For
the 10th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm,
NOAA's National
Climatic Data Center in NC has produced 8 newly
enhanced satellite ../images. The ../images, from NOAA -11,
a polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite,
show how the Persian Gulf region looked from space
as retreating Iraqi solders torched over 100 Kuwaiti
oil wells. Dramatic scenes stretch for hundreds of
miles.
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Humans
aren't the only species affected by everyday stress.
Jennifer Specker, a Rhode Island Sea Grant scientist,
found that the success of the summer flounder
aquaculture industry depends on keeping fish relatively
stress free. With a grant from the National
Marine Fisheries Service, she is identifying
the industry practices that bring on stress and
developing ways to help curtail it. To meet consumer,
demand, seafood produced through aquaculture is
expected to incease seven-fold over the next 30
year.
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When the tanker Jessica ran aground off the
San Cristobal Island of Ecuador, the government
there called the National
Ocean Service to send in a spill response
team. With well over 200,000 gallons of oil leaking,
NOS sent in scientific support coordinators to
work next to National Park Service scientists
to minimize the spill's effects. With support
from the National Weather Service, NOS' Hazardous
Materials Response Division is providing the U.S.
team with oil spill forecasts.
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NOAA's
Paleoclimatology Program has archived data
from tropical ice cores in Bolivia and Peru that
have been used to reconstruct tropical climate history
over the past 20,000 years. The data confirm that
global climate changes have been reflected in tropical
regions since the last ice age and show warming
trends over the past 200 years.
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Expanding Opportunities in Oceanic and Atmospheric
Sciences
with the aim of building sustainable alliances underscores
the ever-expanding initiatives of Dr. Ambrose Jearld,
Jr., Chief of Research Planning and Coordination at
NOAA's Northeast
Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, MA. That
theme is also the focus of an upcoming and distinct
conference.
Actively
supported by every NOAA line office, Dr. Jearld and
a dedicated steering committee are inviting broad
NOAA participation at an April 1 - 3 conference
at Mississippi's Jackson State University. The conference
aims to build more bridges between the educational
and occupational communities in marine and atmospheric
fields. The theme was first applied as a reflection
of the late Dr. Foster's leadership and vision for
an inclusive NOAA. Dr. Foster was the Assistant Administrator
of the National Ocean Service.
This
is the third conference developed by Dr. Jearld. The
first, in 1995, fostered a link between historically
minority-serving colleges and so-called "blue-water"
graduate programs. With former Deputy Secretary Robert
Mallett as keynote speaker, the second conference,
in 1999, brought potential employers and minority
candidates together in areas of environmental sciences.
It also paved the way for this year's conference.
Even
more public and private employers and minority-serving
institutions are expected to come together this time
around. The 1999 conference attracted more than double
the 100 attendees in 1995. The April conference is
expected to grow even more. For details and on-line
registration:
www.nefsc.nmfs.gov/opportunities/
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- Click for larger version of photo -
National
Weather Service staff in Cleveland
have been honored with the Millenium Award presented
by the Great Lakes Carriers Association. William
Comeaux (left), meteorologist-in-charge, and Gary
Garnet (right), warning coordination meteorologist,
accepted the award on behalf of all Cleveland staff
from association vice president Rick Harkins. Cleveland
staff spent many long hours upgrading the weather
system that provides critical forecasts and other
information to U.S. flagships plying the Great Lakes.
The tribute recognizes that a massive migration
of programs and communications from a non-Y2K compliant
computer had to be completed within a few short
months - and that NWS staff successfully pulled
it off.
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