away from the animals around Washington State.

The existing law allows boats to approach as close as 300 feet (100 yards), and some research has shown this influences the whales’ behavior.

“A lot of people would argue, Why focus on these vessel regulations?” Holt said. “But it’s one thing we can do immediately,” he added. (ANI)

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Human impacts and environmental factors changing northwest Atlantic ecosystem

September 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): A new report by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has determined that human impacts and environmental factors are changing the northwest Atlantic ecosystem.

According to the report, fish in US waters from Cape Hatteras to the Canadian border have moved away from their traditional, long-time habitats over the past four decades because of fundamental changes in the regional ecosystem.

The 2009 Ecosystem Status Report also points out the need to manage the waters off the northeastern coast of the United States as a whole rather than as a series of separate and unrelated components.

Known as the Northeast US Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NES LME), the ecosystem spans approximately 100,000 square miles and supports some of the highest revenue-generating fisheries in the nation.

During the past 40 years, the ecosystem has experienced extensive fishing by domestic and foreign fleets, changes in ocean water temperatures due to climate change, and pressures from increasing human populations along the coast.

According to Michael Fogarty, who heads the Ecosystem Assessment Program at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) of NOAA’s Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, his team’s report highlights the need to understand natural and human-related changes in this region and to develop effective management and mitigation strategies.

“There are many pressures on the ecosystem including fishing, pollution, habitat loss from coastal development, and impacts on marine life from shipping and other uses of the ocean,” Fogarty said.

“In addition, changing climate conditions are warming ocean waters, changing ocean chemistry and circulation patterns, and altering atmospheric systems. These changes have, in turn, been linked to changes in the distribution and abundance of fish species in the region and their major sources of food,” he added.

The report is the first in a planned series of ecosystem status reports by Fogarty and his colleagues in the NEFSC’s Ecosystem Assessment Program to document changes in the NES LME, one of 64 regions in the world’s ocean designated as a large marine ecosystem.

Fogarty said that sustained long-term monitoring by many agencies and institutions in the Northeast region has enabled scientists and others to trace changes in the ecosystem.

“In the future, we need to continue to monitor the oceanographic, ecological, and human indicators analyzed in this report to detect any additional changes in the system. These indicators also provide important inputs to models that can be used to help guide management decisions and to forecast future changes,” he said. (ANI)

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‘Laughing gas’ leaves ozone layer in splits

August 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 28 (ANI): A new study has determined that nitrous dioxide, popularly known as ‘laughing gas’, has now become the largest ozone-depleting substance emitted through human activities, and is expected to remain the largest throughout the 21st century.

The study was authored by A.R. Ravishankara, J.S. Daniel and Robert W. Portmann of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) chemical sciences division.

For the first time, this study has evaluated nitrous oxide emissions from human activities in terms of their potential impact on Earth’s ozone layer.

As chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which have been phased out by international agreement, ebb in the atmosphere, nitrous oxide will remain a significant ozone-destroyer, the study found.

Today, nitrous oxide emissions from human activities are more than twice as high as the next leading ozone-depleting gas.

Nitrous oxide is emitted from natural sources and as a byproduct of agricultural fertilization and other industrial processes.

Calculating the effect on the ozone layer now and in the future, NOAA researchers found that emissions of nitrous oxide from human activities erode the ozone layer and will continue to do so for many decades.

ESRL tracks the thickness of the ozone layer, as well as the burden of ozone-depleting compounds in the atmosphere. It maintains a large portion of the world air sampling and measurement network.

NOAA scientists also conduct fundamental studies of the atmosphere and atmospheric processes to improve understanding of ozone depletion and of the potential for recovery the ozone layer.

“The dramatic reduction in CFCs over the last 20 years is an environmental success story. But manmade nitrous oxide is now the elephant in the room among ozone-depleting substances,” said Ravishankara, lead author of the study and director of the ESRL Chemical Sciences Division in Boulder, Colorado.

The ozone layer serves to shield plants, animals and people from excessive ultraviolet light from the sun.

Thinning of the ozone layer allows more ultraviolet light to reach the Earth’s surface where it can damage crops and aquatic life and harm human health.

Though the role of nitrous oxide in ozone depletion has been known for several decades, the new study is the first to explicitly calculate that role using the same measures that have been applied to CFCs, halons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing ozone-depleting substances.

According to scientists, nitrous oxide is also a greenhouse gas, so reducing its emission from manmade sources would be good for both the ozone layer and climate. (ANI)

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El Nino – El Nino 2009 – El Nini Effect – El Nino conditions return to affect weather

July 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

El Nino – El Nino 2009 – El Nini Effect – El Nino conditions return to affect weather

WASHINGTON (AP) — El Nino is back.

Government scientists said Thursday that the periodic warming of water in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which can affect weather around the world, has returned.

The Pacific had been in what is called a neutral state, but forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the sea surface temperature climbed to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal along a narrow band in the eastern equatorial Pacific in June.

In addition, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said temperatures in other tropical regions are also above normal, with warmer than usual readings as much as 975 feet below the ocean surface.

In general, El Nino conditions are associated with increased rainfall across the east-central and eastern Pacific and with drier than normal conditions over northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

A summer El Nino can lead to wetter than normal conditions in the intermountain regions of the United States and over central Chile. In an El Nino year there tend to be more Eastern Pacific hurricanes and fewer Atlantic hurricanes.

The forecasters said they expect this El Nino to continue strengthening over the next few months and to last through the winter of 2009-2010.

“Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions El Nino may bring so these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protect life, property and the economy,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.

NOAA officials noted that not all El Nino effects are negative. For example, it can suppress Atlantic hurricanes and bring needed moisture to the arid Southwest.

But it can also steer damaging winter storms to California and increase storminess across the southern United States.

The warming of the ocean can also lead to a reduction in the seafood catch off the West Coast, and fewer fish can also impact food sources for several types of birds and marine mammals.

A recent study by researchers at Georgia Tech suggests there may actually be two forms of El Nino, depending on whether the warming is stronger in the eastern or central pacific.

While the current warming seems to be strongest in the east, the more traditional form, government forecasters did not categorize it.

If the Georgia Tech study is correct, this would be the type of El Nino that reduces hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean. The other form, centered farther west, reportedly seems to promote Atlantic storms.

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Ozone protecting HFCs may increase global warming

June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 23 (ANI): A new research has suggested that hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are good for protecting the ozone layer from destruction, could increasingly contribute to global warming.

The research was conducted by scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and their colleagues.

HFCs, which do not contain ozone-destroying chlorine or bromine atoms, are used as substitutes for ozone-depleting compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in such uses as refrigeration, air conditioning, and the production of insulating foams.

The researchers took a fresh look at how the global use of HFCs is expected to grow in coming decades.

Using updated usage estimates and looking farther ahead than past projections (to the year 2050), they found that HFCs, especially from developing countries, will become an increasingly larger factor in future climate warming.

“HFCs are good for protecting the ozone layer, but they are not climate friendly,” said David W. Fahey, a scientist at NOAA and second author of the new study.

“Our research shows that their effect on climate could become significantly larger than we expected, if we continue along a business-as-usual path,” he added.

HFCs currently have a climate change contribution that is small (less than 1 percent) in comparison to the contribution of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The researchers have shown that by 2050, the HFCs contribution could rise to 7 to 12 percent of what CO2 contributes, and if international efforts succeed in stabilizing CO2 emissions, the relative climate contribution from HFCs would increase further.

Though the HFCs do not deplete the ozone layer, they are potent greenhouse gases.

Molecule for molecule, all HFCs are more potent warming agents than CO2 and some are thousands of times more effective.

The new study factored in the expected growth in demand for air conditioning, refrigerants, and other technology in developed and developing countries.

The Montreal Protocol’s gradual phasing out of the consumption of ozone-depleting substances in developing countries after 2012, along with the complete phase-out in developed countries in 2020, are other factors that will lead to increased usage of HFCs and other alternatives.

Decision-makers in Europe and the United States have begun to consider possible steps to limit the potential climate consequences of HFCs.

According to John S. Daniel, a NOAA coauthor of the study, “While unrestrained growth of HFC use could lead to significant climate implications by 2050, we have shown some examples of global limits that can effectively reduce the HFCs’ impact.” (ANI)

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Summers in Arctic may be ice-free in as few as 30 years

April 3, 2009 By 1 Comment

Washington, April 3 (ANI): A new analysis of computer models has forecasted that summers in the Arctic may be ice-free in as few as 30 years.

“The Arctic is changing faster than anticipated,” said James Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and co-author of the study.

“It’s a combination of natural variability, along with warmer air and sea conditions caused by increased greenhouse gases,” he added.

Overland and his co-author, Muyin Wang, a University of Washington research scientist with the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean in Seattle, analyzed projections from six computer models, including three with sophisticated sea ice physics capabilities.

That data was then combined with observations of summer sea ice loss in 2007 and 2008.

The area covered by summer sea ice is expected to decline from its current 4.6 million square kilometers (about 2.8 million square miles) to about 1 million square kilometers (about 620,000 square miles) – a loss approximately four-fifths the size of the continental U.S.

Much of the sea ice would remain in the area north of Canada and Greenland and decrease between Alaska and Russia in the Pacific Arctic.

“The Arctic is often called the ‘Earth’s refrigerator’ because the sea ice helps cool the planet by reflecting the sun’s radiation back into space,” said Wang.

“With less ice, the sun’s warmth is instead absorbed by the open water, contributing to warmer temperatures in the water and the air,” he added. (ANI)

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Atmospheric ‘sunshade’ could reduce solar power generation

March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 12 (ANI): A new study has suggested that the concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth.

The study was conducted by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“Injecting particles into the stratosphere could have unintended consequences for one alternative energy source expected to play a role in the transition away from fossil fuels,” said Daniel Murphy, a scientist at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

The Earth is heating up as fossil-fuel burning produces carbon dioxide, the primary heat-trapping gas responsible for man-made climate change.

To counteract the effect, some geoengineering proposals are designed to slow global warming by shading the Earth from sunlight.

Among the ideas being explored is injecting small particles into the upper atmosphere to produce a climate cooling similar to that of large volcanic eruptions, such as Mt. Pinatubo’s in 1991.

Airborne sulfur hovering in the stratosphere cooled the Earth for about two years following that eruption.

Murphy found that particles in the stratosphere reduce the amount and change the nature of the sunlight that strikes the Earth.

Though a fraction of the incoming sunlight bounces back to space (the cooling effect), a much larger amount becomes diffuse, or scattered, light.

On average, for every watt of sunlight the particles reflect away from the Earth, another three watts of direct sunlight are converted to diffuse sunlight.

Large power-generating solar plants that concentrate sunlight for maximum efficiency depend solely on direct sunlight and cannot use diffuse light.

Murphy verified his calculations using long-term NOAA observations of direct and diffuse sunlight before and after the 1991 eruption.

After the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, peak power output of Solar Electric Generating Stations in California, the largest collective of solar power plants in the world, fell by up to 20 percent, even though the stratospheric particles from the eruption reduced total sunlight that year by less than 3 percent.

“The sensitivity of concentrating solar systems to stratospheric particles may seem surprising,” said Murphy. “But because these systems use only direct sunlight, increasing stratospheric particles has a disproportionately large effect on them,” he added. (ANI)

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Seven new species of bamboo coral discovered in Hawaii’s deep waters

March 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 8 (ANI): Scientists have identified seven new species of bamboo coral in the deep waters of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, in Hawaii, US, among which six may represent an entirely new genera.

A genus is a major category in the classification of organisms, ranking above a species and below a family. Scientists expect to identify more new species as analysis of samples continues.

“These discoveries are important, because deep-sea corals support diverse seafloor ecosystems and also because these corals may be among the first marine organisms to be affected by ocean acidification,” said Richard Spinrad, NOAA’s assistant administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

“Deep-sea bamboo corals also produce growth rings much as trees do, and can provide a much-needed view of how deep ocean conditions change through time,” he added.

Ocean acidification is a change in ocean chemistry due to excess carbon dioxide.

Researchers have seen adverse changes in marine life with calcium-carbonate shells, such as corals, because of acidified ocean water.

According to Rob Dunbar, a Stanford University scientist,”We found live, 4,000-year-old corals in the Monument – meaning 4,000 years worth of information about what has been going on in the deep ocean interior.”

“Studying these corals can help us understand how they survive for such long periods of time, as well as how they may respond to climate change in the future,” he said.

Among the other findings were a five-foot tall yellow bamboo coral tree that had never been described before, new beds of living deepwater coral and sponges, and a giant sponge scientists dubbed the “cauldron sponge,” approximately three feet tall and three feet across.

