Monster waves

100 Nautical Miles North East of Shetland

Filmed over a 3 day period, this video shows a storm in the North Sea. This ship and it's crew of 15 eat, sleep and work at sea for a month at a time.

Links :

• Wired : You've Never Seen Waves Like This Before

Indian Ocean Dipole contributing to Australia’s catastrophic bushfire conditions to phase out

Australia's raging bushfires are smothering New Zealand with smokeimage : ZoomEarth

From The Epoch Times by Katabella Roberts

Early January 2020 is likely to see a temperature imbalance in the Indian Ocean dissipate, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), which may help create more favorable climatic conditions for Australia’s bushfire ravaged east coast.

 Latest Copernicus EU Atmosphere Monitoring Service data shows Carbon Monoxide in the lower troposphere released by Australian wildfires between 15 Dec and 2 Jan.

Animation shows particularly intense activity in New South Wales & Victoria

BOM stated that unusually significant differences between sea-surface temperatures in opposite parts of the Indian Ocean, referred to as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), has been a major cause of this year’s extreme climate conditions.

Temperatures in the eastern part of the ocean oscillate between warm and cold compared with the western part, cycling through three phases, which meteorologists call “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative.”

This video explains what the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is; the three phases of the IOD—positive, neutral and negative; and its influence on Australia's rainfall.
For more information visit: www.bom.gov.au/climate/iod

A positive IOD occurs when waters near the Horn of Africa are warmer than average, while cooler waters develop off Indonesia, resulting in less rainfall and high temperatures for Australia.

The dipole’s very strong positive phase this year—its strongest in six decades—has therefore had a big impact on Australia’s climate.
It’s led to a drying influence over many parts of the country as well as reduced rainfall and low humidity, enhancing potential evaporation and increasing the risk of fires.

However, BOM stated that while the drier than average conditions being experienced are forecast to ease heading into 2020, the rainfall outlook for January to March will not bring the rainfall needed to “see a recovery from current long-term rainfall deficiencies.”

On a positive note, the forecast said that the existing negative Southern Annular Mode (SAM), in which westerly winds have expanded toward the equator, started to decay southward at the end of December.
In summer, this shift is often associated with more moist onshore flow from the east, which leads to increased rain over eastern Australia.

 Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)

“The good news is, these drivers (dipole and mode) have now started to weaken,” senior climatologist Robyn Duell, told local media.

Duell added that as the drivers continue to weaken, the chance of rainfall will rise, although much of the country may still be subject to warmer than usual conditions over the summer, particularly in the east as the impacts of the IOD and SAM linger.
“The not-so-good news is the effects of these drivers are likely to linger. If we look at the first quarter of 2020, we can see that days remain likely warmer than average,” he said.
“Evenings are also likely to be warmer than average. So again, a continuation of that elevated risk of bushfires and heatwaves will likely continue into the first quarter of 2020. In terms of rainfall, we have quite a neutral outlook.
“For most of Australia, there’s no strong indication either way of it being particularly wet or particularly dry,” he said.

This weekend may bring the hardest-hit regions in Australia its most dangerous fire weather conditions yet.

Strong, shifting winds, temperatures above 104F, single-digit humidity... not a good combo.
see GWIS (Global Wildfire Information System) 
see also NASA : The AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite maps carbon monoxide (CO) from fires in Australia
and Copernicus Carbon monoxide forecasts 

According to BOM, the IOD event peaked in mid-October, when waters around East Africa were roughly 2 degrees Celsius warmer than those near Australia.

So far, record-low rainfall across Australia has contributed to widespread bushfires that have devastated more than 5 million hectares (about 12.4 million acres) of land and killed nine people.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in East Africa, the opposite has been seen as intense rain wreaks havoc.

Devastating flooding and landslides have killed more than 280 people, and hundreds of thousands more have been forced to flee their homes, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

At least 2.8 million people have been affected by severe weather conditions, which have destroyed homes and infrastructure and increased the risk of infectious diseases including cholera.

Links :

• DW : Oceans play role in Australian bushfires drama, say experts
• Vox : Australia’s hellish heat wave and wildfires, explained 
• Mashable : Thousands told to jump into the ocean as Australia's raging fires approached
• BBC : Indian Ocean Dipole: What is it and why is it linked to floods and bushfires? 
• The Guardian : Hot blob: vast patch of warm water off New Zealand coast puzzles scientists  / Global heating supercharging Indian Ocean climate system
• WP : Amid bush fire crisis, this weekend may bring Australia its most dangerous fire weather conditions...
• NYTimes : Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide
• NASA : Ferocious Fires in Australia Intensify

Gaming technology used by oceanographers to map coral reefs

From Hydro

Over 50 per cent of the world's coral reefs have died over the past 30 years, and up to 90 per cent may die within the next century. To map, record and study these reefs, scientists are now turning to game technology.

