The Great Red Comet -Earth Science Chronicles

East Coast Flooding from Ida

2009-11-13T08:08:00.001-06:00

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Remnants of Tropical Storm Ida pounded the East Coast on Friday, flooding coastal areas in New Jersey after slamming the Carolinas and Virginia.

Strong wind and waves were causing severe beach erosion along the New Jersey shore, but the rain was not as heavy as predicted which could help ease the flooding.

Many streets were under water in Cape May County, which was under a state of emergency. Although officials suggested voluntary evacuations of low-lying areas late Thursday, there was no immediate word of any mandatory evacuations.

Artificial Snowstorms Wreak Havoc in Beijing

2009-11-12T08:24:00.001-06:00

Chinese scientists have artificially induced the second major snowstorm to wreak havoc in Beijing this season, state media said today, reigniting debate over the practice of tinkering with Mother Nature.

After the earliest snow to hit the capital in 22 years fell on November 1, the capital was again shrouded in white yesterday with more snow expected in the coming three days, the National Meteorological Centre said.

The China Daily, citing an unnamed official, said the Beijing Weather Modification Office had artificially induced both storms by seeding clouds with chemicals, a practice that can increase precipitation by up to 20 per cent.

The office refused to comment on the report when contacted by AFP.

Deadly hurricane takes aim at United States

2009-11-09T08:23:00.001-06:00

MIAMI — Hurricane Ida took aim at the United States and oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday after causing flooding and landslides that killed 124 people in El Salvador.
Ida, which was downgraded to a category one storm early Monday, crossed the Gulf of Mexico after brushing past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula though no casualties or damage was reported in the popular resort of Cancun.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the US Gulf coast from Mississippi Florida. A tropical storm warning was also in effect for sections of the Florida.
Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center said the storm's maximum winds had decreased to 90 miles (150 kilometers) an hour, down from 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour just a few hours before.

124 dead after Hurricane Ida mudslide buries entire town in El Salvador

2009-11-09T08:17:00.000-06:00

Sixty people remain missing after a mudslide buried a town in El Salvador yesterday.
Soldiers and residents searched through rock and debris for survivors after the town of Verapaz was swallowed by mud as it swept down the side of the Chichontepec volcano early yesterday morning.
The disaster was part of a series of floods and landslides that have killed at least 124 people, after days of heavy rain caused indirectly by Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc across Central America.

Image Above: Residents of Verapaz in El Salvador search through rubble for survivors after the town was buried by a mudslide early yesterday morning. Today sixty people remain missing

Hong Kong Cold Blast

2009-11-03T14:18:00.000-06:00

Temperatures are set to plunge tomorrow as strong winds blow in from the mainland - as boffins in Beijing claim credit for an early cold snap that caused chaos for many Hong Kong travelers.Four Hong Kong-Beijing flights were canceled and 21 delayed yesterday as the capital felt the full blast of a strong cold front that has pushed temperatures to below zero.
The blizzard - the earliest to hit the capital in 40 years - was caused by "artificial means," according to state media which quoted the Beijing Weather Modification Office.
"We won't miss any opportunity for artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from a lingering drought," said Zhang Qiang, who is in charge of the office.
Zhang said that, according to preliminary calculations, more than 16 million tonnes of snow had been artificially created.
"We have used a total of 186 doses of silver iodide since 8pm on Saturday," she said.
The Hong Kong Observatory is forecasting temperatures will drop as low as 17 degrees Celsius tomorrow as a cold front moves in on Guangdong.
Observatory scientific officer Tong Yu-fai said the dip in temperatures over the next few days is related to the cold front hitting Beijing.

Misery for 1.5 million a month after Philippine storms

2009-10-27T15:23:00.000-05:00

MANILA (AFP) – More than 1.5 million people are struggling to live in flooded suburbs or crowded shelters one month after devastating rains began pounding the Philippines, and officials warn no quick fix is in sight.
The impoverished Southeast Asian nation faces a huge long-term battle to recover from the two storms that claimed at least 929 lives in Manila and other parts of the main Luzon island, the government and relief organisations said. Image: Residents of Makati in rain brought by Typhoon Ondoy (Photo by Dennison Uy)

"The storms and torrential rains... have left the people of the Philippines facing one of the greatest challenges in memory," the UN's World Food Programme director, Josette Sheeran, said during a weekend visit to Manila.

After tropical storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than 40 years on Manila on September 26, entire districts remain waist-deep in water and piles of flood debris still litter other parts of the capital.

In mountainous areas of northern Luzon that were pummelled by 10 days of torrential rain from tropical storm Parma which arrived a week later, villages remain ghost towns after being hit by landslides.
The World Health Organisation says 1.43 million people, mostly in and around Manila, continue to endure a dangerous existence living in flooded districts.

Start planning for refugees from Pacific warming

2009-10-20T08:37:00.000-05:00

Pacific islands in danger of being obliterated by rising sea levels should seek aid for relocation at a crunch UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, a Fiji-based scientist said. "By 2100, I don't see how many islands will be habitable," professor Patrick Nunn, a climate change researcher at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji said ahead of the opening of a regional climate change conference Monday.
Nunn is chairing the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable meeting in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro, where 14 Pacific countries and territories are devising their strategy for the December conference.
New scientific projections showed that sea levels were rising faster than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected in its 2007 report, Nunn said.
"We're now looking at a more than one metre (three feet) sea-level rise by the end of the century," he said.

Hurricane Rick reaches Cat 5 off Mexico

2009-10-19T08:16:00.001-05:00

MIAMI -- Hurricane Rick has become an "extremely dangerous" Category 5 storm off Mexico's Pacific coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm is now packing sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph) and it could threaten the Baja California peninsula next week.

Rick was centered about 290 miles (470 kilometers) south of the port of Manzanillo, west of Acapulco, on Saturday afternoon and was moving northwest near 15 mph (24 kph).

Forecasters expect it to stay well off the coast for several days before bending east over cooler waters and hitting the peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane sometime Wednesday.

Astronomers capture spectacular meteor footage and images

2009-10-15T11:45:00.000-05:00

Astronomers from The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada have released footage of a meteor that was approximately 100 times brighter than a full moon. The meteor lit up the skies of southern Ontario two weeks ago and Western astronomers are now hoping to enlist the help of local residents in recovering one or more possible meteorites that may have crashed in the area of Grimsby, Ontario.

"This particular meteorite fall, if any are found, is very important because its arrival was so well recorded. We have good camera records as well as radar and infrasound detections of the event, so that it will be possible to determine its orbit prior to collision with the Earth and to determine the energy of the fireball event," says McCausland. "We can also figure out where it came from and how it got here, which is rare. In all of history, only about a dozen meteorite falls have that kind of record."

The fireball was first detected by Western's camera systems at an altitude of 100 km over Guelph moving southeastwards at 20.8 km/s. The meteoroid was initially the size of a child's tricycle. Analysis of the all-sky camera records as well as data from Western's meteor radar and infrasound equipment indicates that this bright fireball was large enough to have dropped meteorites in a region south of Grimsby on the Niagara Peninsula, providing masses that may total as much as several kilograms.

“UFO halo” in the sky baffles Muscovites

2009-10-12T16:07:00.001-05:00

Millions of residents in Moscow witnessed a strange bright ring-shaped cloud hanging over the city’s western districts on Wednesday.

Scientists from the city’s weather forecast service say there is nothing supernatural about it, however.

“It’s a purely optical effect, even if a spectacular one. You can see really strange things if you watch the clouds regularly,” Vesti24 TV channel, which published a mobile phone camera video sent to them by an eyewitness, cites the service.

“Several air fronts have passed Moscow recently, including an inflow of cold air from Arctic, and they combined to produce such a phenomenon,” the source added.

