China unveils a new unmanned warship, the "Killer Whale"

 

Via Chinese social media

From Maritime Executive

An unusual trimaran drone ship was spotted at Guangzhou Shipyard earlier this year, and it has now made its first public appearance. On Friday, at the Zhuhai Airshow, the PLA Navy unveiled a new surface combatant called the "Killer Whale" - a miniature warship with an operating concept much like the U.S. Navy's Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship, but smaller and potentially without crew.

According to Chinese media, the vessel has a length of 190 feet and displaces about 300-500 tonnes, with a maximum speed of 40 knots and a range of about 4,000 nautical miles. It is reportedly fitted to carry a wide array of weaponry - antiship missiles, antiaircraft missiles, torpedoes, and a drone helicopter on the rear deck. 

🚨update🚨
Additional ultra high res 30cm📷 of the Guangzhou Shipyard from 6 August 2024 gives a view of the unknown USV as well as what could be a 'research carrier' of sorts along with dimensions via @qgis (or a large dock landing ship) https://t.co/uqI56oUE5A pic.twitter.com/HQbqAEBuT0

— MT Anderson (@MT_Anderson) October 29, 2024

Its most notable feature might be the resuscitation of the "modular mission package" concept, which first entered full-scale service with the debut of the Littoral Combat Ship in the 2010s. The underlying concept was to field a multipurpose vessel that could carry "swappable" weapons packages for different missions - mine warfare, antisubmarine warfare and surface warfare. In practice, the U.S. Navy was not able to develop or operationalize the "swappable" concept aboard its two LCS classes, and each LCS vessel is now permanently fitted with specific equipment.

According to local media, the new Killer Whale's mission sets include surveillance patrols, surface warfare, anti-submarine operations, and air defense missions. It can be reconfigured for "sea battlefield environment surveys and rescue in distress," making it an "all-around warrior."

中国広東省珠海市で開催されている第15回中国国際航空宇宙博覧会に登場した無人戦闘艇「虎鲸（Orca）」。
全長58m、排水量500t。機関銃、対艦/対空ミサイル、ロケット弾、対潜魚雷を装備し、後部にはヘリ甲板もpic.twitter.com/9oLPKIki78

— ミリレポ (@sabatech_pr) November 10, 2024

Though designed by CSSC's autonomous vessel specialists and designated as unmanned, the new USV also has a prominent wraparound bridge deck for human watchstanders. Naval analysts have noted that it bears a striking resemblance to Indonesia's manned Klewang-class fast attack craft: The carbon fiber Klewang-class is longer, narrower, and has less range and payload, but has a comparable top speed and a superficially similar appearance.
 

Interestingly the final configuration appears to be somewhat closer to the "Jari-USV-A" (not the Jari) concept model shown years ago vs the graphic shown at launch of the project. https://t.co/3Bp71lZbYv pic.twitter.com/WbjrzkekzH

— Alex Luck (@AlexLuck9) October 28, 2024

• Illustrations and scale models of the Killer Whale's design have appeared at Chinese defense trade shows over the past two years under the program name "JARI-USV-A." Open-source intelligence analysts first spotted the full-sizgoog_535963585e prototype in satellite imagery at CSSC Guangzhou Shipyard last month.

Links :

• Hutton : China Builds World's Largest Uncrewed Naval Warship
• SCMP : China unveils ‘Killer Whale’ stealth drone ship
• MarineInsight : China Debuts Powerful Stealth Drone Ship “Killer Whale” With Advanced Warfare Capabilities 

Arctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs, US agency says

From The Guardian by Dharna Noor

Drastic shift driven by frequent wildfires, pushing surface air temperatures to second-warmest on record since 1900

The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon sink, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Tuesday.

This drastic shift is detailed in Noaa’s 2024 Arctic Report Card, which revealed that annual surface air temperatures in the Arctic this year were the second-warmest on record since 1900.

“Our observations now show that the Arctic tundra, which is experiencing warming and increased wildfire, is now emitting more carbon than it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts,” said Rick Spinrad, a Noaa administrator.

NOAA Arctic Report Card: Update for 2024 - Tracking recent environmental changes, with 12 essays prepared by an international team of 97 researchers from 11 different countries and an independent peer review organized by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme of the Arctic Council.

In the ocean :

In September 2024, the extent of Arctic sea ice, which has a profound influence on the polar environment, was the sixth-lowest in the 45-year satellite record.
All 18 of the lowest September minimum ice extents have occurred in the last 18 years.
Arctic Ocean regions that were ice-free in August have been warming at a rate of 0.5 degrees F (0.3 degrees C) per decade since 1982.
In most of the shallow seas that ring the Arctic Ocean, August mean sea surface temperatures were 3.6–7.2 degrees F (2–4 degrees C) warmer than 1991-2020 averages, while the Chukchi Sea were 1.8–7.2 degrees F (1–4 degrees C) cooler than average.
Plankton blooms — the base of the marine food chain — continue to increase in all Arctic regions, except for the Pacific Arctic, throughout the observational record of 2003–2024. However, in 2024, lower-than-average values were dominant across much of the Arctic.
Ice seal populations remain healthy in the Pacific Arctic, though their diets are shifting from Arctic cod to saffron cod with warming waters. 

 
The report, led by scientists from the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, found that the Arctic is warming faster than the global average for the 11th year in a row.

Currently, it is warming at up to four times the global rate, the authors found.

Climate warming has dual effects on the Arctic.
While it stimulates plant productivity and growth, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it also leads to increased surface air temperatures that cause permafrost to thaw.

