Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich ocean-observing satellite starts providing science data

This map shows sea level measured by the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite from June 5-15. Red areas are regions where sea level is higher than normal, and blue areas indicate areas where it's lower than normal.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

From Meteorological Tech. Int by Helen Norman

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, a US-European collaboration to measure sea surface height and other key ocean features, such as ocean surface windspeed and wave height, released its first science measurements to users on June 22.

After six months of check-out and calibration in orbit, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, which launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on November 21, 2020, has made two sea surface height data streams available to the public.


One of the sea surface height data streams is accurate to 2.3in (5.8cm) and will be available within hours of when the instruments on board Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich collect it.

A second stream of data, accurate to 1.4in (3.5cm), will be released two days after collection.

According to NASA, the difference in when the products become available balances accuracy with delivery timeliness for tasks like forecasting the weather and helping to monitor the formation of hurricanes.

More data sets, which will be accurate to about 1.2in (2.9cm), are slated for distribution later this year and are intended for research activities and climate science including tracking global mean sea level rise.

The satellite collects measurements for about 90% of the world’s oceans.

It is one of two satellites that compose the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission.

 

The joint U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is the next in a line of Earth-observing satellites that will collect the most accurate data yet on sea level and how it changes over time.

With millimeter-scale precision, data from this mission will allow scientists to precisely measure sea surface height and gauge how quickly our oceans are rising.

The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite is part of the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission, a collaboration among NASA, ESA, EUMETSAT, and NOAA

 

The second satellite, Sentinel-6B, is slated for launch in 2025.

Together, they are the latest in a series of spacecraft starting with TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992 and continuing with the Jason series of satellites that have been gathering precise ocean height measurements for nearly 30 years.

Shortly after launch, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich moved into position, trailing the current reference sea level satellite Jason-3 by 30 seconds.

Scientists and engineers then spent time cross-calibrating the data collected by both satellites to ensure the continuity of measurements between the two.

Once they are assured of the data quality, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will then become the primary sea level satellite.

“It’s a relief knowing that the satellite is working and that the data looks good,” said Josh Willis, project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.

“Several months from now, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will take over for its predecessor, Jason-3, and this data release is the first step in that process.”

Sentinel-6/Jason-CS is being jointly developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), EUMETSAT, NASA and NOAA, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from France’s National Centre for Space Studies.

JPL is contributing three science instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System – Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. 

 

Links :

• NASA : Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Sea Surface Height / New Ocean Data Flowing In
• GeoGarage blog : New Earth mission will track rising oceans into 2030 / Copernicus Sentinel-6 measuring sea levels using radar altimetry / Jason ocean height mission blasts off / Copernicus Sentinel-3 offers safer navigation at sea / Sentinel's first map of sea-surface 'hills and valleys'

France & misc. (SHOM) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

271 nautical raster charts updated

see GeoGarage news

With map 7639 (Approaches and harbor of St. Peter's Island) the Shom reaches the podium (3rd) for the map exhibition competition of the 29th International Cartographic Conference of the ICA (International Cartographic Association) in Tokyo

Deep-sea mining could start in two years after Pacific nation of Nauru gives UN ultimatum

Deep sea mining off the Papua New Guinea coast. Photograph: Nautilus minerals

From The Guardian by Kate Lyons

 

The International Seabed Authority has two years to finalise regulations governing the controversial industry

Deep-sea mining has been given the go-ahead to commence in two years, after the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru notified the UN body governing the nascent industry of plans to start mining.

Triggering the so-called “two-year rule”, which some have called the nuclear option, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) now has two years to finalise regulations governing the controversial industry.

If it is unable to do so, the ISA is required to allow mining contractors to begin work under whatever regulations are in place at the time.

Nauru’s president, Lionel Aingimea, notified the ISA of the intention of Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), a subsidiary of a Canadian company called DeepGreen, to apply for approval to begin mining in two years in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the North Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico.

Aingimea’s letter, dated 25 June, asked the ISA “to complete the adoption of rules, regulations, and procedures required to facilitate the approval of plans of work for exploitation in the area within two years” from 30 June.

Nauru believed draft deep-sea mining regulations were nearly complete after seven years of talks, Aingimea’s letter said.

A rare deep-sea cirrate octopod. Sir David Attenborough has backed calls for a halt to deep sea mining, which conservationists warn could have huge impacts on wildlife and climate change. Photograph: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research/PA

Environmental groups, the EU Parliament, several Pacific nations including Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and Sir David Attenborough, have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, arguing that too little is known about its impact.

Last week, more than 350 scientists from 44 countries signed a petition calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining “until sufficient and robust scientific information has been obtained”.

Jessica Desmond, Oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa, said: “We are currently in the middle of a climate and biodiversity crisis, we know that deep sea ecosystems are some of the most important ecosystems on the planet and we are seeing this relentless and reckless push to mine these areas, despite the fact that scientists are very clearly warning us that the outcomes could be disastrous.”

“It’s very disappointing, it’s very foolhardy… and very dangerous,” said Duncan Currie, an international lawyer who has worked in oceans law for 30 years.

He represents the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition which is calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining.

Currie said the two-year rule was designed to be used if a country was ready to mine and then found their path to do so blocked by a few countries in the ISA, or if progress toward adopting regulations to govern deep-sea mining had stalled, but that neither situation was the case.

“A very important consultation is happening next week,” said Currie, in reference to a 3 July deadline for responses to draft standards and guidelines. 

“They can hardly complain that things aren’t happening when they’re happening next week.

