Knowing how powerful a hurricane is, before it hits land, can help to save lives or to avoid the enormous costs of an unnecessary evacuation.
Some MIT researchers think there may be a better, cheaper way of getting that crucial information. Click here to listen to an enhanced, but very low-frequency, audio version of the underwater sound of 1999’s Hurricane Gert (above, in a colorized infrared image, courtesy of NOAA).
Makris has been doing theoretical work analyzing this potential method for years, triggered by a conversation he had with MIT professor and hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel. But now he has found the first piece of direct data that confirms his calculations. In a paper accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, Makris and his former graduate student Joshua Wilson show that Hurricane Gert, in 1999, happened to pass nearly over a hydrophone anchored 800 meters deep above the mid-Atlantic Ridge at about the latitude of Puerto Rico, and the same storm was monitored by airplanes within the next 24 hours.
An acoustic sensor key to the joint MIT-Mexico hurricane research is deployed off the coast of Isla Socorro by crew members of the Mexican Research Vessel Altair.
The case produced exactly the results that had been predicted, providing the first experimental validation of the method, Makris said. “There was almost a perfect relationship between the power of the wind and the power of the wind-generated noise,” he said. There was less than 5 percent error—about the same as the errors you get from aircraft measurements.
Satellite monitoring is good at showing the track of a hurricane, Makris said, but not as reliable as aircraft in determining destructive power.
The current warning systems are estimated to save $2.5 billion a year in the United States, and improved systems could save even more, he said. And since many parts of the world that are subject to devastating cyclones cannot afford the cost of hurricane-monitoring aircraft, the potential for saving lives and preventing devastating damage is even greater elsewhere.
“You need to know, do you evacuate or not?” Makris explained. “Both ways, if you get it wrong, there can be big problems.”
To that end, Makris has been collaborating with the Mexican Navy’s Directorate of Oceanography, Hydrography and Meteorology, using a meteorological station on the island of Socorro, off Mexico’s west coast. The island lies in one of the world’s most hurricane-prone areas—an average of three cyclones pass over or near the island every year. The team installed a hydrophone in waters close to the island and is waiting for a storm to come by and provide further validation of the technique.
Makris and Wilson estimate that when there’s a hurricane on its way toward shore, a line of acoustic sensors could be dropped from a small plane into the ocean ahead of the storm’s path, while conditions are still safe, and could then provide detailed information on the storm’s strength to aid in planning and decision-making about possible evacuations. The total cost for such a deployment would be a small fraction of the cost of even a single flight into the storm, they figure.
In addition, permanent lines of such sensors could be deployed offshore in storm-prone areas, such as the Sea of Bengal off India and Bangladesh. And such undersea monitors could have additional benefits besides warning of coming storms.
The hydrophones could be a very effective way of monitoring the amount of sea salt entering the atmosphere as a result of the churning of ocean waves. This sea salt, it turns out, has a major impact on global climate because it scatters solar radiation that regulates the formation of clouds. Direct measurements of this process could help climate modelers to make more accurate estimates of its effects.
The research has been supported by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research, ONR Global-Americas, MIT Sea Grant and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate.
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 5:51 PM CDT County finalizes disaster preparation plan
By Warren Watkins The Daily Citizen
With tornadoes skipping and hitting around White County, killing dozens and doing millions of dollars in damage across the state this year, interest in weather safety is keen among local citizens.
Tornado siren sounds were explained by Tamara Jenkins, chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, at the regular monthly meeting Tuesday.
“We have a warning tone, which is a constant horn that may go up and down in tone slowly as the siren rotates,” Jenkins said. “It is repeated every three to five minutes automatically until the ‘all clear’ is sounded manually. The ‘all clear’ tone goes up and down quickly from high to low.”
At noon every Wednesday the tornado sirens are tested all over the county, including Searcy.
“Tornado sirens in the county are set off by the county 911 dispatch center,” Jenkins said. “We can do individual towns. We don’t have to set off the whole county.”
Some Jackson County sirens which can be heard in Velvet Ridge are different in tone, Jenkins said.
“As long as we have a tornado warning in effect for the county, the sirens will go off periodically,” said Conway Helm, a Higginson firefighter.
Used to warn people who are outside, not inside a building, tornado sirens are complemented by radios, sold in local retail outlets, that warn those inside buildings of bad weather.
“We’re pushing all-hazard radios now,” Jenkins said. “You’ll also get notified of hazardous spill evacuations with them.”
