RISK INCREASE TO INFRASTRUCTURE DUE TO SEA LEVEL RISE
OSTM Launch
A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.With a thunderous roar and fiery glow, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite arced through the blackness of an early central coastal California morning at 12:46 a.m. PDT on 20th June 2008, climbing into space atop a Delta II rocket. Fifty-five minutes later, OSTM/Jason 2 separated from the rocket’s second stage, and then unfurled its twin sets of solar arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the spacecraft’s signals. Initial telemetry reports show it to be in excellent health.
OSTM/Jason 2 entered orbit about 10 to 15 kilometers below Jason 1. The new spacecraft will gradually use its thrusters to raise itself into the same 1,336-kilometer orbital altitude as Jason 1 and position itself to follow Jason 1’s ground track, orbiting about 60 seconds behind Jason 1. The two spacecraft will fly in formation, making nearly simultaneous measurements for about six months to allow scientists to precisely calibrate OSTM/Jason 2’s instruments.
Once cross-calibration is complete, Jason 1 will alter course, adjusting its orbit so that its ground tracks fall midway between those of OSTM/Jason 2. Together, the two spacecraft will double global data coverage. This tandem mission will improve our knowledge of tides in coastal and shallow seas and internal tides in the open ocean, while improving our understanding of ocean currents and eddies.
OSTM Launch
A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.With a thunderous roar and fiery glow, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite arced through the blackness of an early central coastal California morning at 12:46 a.m. PDT on 20th June 2008, climbing into space atop a Delta II rocket. Fifty-five minutes later, OSTM/Jason 2 separated from the rocket’s second stage, and then unfurled its twin sets of solar arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the spacecraft’s signals. Initial telemetry reports show it to be in excellent health.
OSTM/Jason 2 entered orbit about 10 to 15 kilometers below Jason 1. The new spacecraft will gradually use its thrusters to raise itself into the same 1,336-kilometer orbital altitude as Jason 1 and position itself to follow Jason 1’s ground track, orbiting about 60 seconds behind Jason 1. The two spacecraft will fly in formation, making nearly simultaneous measurements for about six months to allow scientists to precisely calibrate OSTM/Jason 2’s instruments.
Once cross-calibration is complete, Jason 1 will alter course, adjusting its orbit so that its ground tracks fall midway between those of OSTM/Jason 2. Together, the two spacecraft will double global data coverage. This tandem mission will improve our knowledge of tides in coastal and shallow seas and internal tides in the open ocean, while improving our understanding of ocean currents and eddies.
The consequences of sea Level
It is unpredictable where the effect of the rise of the sea level will be the most tangible, as there are too many unknown elements. Generally speaking, however, there is a big chance that low-lying islands such as the Maldive Islands or atolls in the Pacific will disappear from the map. Elsewhere, harbours, cultural and historical sites by the sea and tourist beaches are in great danger. It is evident also that as the sea level rises, infrastructural works such as dikes, storm surge barriers, etc., will have to be modified.Swamps and estuaries often play an important part in preventing floods. In addition, they are often characterised by a rich fauna and flora. If due to the rise of the sea level they remain flooded permanently, they will no longer be able to perform that drainage function and the survival of the entire biotope would be jeopardised.River deltas for many countries are the places where the indispensable food is produced, and they stand a chance of disappearing. The most vulnerable among them are the Amazon, the Ganges, the Indus, the Mekong, the Mississippi, the Niger, the Nile, the Po and the Yangtze.Finally, floods, storms and tropical cyclones will worsen and thus cause more damage than they do today.The Metropolitan East Coast (MEC) region is a prime example of a megacity in a coastal setting with high and low lands.Four out of five boroughs of New York City are located on islands (Long Island, Staten Island, and Manhattan); only one (Bronx) is located on the mainland. Bridges and tunnels are critical bottlenecks of the dominant transportation modes to the suburbs and counties located in the tri-state MEC region of New York (NY), New Jersey (NJ) and Connecticut (CT). Bridge access roads, entrances to road and rail tunnels, including subways and ventilation shafts, but also nontransportation infrastructures such as storm sewer and wastewater processing plants are located at critical low elevations. They are exposed to coastal or riverine flooding and hence can be subjected to related interruptions of services. As we will see, this fact makes the MEC region particularly vulnerable to climate-dependent sea level rise. Not all, but many coastal cities in the US and the world face similar problems. Sea level rise is a global issue of increasing concern to many major coastal cities and populations.Infrastructure provides the engineered foundation for the socioeconomic functioning of population centers. Infrastructure systems consist of interconnected networks of lifelines and facilities that deliver resources, remove waste, move people, information and goods,and control to a large degree the cultural ambiance. This means bridges, roads, tunnels, buses, subways, railroads, water, sewage, power, phone, and other things we take forgranted. The robustness of infrastructure systems depends on their design, state of maintenance, and the man-made, environmental and natural stresses to which they are exposed. Besides man-made stresses, weather, climate and extreme natural events such as floods, earthquakes, wind- or ice storms regularly test the vulnerability of these systems. In this Sector Report we pose the following questions: given a set of expected climate changes, how will the existing infrastructure, in this case of the Metropolitan East Coast (MEC) region, respond? Will stresses on the systems increase or diminish? What costs or benefits if any will be incurred from the climate changes? Are there cost-effective actions that can be taken to minimize negative effects on the systems or maximize the benefits?