“If we’re in a situation where a company has tested all their equipment and they’re frustrated by the regulatory environment, we might expect to see this, but we haven’t seen that.”

DeepGreen is looking to extract polymetallic nodules from the seabed.

The nodules, which resemble potatoes and are thought to take millions of years to form, are rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals, key components of batteries for electric vehicles. DeepGreen argues deep-sea mining is a less environmentally and socially damaging alternative to terrestrial mining, and is crucial for transitioning to a greener economy.

Rocks called ‘polymetallic nodules’ are seen on the seabed in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.

Photograph: GSR/Reuters

DeepGreen is in the process of merging with blank-cheque company Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp (SOAC) to become The Metals Company. The Metals Company plans to list on the Nasdaq in the third quarter.

But SOAC said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week it was not yet known whether mining the seabed would have less impact on biodiversity than mining for the same quantity of metals on land.

“We cannot predict ... whether the environment and biodiversity is impacted by our activities, and if so, how long the environment and biodiversity will take to recover,” it said.

DeepGreen has deals with Nauru, Tonga and Kiribati for CCZ exploration rights covering 224,533 square km, roughly the area of Romania.

DeepGreen did not respond to requests for comment for this story. In response to questions about invoking the two-year rule for a previous story, a spokesperson told the Guardian last week that the two-year rule was “only available to sponsoring states to use, not contractors like DG, which cannot invoke it” but that it was a “a valid option available to all member states of the International Seabed Authority”.

The Nauru government did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Links :

• BBC : First seabed mines may be step closer to reality
• Mining’s new frontier: Pacific nations caught in the rush for deep-sea riches 

Climate change: Extremes committee validates Antarctic record heat

Image copyright NOAA

Esperanza station also held the previous record high temperature of +17.5C which occurred in 2015

From BBC by Jonathan Amos

A new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent of +18.3C has been confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

It occurred on 6 February last year at Argentina's Esperanza research station.

The mark was widely reported at the time but has now been validated by a WMO committee set up to check extreme weather data from around the globe.

The same group rejected an even higher Antarctic claim for 2020 of +20.75C, "recorded" on Seymour Island.

This again received international headlines, but the committee found the sensor set-up incorporated into a Brazilian permafrost experiment had not been properly protected from direct sunlight.

Thermometers are supposed to record air temperatures inside a ventilated covering, or screen.

The WMO team said that on Seymour Island this took the form of a modified length of scaffolding pipe and would likely therefore have introduced a warming bias into any data readings.

Nonetheless, temperatures on the normally frigid Antarctic continent have been rising, especially along its peninsula - the great tongue of terrain that stretches north in the direction of South America.

Over the last 50 years, the peninsula warmed almost three degrees.

And although no official temperature recording has yet gone above +20C on the continent and its close-by islands, it's just a matter of time, says Prof John King from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

"If you consider all the area covered by the Antarctic Treaty - that's all land south of 60 degrees South latitude - then we had a temperature of +19.8C in January 1982 on Signy Island.

"Okay, that's from the maritime Antarctic rather than the continent proper, but I wouldn't rule out seeing +20C temperatures somewhere in the northeast Antarctic Peninsula sometime within the next decade," the WMO extremes committee member told BBC News.

One of the drivers of the rise in temperatures is the strengthened westerlies that now blow around the continent.

This powerful airflow produces warming conditions on the eastern, leeward side of the peninsula's mountainous spine.

Such warm, downslope winds are well known across the Earth, and wherever they occur they tend to have a local name.

The Chinook winds that drop over the Rockies and Cascades in North America are an example of this phenomenon.

In the Antarctic, they are known as Foehn winds - a title originally used in Alpine Europe.

The incidence of these warmer conditions has been increasing on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Foehn winds appear also to be moving poleward as well.
"The occurrence of Foehn winds varies greatly from year to year," explained Prof King.
"During the latter part of the last century, there was a strengthening and somewhat southward movement of the circumpolar westerly winds, which meant that this was probably contributing towards more intense Foehn on the eastern side of the peninsula and hence the rather rapid warming trend we saw there.
"That strengthening trend in the westerlies eased off a bit towards the end of the 20th Century and into the first part of the 21st Century, which meant the temperature trend also eased off a bit. But I think there are now indications that this phenomenon is picking up again, and is likely to be an important contributor to future warming in the region."

Image copyright BAS

The Foehn winds drop down the eastern side of the peninsula mountains

The Antarctic continent spans an area of 14 million sq km (roughly twice the size of Australia), and is covered by 26.5 million cubic km of ice.

Its weather stations are sparse but average annual temperature are seen to range from about −10C at the coast to -60C in the highest parts of the interior.

Satellites can measure the "skin temperature", or the temperature "to the touch", of the continent and have taken readings below even -90C in places.

But meteorologists are concerned with standard air temperatures and these are measured about 1.5m off the surface.

Using this definition, the coldest temperature ever recorded in the Antarctic stands at -89.2C. This occurred at the Russian Vostok station on 21 July 1983.   

 

Links :

• BBC : History of wind recorded in an island's mud /  Climate secrets of the world's most remote island /  Antarctica: Coldest spot on Earth identified

Ocean drifters

Ocean Drifters from Plymouth University
Drawing upon Richard Kirby's plankton imagery, Ocean Drifters reveals how the plankton have shaped life on Earth and continue to influence our lives in ways that most of us never imagine.
Further information about the plankton can be found at the Ocean Drifters website (oceandrifters.org) and in the popular book about plankton also titled "Ocean Drifters, a secret world beneath the waves".