Posted on 05/01/2008 7:44:42 AM PDT by blam
Scientists discover new ocean current
The North Pacific Gyre Oscillation explains changes in salinity, nutrients and chlorophyll seen in the Northeast Pacific. Credit: Emanuele Di Lorenzo
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern explains, for the first time, changes in the water that are important in helping commercial fishermen understand fluctuations in the fish stock.
They’re also finding that as the temperature of the Earth is warming, large fluctuations in these factors could help climatologists predict how the oceans will respond in a warmer world. The research appears in April 30 edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“We’ve been able to explain, for the first time, the changes in salinity, nutrients and chlorophyll that we see in the Northeast Pacific,” said Emanuele Di Lorenzo, assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Since 1945, fishermen in the California current of the Pacific Ocean have been tracking temperature, salinity and nutrients, among other things, in the ocean to help them predict changes in fish populations like sardines and anchovies that are important for the industry. Studying this data, along with satellite images, Di Lorenzo discovered a pattern of current that he named the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation.
Recent satellite data suggest that this current is undergoing intensification as the temperature of the Earth has risen over the past few decades.
"Although the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation is part of a natural cycle of the climate system, we find evidence suggesting that its amplitude may increase as global warming progresses," said Di Lorenzo.
If this is true, this newly found climate pattern mey help scientists predict how the ecosystem of the Pacific Ocean is likely to change if the world continues to warm, as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
Oh good grief! They just found the damn current but they are sure about one thing: "global warming is going to mess it all up!"
“New”? Like the Grand canyon was “new” when it was “discovered”......It’s been there. Now all they have to do is tie it in with Globull Warming to justify more research money........Which is what they have done.......
I wonder if opening a 50 mile trench between Siberia and Alaska, would allow the Pacific Current into the Arctic Ocean, so that we can melt the arctic ice cap, and thus stop the coming Ice Age??
(Oops sorry, I was in 1978 mode. -Nostalgia Attack!- -Nostalgia Attack!-)
Grant funding insurance.
“continues to warm”??? It’s snowing here in Denver!
So if they just “discovered” it than I can’t imagine that it could have been taken into account in all these global warming climate models. Wonder how many more little tidbits didn’t make into any of the calculations?
Yup. We just broke the 1874 coolness record here in Mobile.
“Scientists Discover New Ocean Current”
We have AC and DC. And now we have OC
Just in the past 30 minutes the snow has turned to that heavy, wet, dark gray skies kinda snow. If this hangs around that 4 inch forecast is a goner. AL Gore should have to shovel this Globull Warming off my sidewalk.
The critics of science writing will claim this is not a new current, but it is.
bookmark
They have made their models much more complicated than they were when I was working in this area. We used a smooth earth, rotating with constant insolation, spherical, no continents, but the atmosphere had attributes all the way up. The math was ugly even then.
Why would they confuse a new discovery of an obviously old but undetected ocean current with a new current?
Maybe this another way to say that global warming has found a new way to hide.
If it’s new, then how do they make history graphs of it?
History is written. They make that up new, too.
Global warming, blubber swarming, this is a result of the cooling cycle. Scientists are confused.
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