Oceanographers are utilizing expertise from the gaming trade to map out the ground of the ocean, together with the coral reefs.
Scientists are mapping coral beds deep below the oceans of Japan’s Okinawa islands, in line with worldwide information community France 24.

Plot Out All the Reef

A part of the so-called 100 Islands program, these scientists are chargeable for charting and assessing the well being of coral all through the world.
Oceanographers will swim forwards and backwards throughout coral reefs taking photos.
Slowly, they’re able to plot out all the reef and sew the photographs collectively to create a digital actuality 3D reconstruction.

All that is solely doable because of developments within the online game sector, in line with Vid Petrovic, a pc scientist engaged on mapping the reefs.
“We get to make the most of the simply ridiculously highly effective hardware that exists due to video games,” Petravik mentioned holding a PlayStation four controller.
“The little, you realize, additional bits of profit when it comes to human interface units.”

Welcome to 2020

If the waves were clouds, if the clouds were verses, if the verses were dreams ... dreams would be waves like clouds in verses.

US (NOAA) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

6 nautical raster charts updated

see GeoGarage news

3 reasons everybody should be bodysurfing more

From The Inertia by Matty Weiler

Bodysurfing is one of the best ways to punch through the walls of my comfort zone and expand my boundaries of getting into bigger waves.

Swim fins and a chunk of wood to glide on make up the cheapest, easiest, and I will argue one of the most fun ways to get that view we’re all constantly striving to get a glimpse of.
When a friend introduced me to bodysurfing, I was a little skeptical.
But I also knew it was something I had to experience for myself to see what was behind that strange but stoked look he had in his eye.
Fins, a handplane and you do the rest.
There’s a unique beauty in just grabbing fins, a handplane, kicking into anything that comes your way, and watching the show.
We all love to use the hot-button words like soul, connection, and rhythm to describe surfing a wave. But bodysurfing is bright-eyed, unbridled adrenaline and should be part of any surf trip, surf session or day at the beach (ocean or lake).

Here my 3 reasons you should kick into a few, sans board:

1. Raise Your Comfort level
I’m grateful to my friend Joey for introducing me to bodysurfing.
It was hard to embrace his stories at first but that changed one day he handed me his spare handplane and we swam out together.
That day happened to be overhead and punchy at North Jaco Beach.
If I were surfing that day, I would have danced back and forth over which wave to paddle into.
There was bliss in the absence of hesitation when bodysurfing.
After my first proper set wave, Joey saw the look on my face and with a crooked smile said, “Yeah, you get it now.”
Hooked. I was absolutely hooked.
Comfortably stroking into waves with the handplane that day taught me how to manage a hold down and how to stay calm.
Bobbing around the line up that day gave me a massive amount of confidence that I still carry.

2. All Those Barrels
Maybe you do, but I def don’t casually slide into throaty barrels breaking over live coral.
Sure, I pull in to get the view on any surf trip but coming out clean is a different story.
Kicking into a hollow wave of any size while body surfing is immeasurably as euphoric as it gets. Handplanes are pleasurecraft on every level.
In William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, the author describes first visions of the barrel as “[looking into the eye of God]”.
Tell me he’s wrong.

3. Wave Count
Bodysurfing can get you more waves than anyone.
Whether it’s the inside warbly ones nobody else wanted, close out sets, or the ones that somehow roll through the crowd untouched, you can stealthily cruise around the lineup and pick off what others consider scraps.

This is a movie about the beauty of the Body and the Ocean.

David Schwepps and the team slide onto some of the tastiest slices of ocean in the world. 

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : About bodysurfing : Come hell or high water / 9 unreal photos of body surfers at Teahupoo

14,000 Miles and a victory resumed in 5 minutes

Last 4th December, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild accomplished a victorious return to Brest after crossing the Atlantic in a big loop taking nearly 29 days.

At the helm of Ariane and Benjamin de Rothschild’s giant, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier exploded with joy after finishing a race controlled from the beginning to end.

Nine months after their arrival within the Gitana Team, both men skippers succeeded in offering the first great off shore victory to Gitana 17, thus demonstrating that the project initiated by the five arrow team four years earlier lived up to its expectations.

The Maxi de Rothschild is the first racing maxi trimaran capable of flying in high seas.

A film by PolaRYSE : Yann Riou, on board cameraman and reporter and Eloi Stichelbaut, editing

Orca's approaching swimmer

Using a drone, Australian tourist Dylan Brayshaw caught the moment when a woman, who swam in the tranquil waters of Hahei Beach in Coromandel (New Zealand), lived an incredible moment, surrounded by a group of three orcas. (Dec. 2018)

Links :

• YouTube : Danza con Orcas