Analysis is not yet complete on the cauldron sponge, but scientists expect it will turn out to be a new species.

Scientists collected two other sponges which have not yet been analyzed, but may represent new species or genera as well.

This orange bamboo coral is another new species and new genus found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. It is between four and five feet tall, and was found 5,745 feet below the surface. (ANI)

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Commercial ships emit half as much particulate pollution as world’s cars

February 27, 2009 By 1 Comment

Washington, Feb 27 (ANI): A new study has determined that commercial ships in the world emit almost half as much particulate pollution into the air as the total amount released by cars.

The study is the first to provide a global estimate of maritime shipping’s total contribution to air particle pollution based on direct measurements of emissions.

The researchers estimated that worldwide, ships emit 0.9 teragrams, or about 2.2 million pounds, of particulate pollution each year.

Shipping also contributes almost 30 percent of smog-forming nitrogen oxide gases.

“Since more than 70 percent of shipping traffic takes place within 250 miles of the coastline, this is a significant health concern for coastal communities,” said lead author Daniel Lack, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

Commercial ships emit both particulate pollution and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide from ships makes up roughly three percent of all human-caused emissions of the gas.

During the summer of 2006, Lack and colleagues, aboard the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown, analyzed the exhaust from over 200 commercial vessels, including cargo ships, tankers and cruise ships, in the Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, and the Houston Ship Channel.

The researchers also examined the chemistry of particles in ship exhaust to understand what makes ships such hefty polluters.

Ships emit sulfates – the same polluting particles associated with diesel-engine cars and trucks that prompted improvements in on-road vehicle fuel standards.

Sulfate emissions from ships vary with the concentration of sulfur in ship fuel.

As a result of the cap, some ships use “cleaner,” low-sulfur fuels, while others continue to use the high-sulfur counterparts.

Lack and colleagues find that the organic and black carbon portion of ship exhaust is less likely to form cloud droplets.

As a result, these particles remain suspended for longer periods of time before being washed to the ground through precipitation. (ANI)

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Winter weather hard to predict this year: NOAA

November 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Winter will be warmer than normal for much of the central United States, but government forecasters said on Thursday this season’s weather for the rest of the country will be particularly hard to predict.

That’s because sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean have failed to yield the kind of clues to climate patterns that can make forecasts more reliable, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its forecast, which covers the December through February period.

“There was a lot of agonizing over this particular forecast. This would seem to be the toughest one I can recall having to do,” said Michael Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, in an interview.

“Variability is going to be the highlight for this coming winter,” Halpert said.

Neither El Nino nor La Nina weather patterns are present this year in the Pacific Ocean, NOAA said.

La Nina refers to an abnormal cooling of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which tends to bring colder weather to the northern and western United States and drier conditions to the South. El Nino refers to a warming of surface temperatures and creates weather opposite of La Nina.

Instead, winter weather will be heavily influenced by other climate patterns over the Arctic and North Atlantic regions.

For now, the forecast calls for a mild winter, with warmer-than-normal weather from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachian Mountains through February, NOAA said.

The best chance for above-normal temperatures was expected in Missouri, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, with a lower probability extending into southern Wisconsin, western Ohio and Texas.

But exactly how the weather plays out remains to be seen.

The agency’s winter forecast also predicted an equal chance for temperatures to be normal, above normal or below normal on the East Coast and in the western United States, extending into Montana and northern Minnesota.

The forecast could be good news for the Northeast and the Midwest, which are the largest users of heating oil and natural gas, respectively, in the United States.

“It looks like we’re going to see a little bit (of weather) for everyone,” Halpert said.

The government said it was difficult to predict moisture across most of the country through February.

Above-normal rain and snow was forecast for Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Below-normal precipitation was seen in a narrow swath of the southern United States, extending from Arizona through Texas and Georgia and into Virginia.

Halpert said the winter forecast was further complicated by signs that La Nina could develop during the winter, although he said government forecasters were skeptical that would occur.

NOAA is the latest weather agency to struggle with predicting how things will unfold this winter. Other weather forecasters also have failed to reach a consensus over what conditions will be like.

In the eastern United States, for example, two weather forecasters, including AccuWeather, have predicted the coldest winter since 2003-04. Meanwhile, competitor WSI Corp has called for mostly mild temperatures in the region.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)

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