see interactive world TZ map on :
http://geogarage.com/blog/news-1/post/geogarage-time-zone-api-31
http://geogarage.com/blog/news-1/post/geogarage-time-zone-api-31
Monday, July 13, 2015
Heat is being stored beneath the ocean surface
see picture
From NASA
For much of the past decade, a puzzle has been confounding the climate science community.
Nearly all of the measurable indicators of global climate change—such as sea level, ice cover on land and sea, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations—show a world changing on short, medium, and long time scales.
But for the better part of a decade, global surface temperatures appeared to level off.
The overall, long-term trend was upward, but the climb was less steep from 2003–2012.
Some scientists, the media, and climate contrarians began referring to it as “the hiatus.”
If greenhouse gases are still increasing and all other indicators show warming-related change, why wouldn’t surface temperatures keep climbing steadily, year after year?
One of the leading explanations offered by scientists was that extra heat was being stored in the ocean.
Now a new analysis by three ocean scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory not only confirms that the extra heat has been going into the ocean, but it shows where.
According to research by Veronica Nieves, Josh Willis, and Bill Patzert, the waters of the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean warmed significantly from 2003 to 2012.
But the warming did not occur at the surface; it showed up below 10 meters (32 feet) in depth, and mostly between 100 to 300 meters (300 to 1,000 feet) below the sea surface.
They published their results on July 9, 2015, in the journal Science.
“Overall, the ocean is still absorbing extra heat,” said Willis, an oceanographer at JPL.
“But the top couple of layers of the ocean exchange heat easily and can keep it away from the surface for ten years or so because of natural cycles.
In the long run, the planet is still warming.”
To understand the slowdown in global surface warming, Nieves and colleagues dove into two decades of ocean temperature records; specifically, they examined data sets compiled from underwater floats and other instruments by the Argo team at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, by the World Ocean Atlas (WOA), and by Japanese scientist Masao Ishii and colleagues.
The JPL team found that for most of the decade from 2003–2012, waters near the surface (0–10 meters) of the Pacific Ocean cooled across much of the basin.
However, the water in lower layers—10–100 meters, 100–200 meters, and 200–300 meters—warmed.
The animated map at the top of this page shows the trends in water temperatures in various depth layers of the ocean as measured between 2003 and 2012.
Areas in red depict warming trends in degrees Celsius per year, while blues depict cooling trends.
Warming is most acute between 100–200 meters in the western Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean. Some areas of the Pacific appear to cool—particularly near the surface and in the eastern half, which correlates well with the cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which has been underway for much of the past 15 to 20 years.
Note that the Atlantic Ocean does not show significant trends at any depth, with warming temperatures in one place counter-balanced by cooling in others.
The Atlantic basin is also relatively small compared to the Pacific and does not have as much impact on global temperatures.
The JPL team also noted that the temperature signal was neutral or inconclusive at depths below 300 meters, where measurements are relatively sparse.
The figure below depicts the trends in a different way.
It represents a cross-section of the top 300 meters of the global ocean and how temperatures changed from 1993 to 2012.
Note how there are cooler waters near the surface in several years in the 2000s, but that waters at depth grow much warmer.
Note, too, how the overall trend in 20 years goes from a cooling ocean to a significantly warmer ocean.
Nearly all of the measurable indicators of global climate change—such as sea level, ice cover on land and sea, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations—show a world changing on short, medium, and long time scales.
But for the better part of a decade, global surface temperatures appeared to level off.
The overall, long-term trend was upward, but the climb was less steep from 2003–2012.
Some scientists, the media, and climate contrarians began referring to it as “the hiatus.”
If greenhouse gases are still increasing and all other indicators show warming-related change, why wouldn’t surface temperatures keep climbing steadily, year after year?
One of the leading explanations offered by scientists was that extra heat was being stored in the ocean.
Now a new analysis by three ocean scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory not only confirms that the extra heat has been going into the ocean, but it shows where.
According to research by Veronica Nieves, Josh Willis, and Bill Patzert, the waters of the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean warmed significantly from 2003 to 2012.
But the warming did not occur at the surface; it showed up below 10 meters (32 feet) in depth, and mostly between 100 to 300 meters (300 to 1,000 feet) below the sea surface.
They published their results on July 9, 2015, in the journal Science.
Schematic of the trends in temperature and ocean–atmosphere circulation in the Pacific over the past two decades.
Colour shading shows observed temperature trends (°C per decade) during 1992–2011 at the sea surface (Northern Hemisphere only), zonally averaged in the latitude-depth sense and along the equatorial Pacific…
source : Nature
“Overall, the ocean is still absorbing extra heat,” said Willis, an oceanographer at JPL.
“But the top couple of layers of the ocean exchange heat easily and can keep it away from the surface for ten years or so because of natural cycles.
In the long run, the planet is still warming.”
