30 June-4 July 2008

• Eye on the tropics-- In the western North Pacific, Typhoon Fengshen made landfall in southern China near Hong Kong early last week, after it had weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm. This typhoon, which had earlier reached category 2 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, had moved northward across the South China Sea following an initial landfall on Luzon in the Philippines, where the winds and heavy rain were responsible for hundreds of deaths. An image from the NOAA-17 satellite shows the clouds of Tropical Storm Fengshen as it made landfall in southern China last week. [NOAA OSEI] Another image generated from data obtained by NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite shows the heavy rain that fell along the track of Typhoon Fengshen; rainfall totals were as much as 15 inches. [NASA Earth Observatory] Additional information on this typhoon is available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  In the eastern North Pacific Basin, Tropical Storm Boris formed late last week several hundred miles off the coast of Central America. This tropical storm was the second named tropical cyclone of the 2008 season for the eastern North Pacific. A satellite image of Boris and additional information concerning this tropical storm are available on the NASA Hurricane Page. As of Saturday, this system was expected to continue moving toward the west-northwest.
  Over the weekend, a tropical depression intensified to become Tropical Storm Cristina. This system, which was well away from the Central American coast, was moving westward away from land.

• International humanitarian aid continues in wake of tropical cyclone -- Officials with the United Nations plans to have the World Health Organization and UNICEF launch a massive anti-dengue campaign across sections of Myanmar (Burma) that have been hit by the deadly tropical cyclone in May. [US Water News Online]
• National Clean Beaches Week -- The Clean Beaches Council has declared this week (1-5 July 2008) as National Clean Beaches Week, which is meant to focus public attention on the role of sustainable beaches in American life. Four themes deemed to be important to people going to the beach will be emphasized: healthy environment, sustainable travel, clean recreation and fitness, and healthy food choices [Clean Beaches Council]
• A centennial of a major airburst -- Monday (30 June 2008) marks the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, an airburst of a comet or meteoroid over Siberia in eastern Russia. A description with paintings based on eyewitness reports was prepared by William Hartmann a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. [PSI]
• NOAA scientists honored -- The federal government's Partnership for Public Service selected two NOAA scientists as finalists for the 2008 Service to America Medal because of their life-saving and educational inventions. One of the finalists was the Director of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Dr. Eddie Bernard, for his creation of a tsunami detection system. The other NOAA finalist was Dr. Alexander MacDonald, Director of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory for his invention of Science on a Sphere®, a three-dimensional teaching tool. [NOAA News]
• Another Gulf port gets a new environmental observing system -- NOAA in partnership with the Mississippi State Port Authority has installed the NOAA Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) at Gulfport, MS that will provide free real-time meteorological and oceanographic information to mariners using this port on the Gulf Coast. [NOAA News]
• Mississippi River flooding continues -- A high resolution image obtained from the commercial satellite Ikonos shows the floodwater from the Mississippi River that spread across west central Illinois including the community of Gulfport following the breaching of two levees. Torrential rain across sections of the upper Midwest in early June that followed record winter snow resulted in rapid rises in the river levels along the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Global aerosol patterns monitored from space -- Maps of the global distribution of aerosols were recently released from data collected from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite. One of the maps represents an aerosol climatology for the period from 2000 to 2007 in terms of "aerosol optical thickness", while the other image is of the "aerosol optical thickness anomaly" for 2007, marking the difference between last year and the eight-year average. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Northern California is ablaze -- Following the driest meteorological spring (March through May) since 1895 in California, nearly three dozen wildfires flared across central and northern sections of the Golden State during the last week, the triggered by lightning from high-based thunderstorms that brought little rainfall. An image made by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite detected some of these fires, along with the smoke. [NASA Earth Observatory] An image from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite shows the extent of the smoke that spread from these wildfires across a large section of the West, extending into Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. [NOAA OSEI]
• Damage assessment of large wildfire in Norway made from space -- Norway’s KSAT (the Kongsberg Satellite Services) has been using data collected by the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite to assess the damage caused across Norway due to a recent wildfire that has been the biggest in that country in the last 50 years. [ESA]
• Monitoring air may help anticipate potential Panhandle ecosystem changes -- Researchers at Texas AgriLife Research at Amarillo, TX are working with the US Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine how air pollutants can have an effect on ecosystems across the high Plains. They are taking air samples and precipitation data in the Texas Panhandle for wet deposition measurements as part of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program as well as dry deposition measurements for the Clean Air Status and Trends Network. [EurekAlert!]
