oceanlove

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is providing important information to aid in tracking the path of wind turbine blade parts after the offshore wind energy company, Vineyard Wind, noticed a broken blade on one of its wind turbines offshore of Martha’s Vineyard on July 13. The Northeast Region Scientific Support Coordinator with OR&R's Emergency Response Division was contacted on July 15 to provide trajectory information to assist with recovering pieces of the broken blade. About one third of the blade (approximately 120 feet) fell into the water, with three large pieces recovered. At that time, smaller fiberglass sections and pieces of the blade, some less than one square foot in size, remained in the water. Trajectory estimates produced by the OR&R modeling team predicted pieces of the blade could make landfall at Nantucket by July 15. Utilizing NOAA’s trajectories, response personnel were sent to Nantucket to assess the beaches. Upon their a...

December 4, 2023 - July 1, 2024 After heating up the eastern Pacific Ocean for about a year, El Niño finally died out in May 2024. The natural climate phenomenom contributed to many months of record-high ocean temperatures, precipitation extremes in Africa, low ice cover on the Great Lakes, and severe drought in the Amazon and Central America. As of July 2024, the eastern Pacific was in a neutral phase, but the reprieve may be short-lived. In tropical latitudes of the eastern Pacific, the ocean’s surface cools and warms cyclically in response to the strength of the trade winds—a phenomenon known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In turn, the changing ocean disrupts atmospheric circulation in ways that intensify rainfall in some regions and bring drought to others. In May 2023, easterly trade winds weakened and warm water from the western Pacific moved toward the western coast of the Americas, signs that an El Niño had begun, after three consecutive years of La Niñ...

  Funding will support NOAA’s efforts to provide communities with decision-making tools and information necessary for coastal resilience Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $16.7 million in funding across 12 awards to support the development of innovative new technologies and public-private partnerships focused on sustainability, equity, biodiversity and climate adaptation as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. These awards are part of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System’s Marine Life and Ocean Technology Transition programs.   “To tackle climate change nationwide, we have to better understand and manage our coasts,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These awards will advance new technologies needed to gain critical insights into the status and health of our coastal ecosystems.”   These 12 awards recommended for funding [PDF] are:   Delaware   University of Delaware/Mid-Atlantic Reg...