To understand the slowdown in global surface warming, Nieves and colleagues dove into two decades of ocean temperature records; specifically, they examined data sets compiled from underwater floats and other instruments by the Argo team at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, by the World Ocean Atlas (WOA), and by Japanese scientist Masao Ishii and colleagues.
The JPL team found that for most of the decade from 2003–2012, waters near the surface (0–10 meters) of the Pacific Ocean cooled across much of the basin.
However, the water in lower layers—10–100 meters, 100–200 meters, and 200–300 meters—warmed.
The animated map at the top of this page shows the trends in water temperatures in various depth layers of the ocean as measured between 2003 and 2012.
Areas in red depict warming trends in degrees Celsius per year, while blues depict cooling trends.
Warming is most acute between 100–200 meters in the western Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean. Some areas of the Pacific appear to cool—particularly near the surface and in the eastern half, which correlates well with the cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which has been underway for much of the past 15 to 20 years.
Note that the Atlantic Ocean does not show significant trends at any depth, with warming temperatures in one place counter-balanced by cooling in others.
The Atlantic basin is also relatively small compared to the Pacific and does not have as much impact on global temperatures.
The JPL team also noted that the temperature signal was neutral or inconclusive at depths below 300 meters, where measurements are relatively sparse.
The figure below depicts the trends in a different way.
It represents a cross-section of the top 300 meters of the global ocean and how temperatures changed from 1993 to 2012.
Note how there are cooler waters near the surface in several years in the 2000s, but that waters at depth grow much warmer.
Note, too, how the overall trend in 20 years goes from a cooling ocean to a significantly warmer ocean.
Nieves, Willis, and Patzert were provoked to launch the study because they wanted a more detailed, nuanced picture of ocean temperatures than is possible with most models.
On a broad scale, models can replicate broad and long-term trends in the sea; but on smaller scales of space and time, a lot of the models cannot match real-world conditions.
The new findings should help improve models of ocean heat storage and climate impacts on regional scales.
The Pacific Ocean covers nearly one-third of Earth’s surface, so it has an outsized impact on the global thermostat.
“As the top 100 meters of the Pacific goes, so goes the surface temperatures of the planet,” said Patzert, a climatologist at JPL.
With the surface layer of the ocean being cooler for much of the study period, those waters had a moderating effect on air masses and weather systems on the continents.
However, ocean and air temperatures have started to rise swiftly in the past two to three years, which suggests that the cool phase of the PDO and the warming hiatus is over.
“Natural, decadal variability has been with us for centuries, and it continues to have big regional impacts on society,” said Nieves, a JPL scientist with a joint appointment at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“We can expect to have more hiatuses in the future, but unless future hiatuses are stronger than usual, they will be less visible due to fast rising greenhouse gases. Right now, the combined effect of the human-caused warming and the Pacific changing to a warm phase can play together and produce warming acceleration.”
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Trailer : The finest hours
Disney has released the trailer for a new movie based on the true story of heroic US Coast Guard rescue of 32 mariners aboard the SS Pendleton.
In the winter of 1952, a four-man crew from the USCG braved 60-foot waves and 70-knot winds to save men trapped in stern section of the oil tanker after one of the worst Nor’Easter gales on record tore the vessel in two.
Using only a 36-foot wooden motorized boat the men carried out one of the most daring rescue missions in Coast Guard history.
"Coast Guard photo of bow section of tanker PENDLETON grounded near Pollock Rib Liteship, six miles off Chatham, Mass on the morning of Feb. 19, 1952."
Official USCG Photo; by Richard C. Kelsey, Chatham, Mass.
Official USCG Photo; by Richard C. Kelsey, Chatham, Mass.
The incident occurred on February 18 while the tanker was underway off of Cape Cod.
In the early morning hours fierce snow fall and hues waves snapped the vessel in two.
The captain and seven crewmen sank in the bow section of the ship.
Reports after the accident said the tanker had been constructed with “dirty steel”, which was not able to withstand gales force winds.
The Finest Hours recounts this amazing story from the perspectives of the US Coast Guard men that carrying out the operation as well as the desperate mariners stranded aboard the mangled tanker.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Ice & sky : investigating the depth of time
Claude Lorius (born 1932) is a French glaciologist.
He began studying Antarctic ice in 1957, and, in 1965,
was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming.
was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming.
He was instrumental in the discovery and interpretation of the palaeo-atmosphere information within ice cores.
Links :
Friday, July 10, 2015
Philippines uses 18th-century English aristocrat's map to claim disputed islands
From The Telegraph by Julian Ryall
Philippines government to take 1734 document to UN tribunal to support its demand that China leaves the Scarborough Shoal
A 281-year-old map from the collection of an English duke is to be put forward by the government of the Philippines to support its claim to islands in the South China Sea that are presently being fortified by China.
The Philippines government has said it will submit the map, drawn up in Manila in 1734 by Pedro Murillo Velarde, a Jesuit priest, to the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in The Hague as soon as this week, according to the Vera Files website.
The map shows islands that are now known as Scarborough Shoals, marked as Panacot, as part of Philippines territory.
