ocean modeling News
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Science adopts a new definition of seawater
In Paris late last month the General Assembly of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) accepted the case for the introduction of a new international thermodynamic description of seawater, cast in terms of a new salinity variable called Absolute Salinity. Hobart-based CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientist, Dr Trevor McDougall, made the case during his presentation of the ...
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New ‘seawater’ – the way ahead for ocean science
A proposed new definition of ‘seawater’ is drawing the attention of the world’s oceanographic community in a change that will advance the accuracy of climate science projections.The science case for a change in the definition of seawater was first agreed to in 2006 when the international guiding body, the Scientific Committee on Oceans Research (SCOR) established a working group, chaired by Dr ...
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Decadal SST Variability in the Southeast Indian Ocean and Its Impact on Regional Climate
The southeast Indian Ocean (SEIO) exhibits decadal variability in sea surface temperature (SST) with amplitudes of ∼0.2-0.3 K and covaries with the central Pacific (r= -0.63 with Niño-4 index for 1975-2010). In this study, the generation mechanisms of decadal SST variability are explored using an ocean general circulation model (OGCM), and its impact on atmosphere is evaluated using an ...
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Advances in Sea-State Forecasting using Chelsea Sensor
Marine operations such as offshore oil and gas operations, renewable energy projects and shipping depend on high quality information on sea-state (wave height, period, direction, steepness) for economic and safety decision making. The information currently available is based on atmospheric/ocean models and lacks sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. “Wave conditions are always ...
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Largest Antarctic ice sheet more sensitive to ocean warming than previously thought
The largest ice sheet in the world, the east Antarctic ice sheet, may succumb to climate change faster than thought, according to recent research. Warming ocean currents, triggered by shifting wind patterns, could accelerate melting of the ice sheet, leading to a rise in sea levels, say the researchers. The east Antarctic ice sheet has an average thickness of over 2 km and can reach more than 4 ...
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Redefinition of `seawater` to aid climate research
The science behind understanding the movement of heat through the world’s deep oceans is entering a more exact phase with the adoption of a new thermodynamic definition of what constitutes "seawater". A specialist in thermal fluid dynamics, CSIRO Wealth from Ocean Flagship's Dr Trevor McDougall, recently led an international science team which has – following its acceptance by the ...
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Indian Ocean sea levels `rising at different rates`
Mapping variations in regional sea level changes of different parts of the Indian Ocean could help developing countries better adapt to the effects of climate change, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience last week (11 July). Researchers from the University of Colorado, United States, identified distinct patterns of sea-level rises using observational and satellite data combined ...
By SciDev.Net
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How vulnerable to flooding is New York City?
A report just released in the most recent issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society offers hope that a new high-resolution storm surge modeling system developed by scientists at Stony Brook University will better be able to predict flood levels and when flooding will occur in the New York metropolitan area, information crucial to emergency managers when planning for impending ...
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The effects of climate change on seafloor ecosystems
Ocean warming driven by climate change will reduce the amount of food reaching marine life on the seafloor, a recent study suggests. This would result in a 5.2% global reduction in seafloor biomass by the end of the 21st century and biodiversity hotspots, such as cold-water coral reefs, will be particularly badly affected, say the researchers. The open ocean harbours a vast array of ...
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Deep-ocean sentinels on northern climate watch
Up to 3,000 metres tall and carrying an array of special marine sensors, the moorings were deployed earlier this month as part of an international collaboration to monitor the Timor Passage and Ombai Strait – two strategic deep ocean channels which act as 'chokepoints' in the global system of ocean currents. Valued at over $1 million, the moorings were deployed as part of Australia's ...
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Ocean temperatures and sea level increases 50% higher than previously estimated
New research suggests that ocean temperature and associated sea level increases between 1961 and 2003 were 50 percent larger than estimated in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The results are reported in the June 19 edition of the journal Nature. An international team of researchers, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory climate scientist Peter Gleckler, ...
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A new research programme to achieve an improved understanding of the Earth system for the Baltic Sea region
A new international and interdisciplinary research programme, Baltic Earth, is launched. The aim of Baltic Earth is to achieve an improved understanding of the Earth system for the Baltic Sea region, focusing on physical and biogeochemical processes which interact in the atmosphere, in the sea including sea ice, and on land. Human interactions with the environment are recognized as an important ...
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NASA: Global Warming Will Bring More Severe Storms
NEW YORK, New York, August 30, 2007 (ENS) - The most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common as Earth’s climate warms, say scientists with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, using a new climate model. The scientsts predict that in a warmer climate, stronger and more severe storms can be expected, but with fewer storms overall. Previous climate model ...
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Oak Ridge supercomputers provide first simulation of abrupt climate change
At the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the world's fastest supercomputer for unclassified research is simulating abrupt climate change and shedding light on an enigmatic period of natural global warming in Earth's relatively recent history. The work, led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is featured ...
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Oceans’ greater heat explains warming ‘pause’
One of the most hotly-argued questions in climate research – whether global warming has slowed or even stopped – appears to have been definitively answered. And the scientists’ conclusion is unambiguous: the Earth continues to warm at a dangerous pace. All that’s happening, they say, is that the extra heat being produced – mainly by the burning of fossil fuels ...
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Warm Ocean, Not Icebergs, Causing Most Of Antarctic Ice Shelves´ Mass Loss
Ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent's ice shelf mass loss, a new study by NASA and university researchers has found. Scientists have studied the rates of basal melt, or the melting of the ice shelves from underneath, of individual ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers that empty into the sea. But this is the first ...
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Observation-Based Estimates of Global and Basin Ocean Meridional Heat Transport Time Series
Ocean meridional heat transports (MHTs) are deduced as a residual using energy budgets to produce latitude versus time series for the globe, Indo-Pacific, and Atlantic. The top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation is combined with the vertically integrated atmospheric energy divergence from atmospheric reanalyses to produce the net surface energy fluxes everywhere. The latter is then combined with ...
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Experts to study aerosols’ impact on Australia’s climate
The impact that human-generated and natural atmospheric particles (aerosols) could be having on Australia’s climate will be discussed next week in Canberra at a workshop involving some of the world’s leading experts in the area. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research scientist, Dr Leon Rotstayn, says the influence aerosols have on climate is still one of the ‘great unknowns’ in climate science. ...
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New EU research to investigate ocean acidification impact on ecosystems
Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) through human activities have a well known impact on the Earth's climate. What is not so well known is that the absorption of this CO2 by the oceans is causing inexorable acidification of sea water. But what impact is this phenomenon having on marine organisms and ecosystems? This is a question to which researchers have few answers as yet. That is why the ...
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Climate change talks mustn`t forget fisheries
Saying that vulnerable fishing and coastal communities around the world will bear the brunt of climate change's impacts, a group of 16 international organizations today have urged climate negotiators to ensure that fisheries and aquaculture are not neglected in ongoing discussions regarding a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. In a policy brief issued today in advance of UNFCC talks in Bonn, ...
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