In other business, Jenkins told the committee the county’s mitigation plan had been updated since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit and would soon be uploaded to the Internet. The mitigation plan, a proactive blueprint for planning ahead to minimize damage from natural disasters such as floods, tornados and earthquakes, has been approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“In the mitigation plan we identify the possibilities and try to prepare for what the county can do to help people in areas before a disaster hits — maybe we can raise roads or something,” Jenkins said.
The county’s emergency operations plan was completed earlier and is found online at the White County Sheriff’s Office Web page, WhiteCountyAR.org. That plan details how resources in the county will be used in the event of a disaster.
“Had the City of Clinton known we had a mobile command unit, they would have requested it during the aftermath of their tornado because they lost all power in their police station,” Jenkins said.
The gymnasium at Arkansas State University-Beebe has now been designated as a mass feeding station and restroom facility in the event of a disaster.
As of May 7, there were 46 individuals who have applied for assistance from FEMA for damage resulting from flooding along the White and Little Red rivers in White County and $78,000 has already been disbursed.
The county with the most applications from that flooding so far has been Phillips County, with 249, and Woodruff County leads with largest amount disbursed with $235,000.
More than 700 passengers escaped from an Indonesian ferry that caught fire shortly before reaching its destination on Borneo, officials said.
The ship was making its way upriver to the port town of Sampit when flames broke out on the top passenger deck, assistant police Lt Suwarno said.
All passengers were believed to have been safely evacuated, said district chief Wahyudi Anwa. Four people were taken to hospital, he said.
The boat was approaching Sampit in the Mentaya river, around 500 miles north-east of Jakarta, when the fire started, said Mr Suwarno, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name.
The ferry had travelled from Surabaya, the provincial capital of East Java, to Central Kalimantan on the Indonesian half of Borneo, with at least 706 passengers and 22 crew.
Boats are a main source of transportation in Indonesia, a vast archipelago with more than 17,000 islands. Overcrowding and poorly enforced safety standards cause frequent accidents.
ScienceDaily (May 16, 2008) — A large quantity of nitrogen compounds -- emitted into the atmosphere by humans through the burning of fossil fuels and the use of nitrogen fertilizers -- enters the oceans and may lead to the removal of some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, concluded a team of international scientists led by Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences Robert Duce.
The team of 30 experts from institutions around the world presented its conclusions in the current issue of the journal Science.
Human-caused atmospheric nitrogen compounds are carried by wind and deposited into the ocean, where they act as a fertilizer and lead to increased production of marine plant life. The increase in plant life causes more carbon dioxide to be drawn from the atmosphere into the ocean. This process results in the removal of about 10 percent of the human-caused carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thus potentially reducing the climate warming potential, according to the team's paper.
However, some of the nitrogen deposited in the ocean is re-processed to form another nitrogen compound called nitrous oxide, which is then released back into the atmosphere from the ocean. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas itself -- about 300 times more powerful per molecule than carbon dioxide -- thus cancelling out about two-thirds of the apparent gain from the carbon dioxide removal, Duce explained. "But of course, the whole system is so complex that we're still rather unsure about what some of the other impacts might be within the ocean," he said.
In most areas of the ocean, nitrogen is the nutrient that limits the production of plant life, Duce said. So when all of the nitrogen in an area of the surface ocean is used up, no more plant life forms in that area. The team found that human-caused nitrogen deposits account for up to one-third of the external input of nitrogen into the ocean, and this increase in nitrogen available for the production of plant life causes more plants to form, Duce explained.
Oceanic plant life is produced from marine carbon (bicarbonate) in the ocean, and that amount of bicarbonate is in equilibrium with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So when more bicarbonate is used up to produce marine plant life, it disrupts the equilibrium, and carbon dioxide is drawn down to the ocean from the atmosphere to restore the balance, Duce explained.
Thus, the human-caused nitrogen fertilization of the ocean removes some of the most important greenhouse gas -- carbon dioxide -- from the atmosphere, Duce said. This gain, however, is offset by the nitrogen compound, nitrous oxide, that also forms in the ocean due to the nitrogen fertilization and is re-emitted into the atmosphere as a powerful greenhouse gas, he added.
"If you don't consider the impact of human-caused nitrogen when trying to model climate change, you're missing a possibly significant part of the overall carbon cycle as well as the nitrogen cycle," Duce said. "So nitrogen deposition is potentially a very important factor in the climate change issue."