India heading for worst drought since 1972

2009-09-25T19:27:00.000-05:00

NEW DELHI — India's monsoon was about 20 percent below strength just over a week before the official end of the rainy reason, putting the country on course for its worst drought since 1972, weather data showed Wednesday.
"Until September 21, for the country as a whole, the rain deficiency was 22 percent," said B.K. Bandopadhyay, a spokesman for the weather office.
"We expect the total rain deficiency will be roughly about 20 percent (at the end of the monsoon season). It depends on the rainfall, but it seems it will be around this number," he added.
Low rainfall early in the monsoon period ravaged India's rice, cane sugar and groundnut crops, and has disrupted the flow of water into the main reservoirs that are vital for hydropower generation and winter irrigation.
The drought is expected to dampen India's economic growth this year and has sent food prices rocketing, leading to huge hardship for India's poor masses.

Extreme weather batters Australia

2009-09-25T09:21:00.000-05:00

Fires in Queensland, flood warnings in Victoria, a foot of snow in the mountains and Sydney's BIGGEST DUST STORM IN LIVING MEMORY - this is Australia. Weather was the talking point across the continent on Wednesday, with a severe cold front delivering BIZARRE conditions. At Perisher, high in the NSW ski fields, they are expecting a spring blast of snow, anticipating up to a foot of snow by Saturday or Sunday.

In southeast Queensland, firefighters worked to snuff out blazes on the Sunshine Coast. High temperatures and gusty winds have prompted authorities to impose a total fire ban through almost half of Queensland. In Victoria, the opposite is playing out with a maximum of 15 degrees predicted for Saturday.

While it's been a little calmer in Perth, the conditions have still been odd. Winter rain that has continued into September in Australia's southwest has meteorologists searching the record books to find a longer spell of unbroken wet weather. Perth's Wellington Dam on Tuesday broke through the 50 per cent mark for the first time in 12 years and 11 of the southwest's 23 dams are overflowing. Long-standing Perth residents cannot remember such unseasonal rain, while the weather bureau says this month's falls represent THE LONGEST RECORDED STRETCH OF DAILY SEPTEMBER RAIN SINCE 1915.

The rain is predicted to return next week. Meanwhile, up to 120mm of rain fell in some areas of Tasmania in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday. The downpour caused flooding and cut power to more than 1,000 homes. The heavy rain, which was forecast to ease in the afternoon, comes after one of the state's WETTEST WINTERS ON RECORD.

Stifling dust bad omen for future

2009-09-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

CANBERRA - The vast dust clouds driven by violent storms that turned the skies of New South Wales and Queensland red yesterday may be a harbinger of things to come.
Weather forecasters are predicting another storm front for tomorrow, and warn that an emerging El Nino and land dehydrated by a decade of drought could produce a series of storms ripping topsoil from Australia's fragile interior.
There have already been three large dust storms in the past three weeks in the region around South Australia's vast Lake Eyre - where much of yesterday's dust was generated - and last week clouds of granulated red earth were blown to New Zealand.

Image: Sydney's Luna Park is bathed in an orange glow as a giant cloud of red dust blows through New South Wales. Photo / Getty Images

Prolonged Rain to Blame for Atlanta Flood

2009-09-23T12:11:00.000-05:00

While the devastation from recent floods in Atlanta, Georgia, looks like the result of a storm that formed over tropical waters, the floods are actually the result of prolonged and steady rains. Rains have been drenching the city for about eight days because weather conditions have caused storms to stick in place. So that, in part, is what has caused the severe flooding -- not torrential rains or high winds, often associated with stronger tropical storms, which form over oceans instead of land. "This is something that's really impacting a lot of people and scientifically, it's an event that we don't see too often here in Atlanta -- especially when it's not connected to a tropical system."