The Philippines government has said it will submit the map, drawn up in Manila in 1734 by Pedro Murillo Velarde, a Jesuit priest, to the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in The Hague as soon as this week, according to the Vera Files website.
The map shows islands that are now known as Scarborough Shoals, marked as Panacot, as part of Philippines territory.
They are shown around 120 miles off the west coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon.
The map shows islands that are now known as Scarborough Shoals, marked as Panacot, as part of Philippines territory.
They are shown around 120 miles off the west coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon.
The map shows islands that are now known as Scarborough Shoals, marked as Panacot, as part of Philippines territory (Library of Congress)
The Philippine government is calling on the UN to recognise its claim to sovereignty over the islands and to call on Beijing to withdraw.
The map was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London in November at the request of the Duke of Northumberland.
The duke sold the map, along with around 80 other family heirlooms, after serious flooding affected his properties in April 2012. Media reports suggested that the duke faced a repair bill for £12 million after the waters subsided.
The map was put up for auction on November 4, with the Sotheby's catalogue describing the 44-inch by 47-inch engraved map as being "the first scientific map of the Philippines" of its time.
With light browning along the creases, the map is flanked by a series of 12 engravings depicting people in native costumes, a map of the island that is today known as Guam and smaller maps of cities and harbours in the Pacific.
Sotheby's estimated that the item would sell for between £20,000 and £30,000, but it quickly outstripped those predictions and was eventually sold for £170,500 to a Filipino businessman.
The map was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London in November at the request of the Duke of Northumberland.
The duke sold the map, along with around 80 other family heirlooms, after serious flooding affected his properties in April 2012. Media reports suggested that the duke faced a repair bill for £12 million after the waters subsided.
The map was put up for auction on November 4, with the Sotheby's catalogue describing the 44-inch by 47-inch engraved map as being "the first scientific map of the Philippines" of its time.
With light browning along the creases, the map is flanked by a series of 12 engravings depicting people in native costumes, a map of the island that is today known as Guam and smaller maps of cities and harbours in the Pacific.
A Filipino businessman shows a replica of a 1734 Philippine map
which included islands in the disputed waters.
Sotheby's estimated that the item would sell for between £20,000 and £30,000, but it quickly outstripped those predictions and was eventually sold for £170,500 to a Filipino businessman.
Mel Velarde, president of an information technology company called Now Corporation, said he first became interested in the map because he shared a family name with the priest who had first published it.
He told the Vera Files that his interest increased when he realised that it "proved" the Philippines' claim to the islands.
The bidding quickly reached the £80,000 limit that Mr Velarde had initially set himself.
But after a "vision" of Chinese soldiers occupying the islands, Mr Velarde said it "became a personal crusade" to buy the map because the Philippines' claim needs to be backed up by evidence.
Asked why he had paid so much for the map, Mr Velarde said, "There's a bully in the neighbourhood. He already took over our land."
He told the Vera Files that his interest increased when he realised that it "proved" the Philippines' claim to the islands.
The bidding quickly reached the £80,000 limit that Mr Velarde had initially set himself.
But after a "vision" of Chinese soldiers occupying the islands, Mr Velarde said it "became a personal crusade" to buy the map because the Philippines' claim needs to be backed up by evidence.
Asked why he had paid so much for the map, Mr Velarde said, "There's a bully in the neighbourhood. He already took over our land."
Mr Velarde has decided to donate the original map to the National Museum but has had a number of copies printed.
He will present one of those copies to Benigno Aquino, the president of the Philippines, on June 12, the anniversary of the nation's independence.
Another copy will be delivered to the UN as Manila seeks arbitration in the territorial dispute.
The Philippines accuses China of seizing the islands in 2012, when ships of the two nations were involved in a stand-off.
When the smaller Philippine force had to withdraw, the Chinese occupied the islands.
In January 2013, the Philippines requested international arbitration in the case and, the following year, submitted a 4,000-page dossier to support its claim of sovereignty.
Beijing has ignored requests to take part in arbitration procedures.
Links :
Another copy will be delivered to the UN as Manila seeks arbitration in the territorial dispute.
The Philippines accuses China of seizing the islands in 2012, when ships of the two nations were involved in a stand-off.
When the smaller Philippine force had to withdraw, the Chinese occupied the islands.
Scarborough Shoals in the GeoGarage platform (NGA nautical chart)
In January 2013, the Philippines requested international arbitration in the case and, the following year, submitted a 4,000-page dossier to support its claim of sovereignty.
Beijing has ignored requests to take part in arbitration procedures.
Links :
- CBSNews : A wealth of stories from the Murillo-Velarde map
- TheMurilloVelardeMap
- BBC : South China Sea: David v Goliath as dispute goes to court
- IMOA : Historical Truths and Lies Scarborough Shoal in Ancient Maps
- Murillo mapa de las yslas Philipinas (1744)
- TheMapHouse : “A Chart of the China Sea and Philippine Islands with the Archipelagos of Felicia and Soloo”
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