Science Daily September 8, 2020 To develop the models researchers at the University of Central Florida linked large-scale climate variability events, such as El Niño, to variability in storm surge activity. They tested the models by having them predict past storm surge variability and compared their predictions with what actually occurred. The results indicated that the models matched the overall trends and variability of storm surge indicators for almost all coastal regions of the U.S during both the tropical and extra-tropical storm seasons. According to the researchers there is some capability in predicting storm surge variability over inter-annual to decadal […]
Category Archives: Climatology
Atlantic hurricanes linked to weather system in East Asia
Science Daily August 7, 2020 A team of researchers in the US (University of Iowa, Princeton University) has identified an association between the East Asian Subtropical Jet Stream (EASJ) during July–October and the frequency of Atlantic tropical cyclones during August–November based on observations for 1980–2018. According to the researchers the Rossby waves hitch a ride on the EASJ to the North Atlantic when tropical cyclones in the Atlantic are most likely to form. The waves affect wind shear, a key element in the formation of tropical storms. Rossby waves form within the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere because of the planet’s […]
Past evidence supports complete loss of Arctic sea-ice by 2035
Science Daily August 10, 2020 Climate model simulations have previously failed to capture elevated temperatures, possibly because they were unable to correctly capture Last Interglacial (LIG) sea-ice changes. An international team of researchers (UK, Canada, USA- University of Washington) shows that the latest version of the fully coupled UK Hadley Center climate model (HadGEM3) simulates a more accurate Arctic LIG climate, including elevated temperatures. Improved model physics, including a sophisticated sea-ice melt-pond scheme, results in a complete simulated loss of Arctic sea ice in summer during the LIG, which has yet to be simulated in past generations of models. This […]
Agriculture – a climate villain? Maybe not!
Science Daily July 7, 2020 The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agriculture has affirmed that one of the main sources of greenhouse gases. According to the researchers in Sweden agriculture produces a significant amount of negative greenhouse gases, and it is important to reduce this in a sustainable manner. Carbon dioxide is caught by crops that, in turn, produce oxygen and at the same time binds carbon in roots and shoots. One part of this C transforms into soil organic C. But the main part transforms into harvested crops, that is, cereals like wheat and other carbohydrate products […]
Computing collaboration reveals global ripple effect of shifting monsoons
Phys.org June 29, 2020 An international team of researchers (USA – Oak Ridge National Laboratory, UCLA, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Senegal, Rwanda, Pakistan) used an ensemble of regional climate model (RCM) projections over seven regional CORDEX domains to provide an elaborate set of projections to date that illustrates possible futures for major monsoon regions. Each simulation covers the period from 1970 through 2100. They found that the weakening of latent heat driven atmospheric warming during the pre-monsoon period delays the overturning of atmospheric subsidence in the monsoon regions, which defers their transitioning into deep convective states. This causes […]
Warnings Issued as Unusually Thick Cloud of Saharan Dust Approaches The US
Science Alert June 25, 2020 The dust cloud swept across the Atlantic from Africa over the past week, covering the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico since Sunday and hitting south Florida on Wednesday. Powered by strong winds, dust from the Sahara travels across the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa during the boreal spring. But the density of the current dust cloud over Cuba is well above normal levels. The dust clouds are loaded with minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorous, silicon and mercury, and viruses, bacteria, fungi, pathogenic mites, staphylococci and organic pollutants…read more.
A Devastating US ‘Dust Bowl’ Is Twice as Likely Now Than During The Great Depression
Science Alert May 19, 2020 During 1930s Dust Bowl drought across North America’s Great Plains caused widespread crop failures, large dust storms and considerable out-migration. This coincided with the central United States experiencing its hottest summers of the twentieth century in 1934 and 1936, with over 40 heatwave days and maximum temperatures surpassing 44 °C at some locations. According to an international team of researchers (Australia, UK, Sweden) heatwave activity in similarly rare events would be much larger under today’s atmospheric green house gas forcing the return period of a 1-in-100-year heatwave summer (as observed in 1936) would be reduced to […]
Long-term data show hurricanes are getting stronger
Science Daily May 18, 2020 Previous work by a team of researchers at NOAA identified trends in hurricane intensification across a 28-year data set. To increase confidence in the results, the researchers extended the study to include global hurricane data from 1979-2017. Using analytical techniques that rely on infrared temperature measurements from geostationary satellites to estimate hurricane intensity, they were able to create a more uniform data set to identify trends. They demonstrated that hurricanes are moving more slowly across land due to changes in Earth’s climate. This has resulted in greater flood risks as storms hover over cities and […]
A billion years missing from geologic record: Where it may have gone
Science Daily May 7, 2020 The Great Unconformity, as it is known, accounts for more than one billion years of missing rock in certain places. Scientists have developed several hypotheses to explain how, and when, this staggering amount of material may have been eroded. Using the ratio of helium to thorium and uranium in certain minerals as a paleo-thermometer a team of researchers in the US (University of Colorado, UC Santa Barbara) tracked how rock moved in the crust as it was buried and eroded through the ages. They extracted grains of a particularly resilient mineral, zircon, from the stone […]
Potentially fatal combinations of humidity and heat are emerging across the globe
Science Daily May 8, 2020 Humans’ ability to efficiently shed heat has enabled us to range over every continent, but a wet-bulb temperature (TW) of 35°C marks our upper physiological limit, and much lower values have serious health and productivity impacts. An international team of researchers (USA – Caltech. Columbia University, UK) found that a comprehensive evaluation of weather station data shows that some coastal subtropical locations have already reported a TW of 35°C and that extreme humid heat overall has more than doubled in frequency since 1979. The most extreme humid heat is highly localized in both space and […]