A low-pressure storm system moved into Georgia during the middle of last week. When it arrived, it feathered up next to a high-pressure system that was hovering over the East Coast. The result: It got stuck. The atmosphere over north Georgia is completely saturated with water. A new storm system has moved into place now and, at any disturbance, is ready to drop more water on Atlanta. "It's just sitting there waiting for someone to wring the washcloth." The storm that remained stuck over Atlanta on Monday previously had brought needed rain to southern Texas. It sucked its moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. That system dissipated late Monday, but another has moved in to take its place.

Responding to the rain, creeks and rivers in metro Atlanta are overflowing in some places, setting NEW RECORDS. The Chattahoochee River in northeast Atlanta rose to a height not seen since 1919. Flood warnings are in place through Saturday.

Islands warn of extinction at UN climate week

2009-09-22T13:11:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK — As world leaders gather for key climate talks here, small island nations Monday warned they were running out of time with rising seas threatening to wipe them off the map.
Spread across the Earth's oceans, the planet's tiniest members grouped together in the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) are hoping to make their voices heard 100 days before UN-hosted climate talks in Copenhagen.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and former British prime minister Tony Blair also urged governments around the world to publicly commit themselves to tackling global warming as they opened New York Climate Week.
"We need a commitment for a fair deal in Copenhagen," Ban said.
Climate negotiators have spent the last two years working toward a make-or-break summit in Copenhagen this December, expected to ink new targets for global emissions beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

World's oceans warmest on record this summer

2009-09-21T09:36:00.002-05:00

WASHINGTON - Sea-surface temperatures worldwide have been the hottest on record over the last three months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Image: These globes show surface temperature anomalies for August. Temperature is compared to the average global temperature for Augusts from 1961-1990.

Ocean temperatures averaged 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the June-August period, 1 degree higher than normal.

Last month also saw the warmest August sea-surface temperatures on record at an average of 62.4 degrees, also 1 degree higher than usual, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said.

The combined land and water temperature worldwide for June-August was 61.2 degrees, third warmest in 129 years of recordkeeping. For August it was 58.2 degrees, fourth warmest.

"Large portions of the world’s land mass observed warmer-than-average temperatures in August," NOAA said in a statement. "The warmest departures occurred across Australia, Europe, parts of the Middle East, northwestern Africa, and southern South America. Both Australia and New Zealand had their warmest August since their records began."

Greenland Ice Sheet Melting Faster Than Expected

2009-09-17T09:55:00.000-05:00

The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected, according to a new study led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher and published in the journal Hydrological Processes.
Image: Melting water from a glacier in Greenland runs into the ocean. (Credit: Photo by Sebastian Mernild)

Study results indicate that the ice sheet may be responsible for nearly 25 percent of global sea rise in the past 13 years. The study also shows that seas now are rising by more than 3 millimeters a year--more than 50 percent faster than the average for the 20th century.

The Greenland ice sheet has been of considerable interest to researchers over the last few years as one of the major indicators of climate change. In late 2000/early 2001 and in 2007, major glacier calving events sent up to 44 square miles of ice into the sea at a time. Researchers are studying these major events as well as the less dramatic ongoing melting of the ice sheet through runoff and surface processes.

Ice melt from a warming Arctic has two major effects on the ocean. First, increased water contributes to global sea-level rise, which in turn affects coastlines across the globe. Second, fresh water from melting ice changes the salinity of the world’s oceans, which can affect ocean ecosystems and deep water mixing.

Large Sunspot Detected on Far Side

2009-09-16T12:51:00.000-05:00

A big sunspot appears to be growing on the far side of the sun. Yesterday, the National Solar Observatory's GONG network detected helioseismic echoes from the sunspot's gathering magnetic field. Today, NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is beaming back images of an active region peeking over the sun's far-eastern limb - exactly where GONG data predicted it would be. "I believe this is a large active region belonging to new Solar Cycle 24.

The sun's rotation should turn it toward Earth for direct viewing on Sept. 20th." Until then, the sunspot number remains pegged at zero. Why? Because farside sunspots do not count. Back in the 19th century when the sunspot number was invented, astronomers had no way of monitoring events on the farside of the sun, so no provision was made for adding farside spots to the total. NASA has two spacecraft (STEREO-A and -B) maneuvering for a 360 degree view of the entire sun, and by the year 2011 no sunspot will escape their detection. [site note: Due to earth's position, the spring and autumn (September 22) equinoxes are the most dangerous times for a solar plasma strike that could take down the power grid. It will be especially so in 2012.

UN: Gaza’s water supply in danger of collapse

2009-09-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Gaza Strip’s underground water system is in serious danger of collapse after recent conflict compounded years of overuse and contamination, a report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today warns. The UNEP report on the environmental condition of Gaza following Israel’s military operation in the region in late 2008 calls for the aquifer – supplying 1.5 million Palestinians with agricultural and drinking water – to be “rested” and alternative sources to be found.
“Unless the trend is reversed now, damage could take centuries to reverse,” said the environmental assessment report, which follows the hostilities in Gaza in December 2008 and January this year.
“Since the aquifer is a continuum with Egypt and Israel, any such action must be coordinated with these countries,” it stressed.

Mexico Now Enduring Worst Drought in Years

2009-09-14T12:10:00.000-05:00

Mexico is enduring its worst drought in six decades. Crops are drying up in the fields and water is being rationed in the capital. Residents of poor neighborhoods have hijacked water trucks, and there are other signs of social tensions building. Image: DRY STATE A farmer rode past a carcass in Tabasco State, which has lost about 7,000 animals.

El Niño, a weather pattern that warms water in the Pacific Ocean and leads to changing weather around the Pacific Basin, is causing the drought, Mexican officials say.

The rainy season typically begins here in June. Rain falls almost daily in most of the country, irrigating the spring planting and filling reservoirs before the dry months. But this year, the first three months of the rainy season were dry. Officials warned that the reservoirs were falling to dangerously low levels.

In Mexico, almost 40 percent of the farm land inspected by the government has been affected by the drought, causing shortfalls in the harvests of corn, beans, wheat and sorghum. The Mexican government is spending more than $100 million to buy emergency crop insurance and to dispense direct aid to farmers.
The drought has forced the 20 million residents of Mexico City and its suburbs to confront the vulnerability of their water supply.

The Aztecs built Mexico City, or Tenochtitlán, on an island within a network of shallow lakes. Dykes and canals regulated the flow of water across the vast basin and held back floodwaters.

But the Spanish conquerors set about draining the lakes, and a century ago, the city began to extract water from wells drilled to the water table below. About 70 percent of Mexico City’s water is now pumped out of the aquifer at a rate more than twice as fast as rainfall is able to replenish it.

Record Floods Deluge Istanbul

2009-09-10T14:50:00.000-05:00

ISTANBUL — Flash floods killed at least 31 people in and around Istanbul on Wednesday, the government said, as the area continued to struggle with its heaviest rainfall in 80 years.

The floodwaters rose quickly. After just a few hours of heavy rain, water had covered many of the city’s low-lying areas as well as one of the primary highways connecting the city center and the main airport. Drivers who were caught by the heavy rains told the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency that the fast-rising waters were strong enough to push heavy trucks off the road. News stations showed video of people running and climbing on top of vehicles to escape the rising waters.

