African dust changes India's rain fall: Dust can impact planet's climate, studies have shown

A brand new analysis of satellite data discloses a hyperlink between dust in North Africa and West Asia and more powerful monsoons in India. The research implies that dust in mid-air soaks up sunlight west asia, warming the environment and strengthening the winds transporting moisture eastward. This leads to more monsoon rain fall about not much later in India. The outcomes explain one of the ways that dust can impact the weather, filling out formerly unknown particulars about Earth's system.

The research also implies that natural airborne contaminants may influence rain fall in unpredicted ways, with changes in a single quickly affecting weather 1000's of miles away. The scientists examined satellite data and carried out computer modeling from the region to tease the role of dust around the Indian monsoon, they report March 16 in Character Geoscience.

India depends on its summer time monsoon rains. "The main difference from a monsoon ton year or perhaps a dry year is all about 10 % from the average summer time rain fall in central India. Versions driven by dust might be sufficiently strong to describe a number of that year-to-year variation," stated climate researcher Phil Rasch from the Department of Energy's North American National Laboratory.

Rasch, V. Vinoj from the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India, as well as their coauthors desired to explore a correlation that made an appearance in satellite records: greater levels of small contaminants known as aerosols over North Africa, West Asia, and also the Arabian Ocean appeared to become linked to more powerful rain fall over India around the same time frame. They wanted to ascertain if they might verify this and see how individuals contaminants might affect rain fall.

Look around the connection, they used a pc model known as CAM5 and centered on the region. The model incorporated humanmade aerosols from pollution, and natural ocean salt and mud aerosols. First, they went the model and noted an identical connection: more aerosols in the western world meant more rain fall within the east. They methodically switched from the contribution of every aerosol type and looked to ascertain if the bond continued to be.

Dust switched to function as the necessary component. The problem that re-produced more powerful rain fall in India was an upswing of dust in North Africa and also the Arabian peninsula.

To determine how rapidly dust labored, they went short computer simulations with and without dust pollutants. Without dust pollutants, the atmospheric dust disappeared inside a week in comparison towards the simulation with dust pollutants and rain fall rejected in central India too. This indicated the result happens on the short time.

But there is yet another mystery, how did dust do that to rain fall? To understand more about options, they zoomed in around the regional conditions for example air temperature and water transport with the air.

Their likeliest possibility centered on the truth that dust can absorb sunlight that will normally achieve the top, warming the environment rather. This warmer dust-laden air draws moist air in the tropics northward, and fortifies the current winds that move moisture in the Arabian Ocean into India, where it falls as rain.

Although dust plays a part in strengthening monsoons, this natural phenomenon doesn't overpower a number of other processes which influence monsoons, stated Rasch. Other very key elements range from the aftereffect of temperature variations between land and sea, land use changes, climatic change, and native results of pollution aerosols around India that may warmth and awesome the environment, as well as affect clouds, he stated.

"The effectiveness of monsoons happen to be decreasing during the last half a century,Inch he stated. "The dust effect is not likely to describe the systematic decline, however it may lead."

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To ease impact of quota cuts on New England groundfisheries, NOAA proposes opening long-time closure areas

July 10, 2013

Map showing proposed areas to be re-opened after long-time closure.

Download here (Credit: NOAA)

As part of an overall effort to help fishermen adjust to new quota cuts for groundfish implemented last month, today, NOAA Fisheries announced a proposal to open approximately 33 percent of areas currently closed to protect groundfish and habitat that have been off limits for nearly 20 years -- that is 2,925 square miles of the approximately 8,920 sq miles currently closed. The proposal also includes protections to ensure that habitat, vulnerable groundfish stocks, and other species, such as whales and harbor porpoise, are not put at risk.

In April, based largely on advice from the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries announced its final management measures for the Northeast groundfish fishery, including much lower quotas for some key stocks. Those measures went into effect in May. NOAA Fisheries has been working for months to lessen the effects of these cuts on fishermen and fishing communities, including increasing quotas and approving use of various gear and fishing methods to help fishermen better target healthy groundfish and other stocks prior to today’s announcement.

“We’ve been working with fishermen, state managers and others to find creative ways to help fishermen identify sustainable fishing opportunities this year,” said John Bullard, NOAA Fisheries northeast regional administrator. “Today’s action is another step in our overall effort to help transition fishing effort to healthy, more abundant fish stocks, while we work to rebuild cod and other stocks in poor condition and protect important habitats that are crucial for the overall health of our marine ecosystems.”

