Newly discovered Icelandic current could change climate picture

Northern Denmark Strait showing newly discovered deep current,
in relation to known pathway.

From NSF

If you'd like to cool off fast in hot summer weather, take a dip in a newly discovered ocean current called the North Icelandic Jet (NIJ).

You'd need to be far, far below the sea's surface near Iceland, however, to reach it.

Scientists have confirmed the presence of the NIJ, a deep-ocean circulation system off Iceland. It could significantly influence the ocean's response to climate change.

The NIJ contributes to a key component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), critically important for regulating Earth's climate.

As part of the planet's reciprocal relationship between ocean circulation and climate, the AMOC transports warm surface water to high latitudes where the water warms the air, then cools, sinks and returns toward the equator as a deep flow.

Crucial to this warm-to-cold oceanographic choreography is the Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW), the largest of the deep, overflow plumes that feed the lower limb of the AMOC and return the dense water south through gaps in the Greenland-Scotland Ridge.

For years it has been thought that the primary source of the Denmark Overflow was a current adjacent to Greenland known as the East Greenland Current.

However, this view was recently called into question by two oceanographers from Iceland who discovered a deep current flowing southward along the continental slope of Iceland.

They named the current the North Icelandic Jet and hypothesized that it formed a significant part of the overflow water.

Now, in a paper published in the August 21st online issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, the team of researchers--including the two Icelanders who discovered the current--has confirmed that the Icelandic Jet is not only a major contributor to the DSOW but "is the primary source of the densest overflow water."

"We present the first comprehensive measurements of the NIJ," said Robert Pickart of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Instititution in Massachusetts, one of the co-authors of the paper.

"Our data demonstrate that the NIJ indeed carries overflow water into Denmark Strait and is distinct from the East Greenland Current. The NIJ constitutes approximately half of the total overflow transport and nearly all of the densest component."

The researchers used a numerical model to hypothesize where and how the NIJ is formed.

"These results implicate water mass transformation and exchange near Iceland as central contributors to the deep limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and raise new questions about how global ocean circulation will respond to future climate change," said Eric Itsweire, program director in the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.

"We've identified a new paradigm," Pickart said, likely a new, overturning loop of warm to cold water.
The results, Pickart says, have "important ramifications" for ocean circulation's impact on climate.

Scientists have been concerned that this overturning loop--some call it a conveyor belt--is slowing down due to a rise in global temperatures.
They suggest that increasing amounts of fresh water from melting ice and other warming-related phenomena are making their way into the northern North Atlantic, where it could freeze and decrease the need for the loop to deliver as much warm water as it does now.
Eventually, this could lead to a colder climate in the northern hemisphere.

While this scenario is far from certain, researchers need to understand the overturning process, Pickart said, to make accurate predictions about the future of climate and circulation interaction.

"If a large fraction of the overflow water comes from the NIJ, then we need to re-think how quickly the warm-to-cold conversion of the AMOC occurs, as well as how this process might be altered under a warming climate," said Pickart.

Pickart and a team of scientists from the U.S., Iceland, Norway, and the Netherlands are scheduled to embark on August 22nd on a cruise aboard the research vessel Knorr.
They will collect new information on the overturning in the Iceland Sea.

"During our upcoming cruise we will deploy an array of year-long moorings across the entire Denmark Strait to quantify the NIJ and distinguish it from the East Greenland Current," Pickart said.
"Then we'll collect shipboard measurements in the Iceland Sea to the north of the mooring line to determine more precisely where and how the NIJ originates."

The cruise will be chronicled at the North Icelandic Jet Cruise website.

Links :

• WHOI : Newly discovered Icelandic current could change North Atlantic climate picture
  

No to Arctic drilling

From TheNYTimes

About 55,000 gallons of oil have escaped into the North Sea since last week from a leaky pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell, about 100 miles off Scotland.

Last year, Americans watched in mounting fury as the oil industry and the federal government struggled for five disastrous months to contain the much larger BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now imagine the increased danger and difficulty of trying to cope with a similar debacle off Alaska’s northern coast, where waters are sealed by pack ice for eight months of each year, gales roil fog-shrouded seas with waves up to 20 feet high and the temperature, combined with the wind chill, feels like 10 degrees below zero by late September.

That’s the nightmare the Obama administration is inviting with its preliminary approval of a plan by Shell to drill four exploratory wells beginning next summer in the harsh and remote frontier of the Beaufort Sea, off the North Slope of Alaska.

The green light to drill now awaits Shell’s receiving the necessary permits from various federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The administration should put on the brakes.
This is a reckless gamble we cannot afford. We can’t prevent an Arctic blowout any more than we can avert disaster in the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea.
We don’t have the infrastructure, the knowledge or the experience to cope with one if it occurs.
It’s irresponsible to drill in these waters unless we have those capabilities.

When the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, appointed by President Obama in May 2010, reported our findings and recommendations earlier this year, we specifically cited the need to address these shortcomings before exposing Arctic waters to this kind of risk.

We need comprehensive research on the vibrant yet little understood Arctic ecosystems, which are home to rich fisheries of salmon, cod and char, and habitat for beluga whales, golden eagles and spotted seals.

We need containment and response plans tailored to the demands of marine operations under some of the most unforgiving conditions anywhere on earth.

And we must be realistic about the kind of backup available in a place 1,000 miles from the nearest United States Coast Guard station.

Shell’s latest spill, in the North Sea, reminds us of the peril we court by ignoring these urgent needs.

When BP’s Macondo well blew out last year, killing 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon, Americans believed the damage would be quickly contained.

The Gulf of Mexico, after all, is the epicenter of the global offshore oil industry, home to hundreds of companies that specialize in drilling wells beneath the sea.
There were plenty of ships in the region, from the shrimping fleet to the Coast Guard, available to help the efforts to cap the well and contain the spill.

And yet, in the five months it took to kill the runaway well, 170 million gallons of toxic crude oil poured into the gulf.

The systems that we were promised would avert catastrophe by preventing or containing a blowout all failed one by one.

And cleanup operations couldn’t save the marine life and birds that died, the 650 miles of coastline that was oiled or the deep water habitat now carpeted in crude, despite the efforts of nearly 50,000 workers using nearly 7,000 ships and boats.

Now comes Shell, claiming in its drilling application that its blowout preventers will work.
If not, Shell asserts, it can quickly seal the well. And, should oil escape, the company insists, it will have booms, skimmers and helicopters at the ready.

Upon those thin hopes the newly constituted Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement recently gave Shell preliminary approval to attempt this high-wire act in the Arctic.

We have yet to embrace the lessons of the BP blowout, the worst oil spill in our history.
While the bureau, formerly known as the Minerals Management Service, has improved drilling rules in helpful ways, Congress has yet to pass legislation to protect our waters, workers and wildlife from the dangers of offshore drilling.

Those dangers are only greater in the harsh and remote Arctic waters.
Before we go to the ends of the earth in pursuit of oil, we need deeper knowledge, better technology to prevent blowouts and to clean up after accidents, and greater expertise to protect Alaska’s Arctic waters, one of our oceans’ last frontiers, from grave and needless risk.

Links :

• TheGuardian : Oil spill investigation begins as Shell plugs North Sea leak (Arctic drilling sites) / HeraldScotland
  
• WP : Proposed oil drilling off Alaska coast prompts studies of environmental impact
  

Abandoned boats become unofficial economic indicator

Photo by Cyrus Buffum/Charleston Waterkeeper:
Two abandoned boats litter the waters of Charleston, behind Folly Beach

From FoxNews

Abandoned vessels may have become an unofficial indicator of the tough economy.

While no exact national figures exist, authorities in most states with a coast or large body of water have reported increasing numbers of boat owners abandoning ship in recent years.

"Certainly the economic downturn did seem to increase the number of boats that were being reported as derelict," said Dan Burger, director of communication for the Ocean and Coastal Resource Management division of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).

There are a host of reasons why people abandon boats, including those who can't keep up on the loan payments, maintenance, or the high cost of fuel.

DHEC is overseeing the removal of scores of abandoned boats from coastal waterways.

