From FinancialTimes
International scientists have injected fresh evidence into the debate over global warming, saying that climate change is “undeniable” and shows clear signs of “human fingerprints” in the first major piece of research since the “Climategate” controversy.
The research, headed by the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, is based on new data not available for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of 2007, the target of attacks by sceptics in recent years.
The NOAA study drew on up to 11 different indicators of climate, and found that each one pointed to a world that was warming owing to the influence of greenhouse gases, said Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the UK’s Met Office, one of the agencies participating.
Seven indicators were rising, he said.
These were: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, marine air temperature, sea level, ocean heat, humidity, and tropospheric temperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the earth’s surface.
Four indicators were declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers, spring snow cover in the northern hemisphere, and stratospheric temperatures.
Mr Stott said: “The whole of the climate system is acting in a way consistent with the effects of greenhouse gases.” “The fingerprints are clear,” he said. “The glaringly obvious explanation for this is warming from greenhouse gases.”
Some scientists hailed the study as a refutation of the claims made by climate sceptics during the “Climategate” saga. Those scandals involved accusations – some since proven correct – of flaws in the IPCC’s landmark 2007 report, and the release of hundreds of emails from climate scientists that appeared to show them distorting certain data.
“This confirms that while all of this [Climategate] was going on, the earth was continuing to warm. It shows that Climategate was a distraction, because it took the focus off what the science actually says,” said Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics.
But the report nonetheless remained the target of scorn for sceptics.
Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in the US, said the new report would not change people’s minds. “It’s clear that the scientific case for global warming alarmism is weak. The scientific case for [many of the claims] is unsound and we are finding out all the time how unsound it is.”
Pat Michaels, a prominent climate sceptic, ex-professor of environmental sciences and fellow of the Cato Institute in the US, said the NOAA study and other evidence suggested that the computerised climate models had overestimated the sensitivity of the earth’s temperature to carbon dioxide. This would mean that the earth could warm a little under the influence of greenhouse gases, but not by as much as the IPCC and others have predicted.
“I think it is the lack of frankness about this that emerged with Climategate, and that seems to continue [that make people doubt the findings],” he said.
Steve Goddard, a blogger, said the conclusion that the first half of 2010 showed a record high temperature was “based on incorrect, fabricated data” because the researchers involved did not have access to much information on Arctic temperatures.
But Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of NOAA, said the study found that the average temperature in the world had increased by 0.56° C (1° F) over the past 50 years. The rise “may seem small, but it has already altered our planet ... Glaciers and sea ice are melting, heavy rainfall is intensifying, and heat waves are more common.”
The report also suggests that more than 90 percent of the warming over the past 50 years may have gone into the oceans.
Links :
- HuffingtonPost : International Scientists Confirm Climate Change Is 'Undeniable'
- Guardian : Climate change
- Telegraph : The Met Office's climate change report, between denial and alarm lies reality
From SmartPlanet
Oceanographer John Delaney is building an underwater network of high-definition cameras and sensors to turn the world’s oceans into a massive interactive lab.
Delaney and a University of Washington research team are implanting robotic sensor arrays along the Juan de Fuca Ridge and other ocean sites — on the ocean floor and throughout the water column — that link to the Internet using submarine electro-optical cables.
The mission: to build a cabled network of deep-ocean sensors that will study, over time and space, the way the ocean’s complex processes interact.
In essence, Delaney and his team are networking the ocean — for the benefit of ocean science.
In a TED talk, Delaney explains how the system will document and measure previously-inaccessible phenomena such as erupting volcanoes, migration patterns, submarine slumps, undersea earthquakes and storms.
The hope? That all of that data will lead to richer computer models of ocean behavior.
Or as Delaney puts it: “The system is the whole planet.”