According to the team's calculations, about 54 million tons of nitrogen produced from human activities entered the ocean from the atmosphere in the year 2000. The team also found that the current nitrogen emissions are about 10 times what they were in 1860, Duce said. He added that the amount of nitrogen entering the atmosphere is expected to rise in the coming decades with the increase in demand for energy and fertilizers, and the team estimates that by the year 2030, human-caused nitrogen emissions will have risen to around 62 million tons per year.
"Clearly, there is much that we do not know about the extent and timescale of the impacts of this nitrogen deposition on the oceans and the subsequent feedbacks to the climate system," Duce said. "The implications are complex and interactive, and this is a very important issue that policy makers need to address and that scientists trying to model and understand the future of climate and climate change need to take into consideration."
A recent arrest in Crane County is keeping some storm chasers out of that part of West Texas.
You may recall last week, we showed you that Deputy arresting a professional storm chaser who was helping the Weather Service, and had refused to leave the area.
Now, the head of one storm chasing group says many professionals and volunteers plan to avoid Crane County in the future.
Those volunteers and professionals associated with the National Association of Storm Chasers and Spotters or NASCAS is the group we've been speaking with.
The acting Director, Warren Faidley, says in 20 years he's never had any problems with law enforcement.
In fact, he says troopers and officers have welcomed their help during times of severe weather, because they're helping protect the public.
Faidley tells NewsWest Nine they're going to avoid Crane County in the future, because they believe another arrest is immenent if they go there.
"Well, I think the main reason we're upset is because there were numerous witnesses and also video. So there was very little question of what actually occurred. I think with that kind of information you can draw a pretty fair conclusion. So, a lot of people I've spoken to from storm spotters to storm chasers and just everybody in between from researchers to news people from out of the area are pretty much going to try to avoid the area," Faidley said.
The Sheriff's Office has maintained the Deputy was in the right, and that the storm chaser was obstructing the highway, which is a Class B Misdemeanor.
Crane County does have its own volunteers from that area, but as Faidley says it's always good to have a professional organization assisting with the process when lives are in danger.
Only time will tell what affect this may have on Crane County when severe weather hits there in the future.
A MAJOR salvage operation was underway last night to lift a £40,000 yacht which sank in the Menai Strait as its owner celebrated his 60th birthday.
Trevor Shirley was spending the weekend with his wife at Anglesey’s Gazelle hotel as a treat, when his precious boat slipped beneath the waves.
The couple had launched the yacht from Beaumaris on Friday, and sailed her in the Puffin Island area before mooring her opposite the hotel, where she could be seen in her full glory.
But when they came down from breakfast on Sunday the boat – called the Hindsight – had disappeared from view.
Mr Shirley, from Warrington, had spent the winter refitting the yacht to a gleaming condition.
Hotel owner Mary Brain was serving breakfast on Sunday morning when the couple realised something was wrong.
"They came down for breakfast and said let’s go and have look at the boat, but it wasn’t there," said Mary.
"It was launched on Friday and it must have gone down on Saturday night or Sunday morning," she said.
The couple were devastated when they realised that the mast sticking out of the water was the vessel that was their pride and joy.
A salvage team from Beaumaris Marine Services was called and divers checked the stricken vessel on Monday morning and sealed the fuel tanks.
Diver Scott Waterman from Quest Diving, Menai Bridge, inspected the hull on his first dive.
"The water was very clear on Monday and the sea was flat calm," said Scott, who has been involved in three other similar rescues.
"It was obvious the vessel hadn’t been involved in a collision as the hull was completely intact.
"She was still on the mooring but that hadn’t fouled so the reason for the sinking is still unknown," he said.
On Wednesday Scott and his team fixed lifting strops to the boat’s hull and attached 12 tonne flotation bags.
"We took gas down there and inflated the bags until she started to lift and that pulled her off the bottom," said Scott.
"Timing was quite important because it has to be done at slack water otherwise the boat’s volume causes too much drag," he said.
Yesterday onlookers praised the salvage team for their efforts as the boat partially resurfaced back into view.
"The boat came up in the upright position which is also very important for bringing it back to shore," said Scott.
As the high tide ebbed the salvage team were able to pump the water out of her hull and were hoping to refloat her on the next high tide today (Thursday).
Mr Shirley, who had spent months refurbishing his boat was to upset too talk about the incident but the salvage team believe the boat can be repaired.
Both the F.B.I. and Bermuda authorities boarded Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Dawn this morning to begin their joint investigation into what exactly happened to Mindy Jordan, the 46-year-old New Jersey woman who went overboard last Sunday night, according to The Royal Gazette, one of Bermuda's major newspapers.
The ship arrived as scheduled at Bermuda's King's Wharf this morning, a few minutes after 8 a.m. EDT. Passengers were allowed to debark within a short period of time.
Other than that, very little is known at this time. The Bermuda authorities and the F.B.I. are conducting interviews and forensic examinations to help determine the cause of the accident, and the Coast Guard is conducting a Marine Casualty probe to determine what part, if any, the ship or the cruise line played in this tragedy.
According to a report on the Asbury Park Press' Web site, F.B.I. spokesman Jim Margolin said "Among the things we're going to try to determine is whether a crime occurred," adding that he isn't certain how long that might take. Also, according to the news story, certain items were taken from the home of Jordan's mother after she was interviewed, including photographs allegedly showing Jordan with bruises inflicted by Caputo.
Cruise Critic member Robhink is onboard Dawn and claims that the investigation on the ship has been low-key and quiet, especially for people who are not on the 9th deck, where the accident took place.
"There were a couple [of] other interesting items that I'm sure will be brought up in reviews of this cruise after it's over," Robhink posts on the Norwegian Cruise Line forum, "such as leaking in and around the casino area from the large (40+ foot waves) that were hitting the ship yesterday."
Coincidentally, Norwegian Dawn was the ship that was hit with a nearly 70-foot rogue wave near the Bahamas almost exactly three years ago.
Spokespersons for the cruise line were unable to provide additional information about the investigation at this time. We will continue to monitor the situation and bring you updates as they are made available to us.
The skills shortage has hit crisis levels in South Africa's maritime industry, MPs heard on Wednesday.
"There is a chronic, chronic shortage of skills," SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) CEO Tsietsi Mokhele told parliament's transport portfolio committee.
Briefing members on challenges facing the local maritime industry, he said many highly-skilled marine personnel had reached, or were about to reach, retirement age, resulting in an increasing dependence on expensive expatriate labour.
"Every entity I know of in the maritime industry is battling with attracting the right maritime skills. As a result, we are spending two-to-three times more than what we should be paying."
Mokhele said implementation of transformation initiatives in the maritime sector had been "hugely lacking" compared to other industries.
"As a result, there hasn't been an infusion of skills into the industry," he said.
A well-placed source in the maritime industry, who declined to be named, told Sapa the skills shortage was a huge problem.
"But it's not exactly breaking news... the problem has been looming for the past 15 years, and everyone in the sector has seen this coming and done next to nothing about it.
"The local shipping industry has put little into training; government has done little to promote maritime training; and, now, there are no replacements for those skilled people who are retiring.
"Affirmative action has also had a negative impact on South Africa's harbours, with unsuitable candidates selected for many of the training courses, resulting in a huge drop-out rate," the source said.
Mokhele told the committee that government had given "inadequate attention" to the country's maritime industry.
There was a lack of policy on the maritime transport sector, and a lack of support and incentive programmes for key maritime industries and initiatives.
"From a competitive point of view, if one looks at shipbuilding and repair, South Africa has a huge advantage. The country has a huge industrial base in terms of steel... and [labour]... but there aren't targeted incentive programmes to drive [this]," he said.
Mokhele also told MPs that South Africa's Shipping Register -- the official list of merchant vessels flying the national flag -- was outdated and uncompetitive.
"Today, I come here to report there is only one ship left on the register, and that one, I am told, could be de-commissioned at any time now. This is compared to 60 vessels in 1990."
He also warned of a lack of technological capacity to monitor foreign vessels in South African waters.
"Our capacity to track and monitor vessels at sea is non-existent," Mokhele said.
This had become clear during the recent incident involving the Chinese vessel carrying arms for Zimbabwe. The authorities were unable to say where the ship was headed, or pinpoint its position after it left Durban harbour.
Further, South Africa was lagging when it came to installing a Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system, which it was required to do, in terms of international agreement, by January 1 next year.
LRIT is a satellite-based security system used for tracking the movement of large ships around the globe. In terms of agreement, South Africa is obliged to implement the system to monitor shipping passing within 1000 nautical miles (about 1500km) of its coastline.
"Unfortunately, as a country, I don't think we've done the basic work...We don't have the technology."
Initial estimates were that installing the up to 150 base stations required would cost about R75 million.
Mokhele said Samsa was preparing a plan to tackle this matter, which would be ready in August for presenting to government. - Sap
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) seeks comments on a plan to transition the installed base of codeless and semi-codeless Global Positioning System (GPS) user equipment to next-generation equipment utilizing the modernized civil GPS signals known as L2C and L5. Comments should be submitted by June 16. 73 Fed. Reg. 28433 (May 16, 2008).
WEATHER NOTE
Teddy Allen: Time to play 'Name That Storm' Got any balsa wood I can borrow?
It's Wednesday, a little after five in the morning, and I am writing, for the first time, while wearing a life preserver, somewhat disconcerting considering I am sitting in the front room of my home.
My kingdom for a kayak.
This will most likely be the final effort of mine. Flood and all. I don't do good writing underwater. So let me take this moment to say I've enjoyed all our experiences together. On dry land. Back when there was some.
It is not raining sheets. It is raining blankets and comforters. Entire bedroom suites.
I don't know whether (weather?) to try to send you these words through the Thursday newspaper, which we will probably have to print on bamboo or Styrofoam, or just float it to your driveway in a bottle.
It's raining cats and dogs. It's raining the whole barnyard. It's raining everything but the kitchen sink and the cattle trough.
If you're lucky enough to have a Bible and a boatload of cypress wood handy, consult Genesis 6 for all your ark-building instruction needs. (I'm swimming toward your house with my hammer as soon as I'm done here.)
Mesmerized as I am by the steady kathump kathump kathump of the windshield wipers on my typewriter, my mind has wandered to the "2008 hurricane and tropical storm names list," which I thumbed through recently, when my hands were dry and my fingertips didn't look like prunes. And I can't help but notice: We have a shot for Hurricane Teddy, interesting to me since that's my name. (Teddy, not Hurricane. My middle name is Wind Gust.)
Arthur is the first name on the list, followed by Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly and Edouard. An eclectic list it is. Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred bring up the rear.
Here are the questions:
When there's a hurricane named after you, do you hope it fizzles out in the Atlantic or do you hope it blows its way into the record books? A fellow meteorologist friend of mine named Donnie Golfgame posed this very inquiry to me.
"I'm not sure where I stand on wanting my namesake hurricane to 'measure up,'" he said. I agree. For the past couple of years, a lot of Louisiana people aren't too happy their parents named them Katrina, I imagine. (Especially if they're men.)
By the way, Hurricane Don is set for 2011, so my man has four years to sweat it out. I'll know if I'm a dud or a stud, storm-wise, by the end of the summer.
My other question:
If there's a good reason behind naming hurricanes, why don't we name tornadoes, storms or showers in general? Why not give them some pub? I feel Wednesday's "storm event" was worthy of some proper noun notice, don't you?
Frank Flood? Flood Event Frank?
Work with me here ... .
How about Sunrise Sam or Sunset Sylvia?
"How about," Donnie said to me, "Hailstorm Harry. Or skip the alliteration and it could be Snowstorm Bill. On the other hand, like Summer Shower Shakespeare said, 'What's in a name?,' anyway?"
Plenty of water, that's what, if the storm is anything like Wednesday's, which started Tuesday.
Quick story: About 8:30 Tuesday night, when the home opener of the Shreveport Sports was officially postponed due to rain and lightning, the Sports' home clubhouse attendants, good guys (and, fortunately, good swimmers) were dispatched to pick up 36 CiCi's pizzas, a postgame spread for the home and visiting teams. Unfortunately, on their way back to the ballpark, their car stalled in high water — as did the pizzas, which were left floating, abandoned on the deep end of a Hearne Avenue intersection. Too bad the postgame spread wasn't fish.
Ouch.
We're talking water deserving of a name. Freddie Flood?
What about Donald Drought. Felicia Famine?
Tsunami could be tricky. Is that a Tsunami Tommy or a Tsunami Sue?
Just wondering. You can get back to me on it. When you're done dog-paddling.
CAMP EDWARDS — The weather during yesterday's hurricane was beautiful.
Despite the clear conditions, participants in a storm simulation at the Massachusetts Military Reservation prepared for the worst. Not far from the barracks that housed evacuees from Hurricane Katrina three years earlier, emergency officials tested a traffic plan for Conan, a fictitious hurricane that made virtual landfall on Cape Cod under yesterday's bright blue sky.
The exercise was the most realistic simulation yet of what would happen if there was a mass exodus from the Cape, organizers said. "This time, we've had a more formal update of the plan," said David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police, the lead agency in the plan's development.
The plan has been adjusted for recent changes, particularly the elimination of the Sagamore Rotary and the construction of the flyover in its place, Procopio said. "That has been historically the cork in the bottle," he said.
If a storm such as Conan approached, state police would shut down the Route 6 Exit 1 on-ramp at the bottom of the Sagamore Bridge to keep traffic flowing steadily off-Cape, according to the plan.