When permafrost thaws, carbon trapped in the frozen soil is decomposed by microbes and released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, two potent greenhouse gases.

“We need accurate, holistic and comprehensive knowledge of how climate changes will affect the amount of carbon the Arctic is taking up and storing, and how much it’s releasing back into the atmosphere, in order to effectively address this crisis,” said Dr Sue Natali, a scientist at the Woodwell Center who contributed to the research.
“This report represents a critical step toward quantifying these emissions at scale.”

Human-caused climate change is also intensifying high-latitude wildfires, which have increased in burned area, intensity and associated carbon emissions.

Wildfires not only combust vegetation and soil organic matter, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, but they also strip away insulating soil layers, accelerating long-term permafrost thaw and its associated carbon emissions.

“In recent years, we’ve seen how increasing fire activity from climate change threatens both communities and the carbon stored in permafrost, but now we’re beginning to be able to measure the cumulative impact to the atmosphere, and it’s significant,” said Dr Brendan Rogers, Woodwell Climate scientist and report contributor.

Since 2003, circumpolar wildfire emissions have averaged 207m tons of carbon annually, according to Noaa.
At the same time, Arctic terrestrial ecosystems have remained a consistent source of methane.

“The climate catastrophe we’re seeing in the Arctic is already bringing consequences for communities around the world,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“The alarming harbinger of a net carbon source being unleashed sooner rather than later doesn’t bode well.
Once reached, many of these thresholds of adverse impacts on ecosystems cannot be reversed.”

 

Links :

• Phys : Sink to source: Arctic tundra emitting more carbon than it absorbs
• Vox : This critical ecosystem helped keep climate change in check. Now it’s making things worse
• NOAA : Arctic tundra becoming source of carbon dioxide emissions 

Eden's whale's incredible new hunting technique helps survival

As agricultural pollution suffocates the ocean, Eden's whales have had to adjust their hunting methods. This adaptation highlights the urgent need for all species to evolve quickly in a world where our actions are rapidly altering their habitats.

Image of the week : a sea of seas

The region shown in this image includes several full and partial seas.

At top is the southern Black Sea, with high chlorophyll responsible for beautiful teal colors.

The Sea of Marmara, Thracian Sea, Aegean Sea, and Sea of Crete lie between the countries of Greece and Turkey.. 

At bottom is the eastern Mediterranean Sea, which is partially obscured by dust blowing off the African continent. 

NASA

Led lights on underside of surfboards may deter great white shark attacks

From The Guardian by Donna Lu

LED lights on underside of surfboards may deter great white shark attacks

Australian-led study using seal-shaped decoys finds lighting disrupts ability of predators to see silhouettes against sunlight above

Using LED lighting on the underside of surfboards or kayaks could deter great white shark attacks, new research suggests.

In an Australian-led study using seal-shaped decoys, underside lighting disrupted the ability of great whites to see silhouettes against the sunlight above, reducing the rates at which the sharks followed and attacked the artificial prey. 

The brighter the lights, the more effective the deterrent was.

The study’s lead author, Dr Laura Ryan of Macquarie University in Sydney, said white sharks seemed to rely on the visual cues of a dark object silhouetted against a lighter background.
“If you flip that to a light object on a dark background, then it doesn’t seem to be something they recognise as prey,” she said.

Ryan’s previous research on great whites suggests that attacks on humans may be a case of mistaken identity.

The animal has a far lower visual acuity – the ability to see shapes and details – than humans.

Her work has suggested that juvenile great white sharks, from below, are unlikely to be able to clearly tell seals apart from swimmers or people paddling surfboards.

 

A great white shark breaches to bite a seal decoy in Mossel Bay, South Africa.

Photograph: Nathan Hart/Macquarie University

Other research has shown that sharks are colour-blind or at best have only limited colour perception abilities.

The new study, conducted in Mossel Bay, South Africa, involved towing decoys behind a boat for dozens of hours.

The researchers initially found success by covering the underside of the decoy entirely in lights. 

“But if you’re actually going to come up with something to protect people, [entirely] covering a surfboard … is just not practical because it’s a huge amount of lighting, which needs a huge amount of battery power,” Ryan said.

The researchers experimented with more sparse lighting options, finding that horizontal stripes of LED lights had a similar deterrent effect. 

“When you do horizontal stripes, the silhouette [appears] wider than it is long, so it’s less like a seal,” Ryan said.

Longitudinal strips of light, however, were not effective, nor were strobe lights, which gave the sharks momentary glimpses of the decoy silhouette. 

“Interestingly, just that small glimpse of the entire silhouette was enough for the white sharks to start biting the decoys,” Ryan said.

The scientists towed the seal decoy to encourage the white sharks to breach – one form of hunting involving rapid acceleration to the surface to catch prey. 

They say more research is required into shark behaviour with static decoys, which would resemble surfers waiting to catch a wave rather than actively paddling.

The team is testing a surfboard prototype with fitted lighting. “Surfers can be a little bit fussy with their surfboards,” Ryan said. 

“As a surfer, I want it to be usable.”

Globally, most shark bites are associated with people surfing or taking part in other board sports. 

Fatal shark bites, though rare, are mostly due to great whites.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, noted it would be important to test whether lighting was also effective in deterring other speciesthat attack humans, including bull sharks and tiger sharks, as these have different predation behaviours.

Links :

• The Guardian : Great white shark attacks on humans may be case of mistaken identity, study suggests