[DIALOGnews] DIALOG and DISCCRS News April 16, 2004

Fri Apr 16 16:19:39 CDT 2004

DIALOG and Disccrs News
04/18/04
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Resources

TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR:
      Submitted by Katheryn Ford
There is a distribution list associated with Tomorrow's Professor: 
Preparing for Academic Careers in Science & Engineering (Paperback, 
1997) Author: Rick Reis.
     Anyone can subscribe to the Tomorrows-Professor Listserv by 
addressing an e-mail message to:
<Majordomo at lists.stanford.edu>.
--Do NOT put anything in the SUBJECT line
--DO type in BODY of the message, subscribe tommorows-professor

State of the Land, Natural Resources Conservation Service, maps, 
tables, graphs, and related publications are available for the extent 
of farmland, forests, land-use, soil erosion, water quality, 
wetlands, and urbanization. Although the most recent data are from 
1997, this is still an all-inclusive resource relating to U.S. land 
stewardship, especially if used in conjunction with the most recent 
National Resource Inventory, completed in 2001.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/

Teaching Tip: Investigating the Climate System, from NASA, suggested 
by Cheryl Dodes, Port Washington, NY.  Need a complete set of modules 
relating to clouds, energy, precipitation, weather and wind?  These 
problem based modules correlate with national science standards and 
involve interdisciplinary connections language arts, geography, 
mathematics, and social studies.
Taken from Geo-ed 10 April 2004

http://spacelink.nasa.gov/products/Investigating.the.Climate.System/

Aquatic Science Education Resources
  ASLO's e Outreach Activities website 
(www.aslo.org/education/outreach.html) describes innovative outreach 
programs developed by your colleagues.  The Teaching Tools website 
(www.aslo.org/education/teaching.html) provides educators with a list 
of teaching tools for teaching students about limnology and 
oceanography.  These sites can be used to help members writing 
proposals who are having difficulty addressing the requirements of 
Criterion 2 of the US National Science Foundation, i.e. the broader 
impacts of the proposed activity.  Imagine a website that you can 
peruse and use to find outreach program ideas that fit within the 
parameters of your proposed research, partners who can provide you 
outreach expertise - a foothold into a school district, or a 
ready-made program in which your real-time data stream can feed 
directly into the classroom, or a teaching model that can help weave 
your research into best-practice pedagogy.  Outreach programs and 
teaching tools that you develop to meet Criterion 2 objectives can 
also be distributed on ASLO's Education website.

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Science News

SATELLITES RECORD WEAKENING NORTH ATLANTIC CURRENT
NASA RELEASE: 04-130
      A North Atlantic Ocean circulation system weakened
considerably in the late 1990s, compared to the 1970s and
1980s, according to a NASA study.
      Sirpa Hakkinen, lead author and researcher at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and co-author Peter
Rhines, an oceanographer at the University of Washington,
Seattle, believe slowing of this ocean current is an
indication of dramatic changes in the North Atlantic Ocean
climate. The study's results about the system that moves
water in a counterclockwise pattern from Ireland to Labrador
were published on the Internet by the journal Science on the
Science Express Web site at:
http://www.sciencexpress.org or http://www.aaas.org
      The current, known as the sub polar gyre, has weakened in the
past in connection with certain phases of a large-scale
atmospheric pressure system known as the North Atlantic
Oscillation (NAO). But the NAO has switched phases twice in
the 1990s, while the subpolar gyre current has continued to
weaken. Whether the trend is part of a natural cycle or the
result of other factors related to global warming is unknown.
      "It is a signal of large climate variability in the high
latitudes," Hakkinen said. "If this trend continues, it could
indicate reorganization of the ocean climate system, perhaps
with changes in the whole climate system, but we need another
good five to 10 years to say something like that is
happening." Rhines said, "The sub polar zone of the Earth is
a key site for studying the climate. It's like Grand Central
Station there, as many of the major ocean water masses pass
through from the Arctic and from warmer latitudes. They are
modified in this basin. Computer models have shown the
slowing and speeding up of the subpolar gyre can influence
the entire ocean circulation system."
      Satellite data makes it possible to view the gyre over the
entire North Atlantic basin.  Measurements from deep in the
ocean, using buoys, ships and new autonomous "robot"
Seagliders, are important for validating and extending the
satellite data. Sea-surface height satellite data came from
NASA's Seasat (July, August 1978), U.S. Navy's Geosat (1985
to 1988), and the European Space Agency's European Remote
Sensing Satellite1/2 and NASA's TOPEX/Poseidon (1992 to
present).
      Hakkinen and Rhines were able to reference earlier data to
TOPEX/Poseidon data, and translate the satellite sea-surface
height data to velocities of the subpolar gyre. The sub-polar
gyre can take 20 years to complete its route. Warm water runs
northward through the Gulf Stream, past Ireland, before it
turns westward near Iceland and the tip of Greenland.
      The current loses heat to the atmosphere as it moves north.
Westerly winds pick up that lost heat, creating warmer,
milder European winters. After frigid Labrador Sea winters,
the water in the current becomes cold, salty and dense,
plunges beneath the surface, and heads slowly southward back
to the equator. The cycle is sensitive to the paths of winter
storms and to the buoyant fresh water from glacial melting
and precipitation, all of which are experiencing great
change.
      While previous studies have proposed winds resulting from the
NAO have influenced the subpolar gyre's currents, this study
found heat exchanges from the ocean to the atmosphere may be
playing a bigger role in the weakening current. Using
Topex/Poseidon sea-surface height data, the researchers
inferred Labrador Sea water in the core of the gyre warmed
during the 1990s. This warming reduces the contrast with
water from warmer southern latitudes, which is part of the
driving force for ocean circulation.
      The joint NASA-CNES (French Space Agency) Topex/Poseidon
oceanography satellite provides high-precision data on the
height of the world's ocean surfaces, a key measure of ocean
circulation and heat storage in the ocean.

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This newsletter has been developed by C. Susan Weiler for the purpose 
of distributing information of potential interest to recent PhDs 
engaged in interdisciplinary aquatic science or climate change 
research, and to build an international sense of community among 
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The views and opinions expressed are strictly those of C.S. Weiler or 
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For ease of transmission, please do not send attachments. Send a 
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-- 
C. Susan Weiler, Ph.D.          
Biology Department                  Tel:   509-527-5948          
Whitman College                       Fax:  509-527-5961
Walla Walla, WA 99362
weiler at whitman.edu    
   Programs for Recent PhDs             http://aslo.org/phd.html
   Minorities in the Aquatic Sciences  http://www.aslo.org/mas.html
   DIALOG poster  http://www.aslo.org/phd/dialogposter.pdf
   DISCCRS poster       http://www.aslo.org/phd/disccrsposter.pdf
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