If the bridges over the Cape Cod Canal are closed or damaged, motorists attempting to leave the peninsula on Route 28 or Route 6 would be redirected onto the military reservation.
While there were some bugs to fix — including communications foul-ups and misplaced personnel — that was the point, officials said. "This is what brings a theoretical application in a book and on paper into reality," Robert Nadeau, director for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Region 2, told simulation participants gathered in a large room before the start of yesterday's drill.
Players in the simulation included the local chapter of the American Red Cross and Barnstable County emergency planning and response officials. Cadets from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy sat in as fake tourists foiled during an escape from the Cape.
Andrew Klein, an emergency management major at the academy, first became interested in disaster-response work after Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.
Klein was joined by 15 other cadets for yesterday's exercise. The blue-uniformed students were dropped off at the mess hall of one of the base's barracks with an assortment of simulated ailments and situations.
One was pregnant. Another had a broken leg. A third spoke only French.
Red Cross officials directed the "tourists" to different corners of the room for registration, translation services and medical attention.
Most of the cadets were escorted to barracks, where they were given supplies and a room.
"Three thousand is what these six dorms can handle," said Glen Beasley, executive director of the Cape's chapter of the Red Cross.
The rooms would normally hold between two and four soldiers, but mats and cots would increase the capacity to between four and six occupants, with a priority toward keeping families together, Beasley said.
Another dormitory would be set aside for pets in the event of a real storm, he said.
Patrick Cassidy can be reached at pcassidy@capecodonline.com.
Oxygen Depletion Zones In Tropical Oceans Expanding, Maybe Due To Global Warming ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) — Scientists confirm computer model predictions that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding, possibly because of climate change. An international team of physical oceanographers including a researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live or enter in search of food.
The new study is led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, and is co-authored by Janet Sprintall, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography and others. The researchers found through analysis of a database of ocean oxygen measurements that levels in tropical oceans at a depth of 300 to 700 meters (985 to 2,300 feet) have declined during the past 50 years. The ecological impacts of this increase could have substantial biological and economical consequences.
"We found the largest reduction in a depth of 300 to 700 meters (985 to 2,300 feet) in the tropical northeast Atlantic, whereas the changes in the eastern Indian Ocean were much less pronounced," said Stramma. "Whether or not these observed changes in oxygen can be attributed to global warming alone is still unresolved. The reduction in oxygen may also be caused by natural processes on shorter time scales."
Sprintall said the oxygen-poor areas have the potential to move into coastal areas via currents that flow from the mid-depth tropical oceans, where the oxygen changes were observed, and along the west coast of continents.
"The width of the low-oxygen zone is expanding deeper but also shoaling toward the ocean surface," said Sprintall, a specialist in observing changes of fluxes in ocean properties such as heat distribution.
Sprintall contributed data to the study gathered during recent cruises undertaken as part of the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) program, a long-running study operated by the World Climate Research Programme that seeks to understand climate through ocean-atmosphere interactions.
The study, "Expanding Oxygen-Minimum Zones in the Tropical Oceans," appears in the May 2 edition of the journal Science. The research team includes Stramma, Sprintall, NOAA scientist Gregory Johnson, and Volker Mohrholz from the Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde, Germany.
The team selected ocean regions for which they could obtain the greatest amount of data to document the decline in oxygen. Some of the more recent data came from oxygen sensors which have been added to about 150 of the profiling floats used in Argo, a worldwide network of sensors that track basic ocean conditions such as temperature and salinity. There are more than 3,000 Argo floats operating in the world's oceans, and Sprintall said the quality of the data gathered by the Argo floats suggests that more units in the network should be outfitted with oxygen sensors.
Lisa Levin, a biological oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography who studies oxygen-minimum zones that intercept the seafloor, said an expansion of oxygen-minimum zones in the oceans could lead to diminished biodiversity and to the expanded distributions of organisms that have adapted to live in hypoxic, or oxygen-poor waters.
"I think it's uncharted territory," said Levin, who was not affiliated with the study. "Thicker oxygen minimum zones could affect nutrient cycling, predator-prey relationships and plankton migrations. Where the expanding oxygen-minimum zones impinge on continental margins, we could see huge ecosystem changes."
The results of the study are an important milestone for the ongoing work of the new Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 754) "Climate -- Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean" funded by the German Research Foundation, which started its first phase in January 2008 in close cooperation with the University of Kiel. The SFB aims to better define the interactions between climate and biogeochemistry on a quantitative basis.
Events in this list are picked up from multiple sources and automatically analyzed by a computer program to determine the likelihood of humanitarian intervention. News, damage maps and humanitarian situation reports are collected automatically from over 1000 on-line sources.
ARVADA - Images of tornadoes captured by storm chasers often show a funnel of destruction as it rolls towards or through communities.
Sean Casey is trying to take storm chasing one step further. He's trying to get inside of a twister, and it's all for what he calls "the shot."
"We want to get the shot no one has gotten before and that's a tornado coming directly at us and impacting us," said Casey.
9NEWS caught up with Casey last month in Arvada. He was overseeing construction and fine-tuning of the TIV2. The second version of the Tornado Intercept Vehicle weighs 16,500 pounds (by comparison the average SUV or truck weighs around 4,000 pounds), boasts bulletproof windows and a specially designed chassis that will help protect the vehicle and the four passengers it can carry when it tries to penetrate a tornado.
"There are special panels that are driven down to the ground when it's time to intercept. They'll help shield us and probably more importantly prevent the wind from getting underneath the TIV and picking us up," said Casey.
All the protection and preparation for the TIV, which Casey estimates cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to construct, is for an IMAX documentary on severe weather. Casey has been chasing storms for the past six years, trying to capture the shot of a tornado passing over his vehicle. He's been in seven previous tornados, but "the shot" has eluded him.
"Event though we've been in seven tornados with this vehicle (referring to TIV1), those were too weak or they happened at night, there was always something wrong," said Casey.
In pursuit of the "right" tornado, Casey says he needed a more agile vehicle. TIV1 was a two-wheel drive vehicle. TIV2, with a retrofitted super diesel engine from Arvada-based ATS Diesel Performance, is a 10-wheel drive vehicle. Casey says it will help the storm chasing team overcome rough terrain.
"The old vehicle was two-wheel drive, so whenever we went down a dirt road trying to get to a tornado, that thing would get stuck in the mud and we'd be done for the day," Casey said.
For Casey, the images of inside a tornado are the ones he needs to get the necessary funding for the documentary.
"Everyone has seen what a tornado looks like, but not inside. We're trying to take people point blank to where they've never been. Without that shot, it won't sell," said Casey.
So he and his crew have, for the past five years, spent two months on the road eating junk food, driving tens of thousands of miles and trying to get intercept the right twister. Casey's motivation is movie-making.
Joshua Wurman, although just as enthusiastic, is motivated by the scientific aspects to be extracted from Casey's endeavors.
"The goal is to understand the differences between thunderstorms that make strong tornadoes and the ones that don't," said Wurman.
Wurman is a scientist at the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder. He will follow Casey in a separate truck with a mobile Doppler radar system. He will help the TIV2 navigate towards a tornado, and perhaps more importantly, Wurman says, communicate with Casey and crew on when not to head towards one.
Wurman is hoping the TIV2 and its capabilities will help gather data on a tornado's most destructive and least understood zone: the lower 30 feet.
"In order to fill that gap, those really important pieces of the puzzle about what's going on at the lowest level of the tornado, we're using a combination of unmanned pods and the TIV," said Wurman.
He's hoping the TIV and the pods will collect data on wind speeds and details of the destruction the lower zone produces. While many may see the endeavor as a thrill seeking ride, Wurman argues otherwise. He says the risks the team is taking will hopefully one day minimize the ones everyday people may face when a tornado strikes.
"By understanding the strong winds inside the tornado we can learn better how tornadoes do damage, just how strong the winds are in the strongest tornados, how do they relate to the types of damage that occur. We can build better structures in the future so they can better resist tornado damage so that people don't die inside when a tornado hits," said Wurman.
So far this year, nearly 100 people have died in the aftermath of tornadoes. It's the largest number of deaths associated with tornado activity since 1998 when 130 people died, according to the National Weather Service.
One crewman died Monday after gale force winds and giant waves damaged a specialized research ship launched in March to study Delaware's offshore wind power resources.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Nick Cangemi said one of two crew members rescued by helicopter from the the RV Russell W. Peterson did not have any vital signs when pulled from the ship, reportedly after one of its tripod supporting legs had broken while the ship was propped out of the water.
"We took both people to the hospital in Maryland, where the hospital declared one of the gentlemen deceased," Cangemi said.
They were taken to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury.
The ship, dispatched by a New Jersey company working for wind power developer Bluewater Wind LLC, was left adrift and ran aground off Bethany Beach. It ran into trouble on a day when the Coast Guard reported five rescues and a series of distress calls as winds in excess of 50 mph battered the coast.
Cangemi said the Coast Guard's Philadelphia office would investigate. He added that he could not say Monday if the Peterson was attempting to move to shore at the time of the accident, or if its unusual design and shallow hull were suited for heavy seas.
The Peterson is a type of boat that can raise itself out of the water on supporting legs, or "spuds."
"It was reported that the spuds were down and one had broken," Cangemi said. "Whether or not they were actively engaged [in moving] I have no idea."
The Coast Guard will investigate whether the Peterson should have operated at sea under the conditions that developed Monday morning.
"They'll take into account the type of vessel, what types of waves and sea state it's rated for, and also take into account the pilot of that boat, the previous record and experience in the area, all those things are taken into account," Cangemi said.
Officials with New Jersey-based Aqua Survey Inc., the boat's operator, and Bluewater declined immediate comment on the incident, as did Collin Clement, who skippered the boat to Delaware in March but was not aboard Monday.
Ken Hayes, Aqua Survey's president, released a brief statement Monday saying that the Peterson had two captains aboard at the time of the accident.
"I can't say anything about it," Clement said during a brief telephone interview.
Jim Lanard, a spokesman for Bluewater Wind, said late Monday the crewman who died was from another state. He declined to say where the surviving captain was from.
"While we're committed to building the Delaware offshore wind park, now is not the time to be addressing any other issues than sharing the family's grief and mourning," Lanard said.
The Peterson, a former Gulf Coast oil industry service boat, was working 14 miles off Rehoboth Beach on Monday when a fast-growing coastal storm whipped up 19-foot and higher waves -- triple their earlier height -- in a few hours not far from the accident scene.
Those waves grew to a height of nearly 21 feet after the accident, heights never recorded in May since a federal data buoy began recording conditions in 1986. Only a few dozen larger waves have been recorded at the buoy, 28 miles southeast of Cape May, N.J., and then only in January or February.
The Peterson, a 25-year-old research vessel that had seen service in the Gulf of Mexico, was renamed March 29 and sent to sea to support Bluewater Wind LLC's efforts to build a 150-turbine offshore wind farm in Atlantic waters east of Delaware.
Features of the boat include three 70-foot legs that can be lowered to the ocean floor, creating a tripod that can lift the boat out of the water for stability during research measurements. Those legs appeared damaged when the boat came to rest Monday at Bethany Beach.
The boat sent out a distress call at 8:46 a.m. while trying to negotiate swells of 12 to 14 feet, in winds that were were blowing at 30 to 40 knots. Coast Guard officials did not say if the boat's tripod legs were deployed at the time.
"Aqua Survey is not releasing names at this point," Hayes, Aqua Survey's president, said. "Our hearts and prayers are with the family and friends of the lost mariner."
A FERRY capsized overnight off the coast of Haiti, killing at least 20 people, including five children, and leaving dozens more missing.
"Haitian police and peacekeepers from the UN mission in Haiti have recovered the bodies of some 20 victims. The search continues," police inspector-general Fritz Jean said.
"Five children aged two to five perished in the shipwreck," said Evil Lavilette, mayor of south-western Pestel, from where the ferry set out for Port-au-Prince.
"Among the victims, 11 bodies have been deposited at the capital's university hospital morgue," the mayor said, adding that other victims' remains were taken to a hospital in nearby Gressier.
"There are some survivors, but we lack precise information on the number of people travelling aboard the ferry at the time of the accident. There is no authority controlling maritime transport," Mr Lavilette said in Port-au-Prince.
More than 100 people were aboard the vessel, according to police.
Member of parliament Accluche Louis-Jeune said there were as many as 200 passengers aboard the ferry when it sank about 11pm yesterday, a few kilometres from Port-au-Prince.
"At the moment, no survivors have been rescued," the MP said.
Mayor Lavilette said: "The ship's captain waited in vain for the Haitian coast guard to come to the rescue" of his passengers, many of whom were shop owners and their families.
He said the ferry was named Praise the Lord.
The accident comes a little over a year after the May 4, 2007 capsizing of a sailboat ferrying immigrants from Haiti to the US.
Fifty-nine people drowned and 78 survived in that accident in shark-infested waters near the Turks and Caicos archipelago.
My name is Jay Cafasso and I am a retired hazardous mateials specialist and corporate executive. I am also a NWS advanced storm spotter. Robin Storm seeks to educate the public regarding severe weather as well as scientifically intercept and observe severe storm.
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