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Study Provides Some Answers to Fate of Deepwater Horizon Oil

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2014Environment50, chris reddy, david valentine, fate, gas, gulf of mexico, harold steinacker, kosmologie, macondo well, matrix modelle, negative wealth shocks, oil, plume, prothese der zukunft, retirement study, risk of dying, sea surface, seafloor, surface oil slicks, thomas stieglitz, ucsb, wealth loss, whoi

Nearly five years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion led to the release of roughly 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are still working to answer the question: Where did all the oil go?

During the 2010 crisis, some of the oil gushing from the seafloor appeared as slicks on the sea surface, while roughly half of it, scientists estimate, remained trapped in deep ocean plumes of mixed oil and gas, one of which was more than a mile wide, hundreds of feet high and extended for miles southwest of the broken riser pipe at the damaged Macondo well. Many natural processes—like evaporation and biodegradation—and human actions—like the use of dispersants and flaring of gas at the surface—impacted the chemical makeup and fate of the oil, adding to the complexity of accounting for it. (more…)

A Look Back and Ahead at Greenland’s Changing Climate

By Guest PostFebruary 13, 2014Environmentarctic anomalies, changing climate, climate models project, fiamma straneo, fjords, greenland, greenland ice sheet, ice loss, ice ocean boundary, MIT, natural climate variability, north atlantic, north atlantic ocean, ocean warming, patrick heimbach, runoff, sea surface, sea-level rise, submarine melting, whoi

Over the past two decades, ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet increased four-fold contributing to one-quarter of global sea level rise. However, the chain of events and physical processes that contributed to it has remained elusive. One likely trigger for the speed up and retreat of glaciers that contributed to this ice loss is ocean warming.

A review paper by physical oceanographers Fiamma Straneo at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Patrick Heimbach at MIT published in Nature explains what scientists have learned from their research on and around Greenland over the past 20 years and describes the measurements and technology needed to continue to move the science forward. (more…)

Forecast for Titan: Wild Weather Could be Ahead

By Guest PostMay 30, 2013Sciencebig lakes, cassini spacecraft, cornell university, data, energy, equatorial plane, equinox, european space agency, forecast for titan, Germany, hurricanes, hydrocarbon liquid, hydrocarbon seas, infrared mapping spectrometer, ithaca, lake, lake huron, liquid ethane, methane, NASA, northern hemisphere, northern summer solstice, saturns moon, scott edgington, sea surface, seawater evaporation, tetsuya tokano, titans gravity, university of cologne, vims, visual, wild weather, wind waves

Saturn’s moon Titan might be in for some wild weather as it heads into its spring and summer, if two new models are correct. Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan’s northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon’s hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too. The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.

“If you think being a weather forecaster on Earth is difficult, it can be even more challenging at Titan,” said Scott Edgington, Cassini’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We know there are weather processes similar to Earth’s at work on this strange world, but differences arise due to the presence of unfamiliar liquids like methane. We can’t wait for Cassini to tell us whether our forecasts are right as it continues its tour through Titan spring into the start of northern summer.” (more…)

Scientists Use Marine Robots to Detect Endangered Whales

By Guest PostJanuary 27, 2013Environment, Natureacoustic research group, baleen whales, bar harbor, ben hodges, callosities, cinar, dave fratantoni, detect, detection system, digital acoustic monitoring, dmon, dynamic management area, ecologists, endangered species, endangered whales, endeavor, fin, gliders, gps position, gulf challenger, gulf of maine, hearing the whales, hole, humpback, instrument, interactions, knowledge gap, marianna hagbloom, marine robots, mark baumgartner, mark johnson, nefsc, new england aquarium, new hampshire, nick woods, noaa, north atlantic, northeast fisheries, ocean going robots, oceanographic institution, outer fall, passive, portsmouth, profile, research vessel, rhode island, right whales, salinity, science center, scientists, sea surface, sei, sofie van parijs, temperature, tiny crustaceans, tom hurst, transmit data, university, use of technology, whoi, woods, zooplankton

Two robots equipped with instruments designed to “listen” for the calls of baleen whales detected nine endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of Maine last month. The robots reported the detections to shore-based researchers within hours of hearing the whales (i.e., in real time), demonstrating a new and powerful tool for managing interactions between whales and human activities.

The team of researchers, led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists Mark Baumgartner and Dave Fratantoni, reported their sightings to NOAA, the federal agency responsible for enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act. NOAA Fisheries Service, in turn, put in place on Dec. 5 a “dynamic management area,” asking mariners to voluntarily slow their vessel speed to avoid striking the animals. (more…)

Tag Archives: sea surface

Study Provides Some Answers to Fate of Deepwater Horizon Oil

A Look Back and Ahead at Greenland’s Changing Climate

Forecast for Titan: Wild Weather Could be Ahead

Scientists Use Marine Robots to Detect Endangered Whales