During a recent tour of Charleston's Ashley River, DHEC Coastal Projects Manager Curtis Joyner pointed to a saltwater marsh where his agency had supervised the removal of multiple boats.

"There were seven vessels ... consisting of a metal barge, a shrimp boat and several sail boats," Joyner said. "I think it's one of our really good success stories in restoring the environment."

In addition to being eyesores, abandoned vessels often leak fuel and other hazardous chemicals and usually lack any lights to warn approaching boats at night.

Joyner pointed to an abandoned vessel anchored close to a major channel used by commercial and recreational boaters. Over time, anchor lines wear out and boats break free, eventually sinking or colliding with other watercraft.

"When the vessel breaks loose, then we have to deal with it," said David Rogers, harbormaster at the Charleston City Marina. "Normally they're, of course, abandoned and do not have insurance."

South Carolina is among dozens of state and local governments that have recently increased penalties against owners of abandoned vessels. But with boats frequently changing hands and owners often scratching off serial numbers, tracking them can be difficult.

That sticks taxpayers with removal fees ranging from $3,000 to $20,000, depending on the size of the boat.

The same market conditions affecting boat owners are also affecting the government agencies in charge of removing abandoned vessels. So, increasingly, they're relying on help from the private sector.

"A local car dealer chipped in to help us get a big shrimp boat out recently," said Robbie Freeman, managing partner of the Charleston City Marina. "Just people who care about clean water."

Freeman said he advises financially troubled boaters to seek help from local businesses and government authorities before their vessels take on water.

Links :

• NYTimes : Boats too costly to keep are littering coastlines
  

The Glide

An excerpt from The Glide, a multimedia performance combining ocean and surfing footage by Jon Frank with music performed by Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The music in this section is Elgar's Sospiri set with footage from Waimea Bay.

From TheSurfer'Path

This serene collaborative piece shot by Jon Frank and played by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which is headed up by Richard Tognetti of Musica Surfica fame, is part of a larger collaboration by Frank, Tognetti and the ACO.

Here’s what Jon Frank has to say about the whole thing:

“The Glide was a fascinating project to work on.
It is a concert which runs for about 1 hour and 20 mins and features music composed by JS Bach, Elgar, Strauss, Shostakovich, a traditional sea shanty and a couple of pieces by RT himself.
It’s all about the ocean and surfing and how it feels to be surrounded by water and space and light.
The concert orchestra perform on what is essentially a dark stage, music lit by small lights on black music stands, in front of a giant projection of the motion and still images.
The concert premiered in Maribor, Slovenia in 2009 and selected excerpts have been performed in New York, Noosa and Margaret River.

Image of the week : Island of Crete, Greece

Astronaut photograph ISS028-E-18562 was acquired on July 22, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 48 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.
The image was taken by the Expedition 28 crew.
Caption by William L. Stefanov, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC.

From NASA

In classical Greek mythology, the island of Crete was home to King Minos and the terrible Minotaur, a beast that was half man and half bull.
The known historical record of Crete is no less impressive.
The island was the center of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization that flourished from approximately 2700–1420 BC.
There is archeological, geological, and cultural evidence to suggest that a cataclysmic volcanic eruption of Santorini volcano around 1620 BC was a major cause of the decline—if not complete destruction—of the Minoan civilization.

Today, Crete is the largest and most heavily populated island of Greece (or the Hellenic Republic).
The island stretches approximately 260 kilometers (161 miles) from west to east, and it is roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) across at its widest point.
The rugged terrain of Crete includes mountains, plateaus, and several deep gorges. The largest city on the island, Heraklion, sits on the northern coastline.
Several smaller islands ring Crete.
Two of the largest of these, Dia and Gavdos, are sparsely populated year-round, although Gavdos hosts numerous summer visitors.
The western and central parts of Crete appear surrounded by quicksilver in this astronaut photograph taken from the International Space Station.
This phenomenon is known as sunglint, caused by light reflecting off of the sea surface directly toward the observer.
The point of maximum reflectance is visible as a bright white region to the northwest of the island.
Surface currents causing variations in the degree of reflectance are visible near the southwestern shoreline of Crete and the smaller island of Gavdos (image lower left).