Links :
3447 Nanaimo harbour and Departure Bay CHS chart update
82 updated charts for Canada :
- 1312 LAC SAINT-PIERRE
- 1313 BATISCAN AUTO LAC SAINT-PIERRE
- 1317 SAULT-AU-COCHON TO QUEBEC
- 1350A SOREL - TRACY TO RUISSEAU LAHAISE
- 1350B RUISSEAU LAHAISE TO SAINT-ANTOINE-SUR-RICHELIEU
- 1350C SAINT-ANTOINE-SUR-RICHELIEU TO ILE AUX CERFS
- 1350D ILE AUX CERFS TO OTTERBURN PARK
- 1509A RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES ILE BIZARD TO PONT-VIAU
- 1509B RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES PONT-VIAU TO ILE BOURDON
- 2042 WELLAND CANAL ST.CATHERINES TO PORT COLBORNE
- 2318 HERON BAY
- 3053A SHUSWAP LAKE CHASE TO ANGLEMONT
- 3053B SHUSWAP LAKE SALMON ARM TO SEYMOUR ARM
- 3441 HARO STRAIT BOUNDARY PASS AND SATELLITE CHANNEL
- 3447 NANAIMO HARBOUR AND DEPARTURE BAY
- 3463 STRAIT OF GEORGIA SOUTHERN PORTION
- 3477 BEDWELL HARBOUR TO GEORGESON PASSAGE
- 3478 PLANS SALTSPRING ISLAND
- 3479 APPROACHES TO SIDNEY
- 3492 ROBERTS BANK
- 3526 HOWE SOUND
- 3527 BAYNES SOUND
- 3602 APPROACHES TO JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT
- 3603 UCLUELET INLET TO NOOTKA SOUND
- 3902 HECATE STRAIT
- 4002 GOLFE DU SAINT-LAURENT GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE
- 4012 YARMOUTH TO HALIFAX
- 4013 HALIFAX TO SYDNEY
- 4015 SYDNEY TO SAINT-PIERRE
- 4022 CABOT STRAIT AND APPROACHES
- 4023 NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIT
- 4047 ST PIERRE BANK TO WHALE BANK
- 4115 PASSAMAQUODDY BAY AND ST CROIX RIVER
- 4116 APPROACHES TO SAINT JOHN
- 4202 HALIFAX HARBOUR POINT PLEASANT TO BEDFORD BASIN
- 4233 CAPE CANSO TO COUNTRY ISLAND
- 4235 BARREN ISLAND TO TAYLORS HEAD
- 4237 APPROACHES TO APPROCHES DE HALIFAX HARBOUR
- 4275 ST. PETERS BAY
- 4307 CANSO HARBOUR TO STRAIT OF CANSO
- 4320 EGG ISLAND TO WEST IRONBOUND ISLAND
- 4321 CAPE CANSO TO LISCOMB ISLAND
- 4328 LUNENBURG BAY
- 4335 STRAIT OF CANSO AND APPROACHES
- 4363 CAPE SMOKEY TO ST PAUL ISLAND
- 4384 PEARL ISLAND TO CAPE LA HAVE
- 4385 CHEBUCTO HEAD TO BETTY ISLAND
- 4399 PARRSBORO HARBOUR AND APPROACHES
- 4405 PICTOU ISLAND TO TRYON SHOALS
- 4447 POMQUET AND TRACADIE HARBOURS
- 4450 SAINT PAUL ISLAND
- 4462 ST. GEORGE'S BAY
- 4491 MALPEQUE BAY
- 4497 AMET SOUND
- 4498 PUGWASH HARBOUR AND APPROACHES
- 4521 BAIE VERTE
- 4593 SUNDAY COVE ISLAND TO THIMBLE TICKLES
- 4615 HARBOURS IN PLACENTIA BAY PETIT FORTE TO BROAD COVE
- 4616 BURIN INLET AND APPROACHES
- 4625 BURIN PENINSULA TO SAINT-PIERRE
- 4641 PORT AUX BASQUES AND APPROACHES
- 4724 TICORALAK ISLAND TO CARRINGTON ISLAND
- 4820 CAPE FREELS TO EXPLOITS ISLANDS
- 4821 WHITE BAY AND NOTRE DAME BAY
- 4826 BURGEO TO FRANCOIS
- 4831 FORTUNE BAY NORTHERN PORTION
- 4839 HEAD OFFOND DE PLACENTIA BAY
- 4849 PLANS CONCEPTION BAY
- 4850 CAPE ST FRANCIS TO BACCALIEU ISLAND / HEART'S CONTENT
- 4851 TRINITY BAY - SOUTHERN PORTION
- 4854 CATALINA HARBOUR TO INNER GOOSEBERRY ISLANDS
- 4855 BONAVISTA BAY SOUTHERN PORTION
- 4862 CARMANVILLE TO BACALHAO ISLAND AND FOGO
- 4863 BACALHAO ISLAND TO BLACK ISLAND
- 4864 BACK ISLAND TO LITTLE DENIER ISLAND
- 4913 CARAQUET HARBOUR BAIE DE SHIPPEGAN AND MISCOU HARBOUR
- 4920 CHALEUR BAY SOUTH SHORE
- 4956 CAP-AUX-MEULES
- 5138 SANDWICH BAY
- 6023 LAKE OF BAYS
- 7122 CULBERTSON ISLAND TO KOOJESSE INLET
- 8048 CAPE HARRISON TO ST MICHAEL BAY
So 757 CHS charts (1614 including sub-charts) are viewable in the Marine GeoGarage.
Note : don't forget to visit 'Notices to Mariners' published monthly and available from the Canadian Coast Guard both online or through a free hardcopy subscription service.
This essential publication provides the latest information on changes to the aids to navigation system, as well as updates from CHS regarding CHS charts and publications.
New map NZ5219, Approaches to Marsden Point - 1:50000
The 10 following charts have been updated :and some charts have been added :- NZ5219 Approaches to Marsden Point
So the NZ layer is composed of 321 charts (including sub-charts) right now.
Note : don't forget to visit the New Zealand Notices to Mariners (NTMs)
From Steve Szkotak, The Associated Press
A team of scientists will launch an expedition to the Titanic next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck and create a detailed three-dimensional map that will “virtually raise the Titanic” for the public.
The expedition to the site four kilometres beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.
(Titanic position in the Marine GeoGarage)
The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 3-by-5 kilometre debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.
Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.
“For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind,” David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. “One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is.”
The Titanic struck ice and sank on its maiden voyage in international waters on April 15, 1912, leaving 1,522 people dead.
Since oceanographer Robert Ballard and an international team discovered the Titanic in 1985, most of the expeditions have either been to photograph the wreck or gather thousands of artifacts, like fine china, shoes and ship fittings. “Titanic” director James Cameron has also led teams to the wreck to record the bow and the stern, which separated during the sinking and now lie one-third of a mile apart.
RMS Titanic made the last expedition to the site in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta, conducts traveling displays of the Titanic artifacts, which the company says have been viewed by tens of millions of people worldwide.
“We believe there's still a number of really exciting mysteries to be discovered at the wreck site,” said Chris Davino, president of and CEO of Premier Exhibitions and RMS Titanic. “It's our contention that substantial portions of the wreck site have never really been properly studied.”
The “dream team” of archaeologists, oceanographers and other scientists want to get the best assessment yet on the two main sections of the ship, which have been subjected to fierce deep-ocean currents, salt water and intense pressure.
Mr. Gallo said while the rate of Titanic's deterioration is not known, the expedition approaches the mission with a sense of urgency.
“We see places where it looks like the upper decks are getting thin, the walls are thin, the ceilings may be collapsing a bit,” he said. “We hear all these anecdotal things about the ship is rusting away, it's collapsing on itself. No one really knows.”
The expedition will use imaging technology and sonar devices that never have been used before on the Titanic wreck and to probe nearly a century of sediment in the debris field to seek a full inventory of the ship's artifacts.
“We're actually treating it like a crime scene,” Mr. Gallo said. “We want to know what's out there in that debris field, what the stern and the bow are looking like.”
“Never before have we had the scientific and technological means to discover so much of an expedition to Titanic,” said P.H. Nargeolet, who is co-leading the expedition. He has made more than 30 dives to the wreck.
Bill Lange, a Woods Hole scientist who will lead the optical survey and will be one of the first to visit the wreck, said a key analysis will be comparing images from the first expedition 25 years ago and new images to measure decay and erosion.
“We're going to see things we haven't seen before. That's a given,” he said. “The technology has really evolved in the last 25 years.”
“I'm sure there will be future expeditions because this is the just the beginning of a whole new era of these kind of expeditions to Titanic – serious, archaeological mapping expeditions,” Mr. Gallo said.