Life under threat as more ultraviolet radiation to hit earth

2009-09-07T09:09:00.000-05:00

Rapid climate changes are set to redistribute the already shrinking ozone layer, exposing earth's southern parts up to 20 percent more ultraviolet radiation in the spring and summer at high altitudes, warns a Canadian study. Concentrated in the stratosphere from 10 km to 50 km above the earth, the ozone layer protects life on the planet by absorbing more than 90 percent of deadly ultraviolet rays coming from the sun. Ultraviolet rays cause genetic changes and trigger various cancers. Toronto researchers warn that rising temperatures will change the circulation of the earth's upper atmosphere, with a marked increase in the movement of ozone from the earth's upper to lower atmosphere. However, the distribution of the ozone layer will help the Northern Hemisphere of the earth. The model showed a nine percent decrease in ultraviolet radiation hitting Northern Hemisphere's high latitudes. Reported increase in the ground-level ozone on Europe's mountains and the west coasts of North America and Europe indicates that the deadly changes predicted by the two researchers may have already begun. Interestingly, ozone is created in the earth's outer atmosphere by ultraviolet rays themselves. On entering the stratosphere, these ultraviolet rays hit oxygen molecules, breaking them into two atoms. But being unstable, each of these two atoms clings back to the oxygen molecule, thus creating ozone molecules. Greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide and hydroxyl) and chlorofluorocarbons (generated by air-conditioners and refrigerators), which are capable of rising into the stratosphere, have been blamed for the depletion of the ozone layer.

Blaze could signal conflagration ahead when Santa Ana winds hit

2009-09-07T08:36:00.000-05:00

The mountain inferno that exploded into the BIGGEST FIRE IN MODERN LOS ANGELES HISTORY foreshadows the long wildfire season ahead - one that could make the past two weeks look mild by comparison. Those concerns are fanned by nightmares of the greater devastation that the massive Station Fire might have wreaked had it been whipped by strong Santa Ana winds that typically fuel the region's worst blazes in the fall. The Santa Anas this year will be blowing over tinder-dry brush, made even more dangerous by years of drought. "The one thing behind this big (Station) fire ... is the extreme drought that we've had for the last 10 years. "We've had a few good rainfall years for the last 10 years, but if you take the average drought index of the last 10 years, it's (WORSE) THAN ANYTHING WE'VE SEEN IN 150 YEARS.

So we are in extreme drought, and the problem with an extreme drought is that you end up getting a lot of dieback in the native vegetation. So there's a lot of dead shrubs up in these landscapes." High up in the Angeles National Forest, at one point the Station Fire was spreading in five directions. "It's been going through my mind that it's not even the peak of fire season. If there had been winds, there's nothing you could have done. The firemen would have been helpless. It would have been really catastrophic."

Meanwhile, the UNPRECEDENTED drought conditions have been blamed by some residents for the loss of at least 76 homes destroyed by the fire and the suddenness with which flames overran some areas. Federal authorities acknowledge that they failed to follow through on plans earlier this year to burn away most of the potential dangerous brush. "Every big single fire in the last century has been preceded by four years of drought." The Station Fire has cost at least $37 million to fight. The fire had destroyed 157,220 acres as of Sunday. Firefighters have it 49% contained

British plan to tackle asteroids

2009-09-02T08:46:00.000-05:00

A team of British scientists and engineers is developing plans for a spacecraft that could stop large asteroids from hitting the Earth. The 10-tonne "gravity tractor" would deflect any orbiting rocks years before any potential collision could happen. The device would rely on the force of gravity. The tractor would intercept the asteroid from just 48m away and exert a small gravitational force on it, pulling the rock towards it. The pair would then embark on a slightly different orbit, away from the Earth. It could possibly be powered using solar panels. "We have done quite a lot of design work on this with the European Space Agency and we believe this would work just as well on a big solid iron asteroid as well as other types." However, the device would have to be launched at least 15 years before any predicted collision and would need a team to monitor it from the ground during this time. However, the idea is still in its early stages and the company says a prototype is some way off from being built. NASA has recorded 1,068 known "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids", however there are thousands more estimated to be present in space.

Cloud ships and artificial trees could offer last hope to save climate

2009-09-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

Forests of artificial trees, giant space mirrors and sailing ships that create clouds may offer the only hope of saving the world from dangerous climate change, Britain's leading scientists said today.
A report by the Royal Society - Britain's most prestigious science body - said global engineering projects that suck carbon dioxide out of the air or reflect the sun's rays into space had 'useful potential' as a weapon against global warming.
But the authors added that risky and unproven attempts to meddle with the climate could have 'catastrophic consequences for mankind' if they were used irresponsibly and that the priority was to cut carbon dioxide emissions.