The three offshore areas under consideration lie to the south and east of Cape Cod. NOAA Fisheries does not propose to reopen these areas in their entirety; specific sections will remain closed based on the Council’s recommendations to protect habitat. Also, catch of stocks that are in poor condition, such as Georges Bank yellowtail and cod stocks, or are spawning, will be minimized through seasonal restrictions and the use of selective trawl and hook gear.

While these areas have been closed to groundfishing, other fishing activities have occurred in portions of these areas including lobster fishing. NOAA Fisheries also proposes to enact an agreement negotiated between groundfish and lobster fishermen, and recommended by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which limits groundfishing to times of year when lobster fishing is not as prevalent to minimize the potential for conflict between gear types.

“When year-round closures were put in place, our main goal was to reduce groundfish catch. However, now that fishermen are operating under annual catch limits, we no longer need year-round closures to control total catch but some areas still need to remain closed to protect habitat and those that we open must be opened in a responsible and sustainable way,” continued Bullard.

In areas that NOAA Fisheries is proposing to reopen, the agency is proposing to require monitoring on all fishing trips to gather data on fish caught and possible interactions with whales, harbor porpoise, and other animals. Fishing vessel operators wanting access to these areas will be required to cover the cost of monitoring.

NOAA Fisheries is also proposing to keep inshore year-round closures in place. This decision is due to the poor condition of Gulf of Maine cod and haddock and concerns expressed by a number of commercial and recreational fishermen and members of the environmental community.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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Japanese parents fume over Fukushima radiation impact (Reuters)

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Angry parents of children in Japan's Fukushima city marched along with hundreds of people on Sunday to demand protection for their children from radiation more than three months after a massive quake and tsunami triggered the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

"We want our lives back, we want to live like before the quake in happy families," said Hiroko Sato who marched in heavy rain with her nephews, age 3 and 7, next to banners saying "No Nukes" and "One Fukushima is Enough." "My baby was born two weeks before the nuclear accident and I don't feed her with my milk as I'm afraid I was exposed to too much radiation," said Sato.

Three reactors went into meltdown after the earthquake hit the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in northeastern Japan on March 11, forcing 80,000 residents to evacuate from its vicinity as engineers battled radiation leaks, hydrogen explosions and overheating fuel rods.

The parents have felt emboldened since May, when mass protests led to the government lowering the limit for radiation exposure for children at schools and to offer money for schools to remove topsoil in playgrounds with too much radiation.

But the protesters, who included activists and members of groups from Tokyo, said the government had not done enough.

"They still haven't removed the topsoil at the majority of grounds, and didn't help cleaning up the school buildings," said Akiko Murakami, a mother of four and volunteer at the "Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation."

It is one of many self-help citizen groups near the plant in Fukushima, where many areas are exposed to around 13 or more millisieverts of radiation a year, about 6.5 times natural background radiation levels, a city survey showed.

According to the survey, as many as 182 places showed readings close to or above the official annual exposure limit of 20 millisieverts per year.

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends that governments set radiation exposure targets at the lower end of the 1-20 millisievert per year range.

GROWING WORRIES

Local governments now need to provide reports of radiation, while most schools in Fukushima are equipped with dosimeters and teachers have to record hourly radiation readings to help create a contamination map. Anxiety over health risks associated with prolonged stay in a contaminated area is shared by mothers who did not take part in Sunday's rally.

"I just found out that a place near my house was designated a 'radiation hotspot' and now I'm seriously thinking about leaving the city," said Noriko Ouchi, mother of a 4-year-old daughter.

"We are exhausted. We have to look at every food item we eat, we only use bottled water for cooking, and on top of that every day we confront this nagging dilemma whether it's really safe for our children to stay in Fukushima or not," she said.

The Fukushima disaster has triggered worries over the safety of other nuclear power plants in Japan.

On Sunday, government officials held a live TV talk show with residents in Saga, southern Japan, home to the 36-year-old Genkai plant, to convince them that safety measures were in place for a restart of reactors now shut for maintenance.

Reactors at the Genkai plant had been considered among the likeliest candidates for the first idled reactors in Japan to restart after the Fukushima disaster as electricity shortages loom for the summer, but residents remained worried.

"I couldn't keep up with the complex terminology. I couldn't understand what they were saying, so I'm not convinced (over safety)," said a housewife, one of just seven residents selected for the program. Dozens protested against nuclear power outside the venue.

(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Airport Impact Map

A visual representation of possible weather-related delays at 24 major airports across the United States including Chicago's O'Hare, Boston's Logan, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, Dallas/Fort Worth Int', and Los Angeles Int'l. For more details...

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