• Martian atmosphere could have had moisture -- Geoscientists analyzing Martian soil data collected by NASA's Opportunity Rover at the Meridiani Planum site on the Red Planet conclude that sufficient water in the Martian atmosphere could have produced a light drizzle or dew to hit the soil surface, resulting in tell-tale signs. [EurekAlert!]
• Destruction of low-level greenhouse gases found over tropical Atlantic -- Samples of ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, halocarbons and particles collected from the lowest 100 meters of the atmosphere over the tropical Atlantic by scientists associated with the Cape Verde Observatory have found that large quantities of ozone appear to have been destroyed in this layer. They attribute the loss of ozone, which also contributes to a removal of methane, to bromine and iodine oxide entering the atmosphere from sea spray and emissions from phytoplankton. [EurekAlert!]
• A warning that climate change could challenge national security -- A new classified report compiled by the National Intelligence Council for the House Intelligence Committee has determined that within the next 20 years, projected changes in global climate could threaten US security because the changes could cause political instability, mass movements of refugees, terrorism, or conflicts over water and other resources in specific countries. [EurekAlert!]
• Public concern about climate change in the Sunshine State -- A recent survey of Floridians conducted by researchers at Yale University and the University of Miami shows that a majority of Sunshine State residents are convinced that global warming is currently occurring and that state officials should do more to help Florida deal with the potentially negative effects upon the state. [EurekAlert!]
• Unique plants native to California could be vulnerable -- A study produced by researchers at the University of California, Berkley indicates that two-thirds of the plants native only to California are severely vulnerable to projected climate changes, as these plants could suffer more than an 80 percent reduction in geographic range by 2100. [EurekAlert!]
• Adapting farming to climate change Down Under -- A scientist with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation recently claimed that the agricultural community across his country should focus on proactive solutions to adapting Australian agriculture to the impacts of climatic change. [CSIRO]
• Ancient submerged oaks found to sequester carbon -- Researchers at the University of Missouri's Tree Ring Laboratory have found that oak trees that were submerged in freshwater aquatic systems for up to 14,000 years across northern Missouri appear to be able to sequester carbon for approximately 2000 years, rather than having it released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide within 20 years following the fall of an oak in a forest. [University of Missouri News]
• Satellite designed to be an "asteroid-hunter" --The Canadian Space Agency and the Defence Research Development Canada are building a satellite called NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) that would be the world's first space telescope that would find and track asteroids sufficiently close to earth in addition to satellites. Asteroid collisions with earth could result in climate change if the asteroids would be sufficiently large. [EurekAlert!]
• Evidence of volcanic eruptions found in the Arctic Ocean -- Researchers from the US, Germany and several other countries who conducted a scientific expedition to the Gakkel Ridge, a mid oceanic ridge in the Arctic Ocean, have found extensive layers of volcanic ash on the seafloor, which provides evidence of explosive volcanic eruptions within the Arctic basin. [EurekAlert!] [EurekAlert!]
• Studying glacier movement -- Glaciologists, geologists and other materials experts gathered at a recent workshop organized by the European Science Foundation to discuss research into the more detailed modeling of ice sheet and glacier flow so as to improve the accuracy of climate modeling and forecasting especially to provide better predictions of global ice cover. [EurekAlert!]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2008, The American Meteorological Society.