In 1978 the first satellite with altimeter was launched, this satellite (Seasat) demonstrated that radar altimeters could measure its own height above the sea surface to a precision of about 10 cm. Since then various missions have flown altimeters with increasing accuracy that revolutionized the gathering of knowledge of the ocean. Events such as El Niño, the complex pattern of sea level anomalies and western boundary currents can now be investigated using altimetry. The conventional technique uses active radar to measure the sea level height. A new technique to measure sea level height is by making use of signals of opportunity. These signals of opportunity can originate from different GNSS-systems, like GPS, GLONASS and future Galileo. These signals of opportunities are a big advantage for satellites that observe the ocean, because no active radar is needed. Because this is a rather new technique, it still needs a lot of research before it can become operational. One of the questions that need to be addressed is if it is possible to create a satellite system to measure sea level height by using GNSS-reflections that can compete with conventional altimetry satellites. The FIGOSat mission consists of two innovative parts. The use of GNSS-reflections is the first.The second innovative part of this mission is the use of a phased array antenna. A phased array antenna is built of a number of small elements that can receive and send signals like a conventional antenna dish. The phased array has some advantages. The first is that a phased array can steer a beam electronically and the second is that it can produce more beams simultaneous. This antenna is chosen to make fully use of the opportunity of the GNSS-reflections. With this antenna it is possible to see a much wider area, up to 80 degrees, to scan for the reflections points and up to 12 points can be measured simultaneously.
Climate Change and a Global City
Combating Greenhouse effects in Construction Fields
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
Implications of Accelerated Sea-Level Rise (ASLR) for Denmark
National Institute of Océanography,DonaPaula 403 004, India
National Report on Sea Level Status (ASLR) for Nigeria
Paleo- Circulation of the RED SEA and global Sea leveL
Sea-level Rise and Coastal Forests on the Gulf of Mexico
What would happen if all the ice in the world melted?
Imagine a world where melting ice caps have raised sea levels by 20 feet, where the floods and storms inundate large areas of the world’s low lying coastlines, where the cities are under water. Is this the fate that awaits mankind? It is a nightmare scenario – but what is the scientific basis for these fears of sea-level rise? Sea-level rise is nothing new as during the earth’s 4 billion year history the poles have repeatedly frozen and melted, raising and lowering sea level. But something is wrong; sea level rise is accelerating. The source of the problem lies in the sheets of ice that cover the land around both poles. They are melting faster than ever before and it looks like man is the cause. We travel the globe to discover why sea levels are rising.
Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: “Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.
“I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread – we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”
Professor Vaughan predicted in 1993 that the northern part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years if climate warming continued. But he said it is happening more quickly than he expected.
“What we’re actually seeing is a chunk of the ice shelf drop off in a way that suggests it is not just a normal part of iceberg formation.
“This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment.”
Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years – six of them collapsing completely.
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
Implications of Accelerated Sea-Level Rise (ASLR) for Denmark
National Institute of Océanography,DonaPaula 403 004, India
National Report on Sea Level Status (ASLR) for Nigeria
Paleo- Circulation of the RED SEA and global Sea leveL
Sea-level Rise and Coastal Forests on the Gulf of Mexico
What would happen if all the ice in the world melted?
Imagine a world where melting ice caps have raised sea levels by 20 feet, where the floods and storms inundate large areas of the world’s low lying coastlines, where the cities are under water. Is this the fate that awaits mankind? It is a nightmare scenario – but what is the scientific basis for these fears of sea-level rise? Sea-level rise is nothing new as during the earth’s 4 billion year history the poles have repeatedly frozen and melted, raising and lowering sea level. But something is wrong; sea level rise is accelerating. The source of the problem lies in the sheets of ice that cover the land around both poles. They are melting faster than ever before and it looks like man is the cause. We travel the globe to discover why sea levels are rising.
Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: “Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.
“I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread – we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”
Professor Vaughan predicted in 1993 that the northern part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years if climate warming continued. But he said it is happening more quickly than he expected.
“What we’re actually seeing is a chunk of the ice shelf drop off in a way that suggests it is not just a normal part of iceberg formation.
“This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment.”
Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years – six of them collapsing completely.
Implications of Accelerated Sea-Level Rise (ASLR) for Denmark
National Institute of Océanography,DonaPaula 403 004, India
National Report on Sea Level Status (ASLR) for Nigeria
Paleo- Circulation of the RED SEA and global Sea leveL
Sea-level Rise and Coastal Forests on the Gulf of Mexico
What would happen if all the ice in the world melted?
Imagine a world where melting ice caps have raised sea levels by 20 feet, where the floods and storms inundate large areas of the world’s low lying coastlines, where the cities are under water. Is this the fate that awaits mankind? It is a nightmare scenario – but what is the scientific basis for these fears of sea-level rise? Sea-level rise is nothing new as during the earth’s 4 billion year history the poles have repeatedly frozen and melted, raising and lowering sea level. But something is wrong; sea level rise is accelerating. The source of the problem lies in the sheets of ice that cover the land around both poles. They are melting faster than ever before and it looks like man is the cause. We travel the globe to discover why sea levels are rising.
Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: “Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.
“I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread – we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”
Professor Vaughan predicted in 1993 that the northern part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years if climate warming continued. But he said it is happening more quickly than he expected.
“What we’re actually seeing is a chunk of the ice shelf drop off in a way that suggests it is not just a normal part of iceberg formation.
“This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment.”
Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years – six of them collapsing completely.
A BETTER WORLD THROUGH EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION