The 3Y0J Bouvet Island DXpedition team says that with its first deposit on its contract to have the SS Marama provide transportation to Bouvet, it has confirmed its plans to activate the second most-wanted DXCC entity in November 2022.

“It is a huge task and undertaking to go to Bouvet, and we still critically need additional upfront support to close the budget,” said the amateur radio DXpediti...

NOAA Senior Advisor for Climate

Ms. Barrett currently serves as the NOAA Senior Advisor for Climate. She is widely recognized globally as an expert on climate policy, particularly on issues related to climate impacts and strategies to help society adapt to a changing world. Ms. Barrett provides strategic advice and scientific leadership for climate research, applications, and services to coordinate and integrate activities across NOAA's portfolio of climate-related programs to enhance the effectiveness of NOAA in meeting climate mission goals. She is also currently serving as a Vice Chair for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a role she has held since 2015.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Barrett served as the NOAA Research Deputy Assistant Administrator for Programs and Administration, where she supervised daily operations and administration of several major NOAA research programs, including the Climate Program Office, Ocean Acidification Program, and National Sea Grant College Program. Ms. Barrett has also served as deputy director of NOAA Research’s Climate Program Office. In addition, for over fifteen years, she served as a member of U.S. delegations charged with reviewing and adopting scientific assessments undertaken by the IPCC, and as the lead U.S. climate adaptation negotiator to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ms. Barrett was instrumental in negotiating the Global Framework for Climate Services under the World Meteorological Organization and was NOAA’s climate representative to its Executive Committee and Congress for many years. Before joining NOAA, she was the Global Climate Change Program director at the United States Agency for International Development.

Across NOAA Climate NOAA leadership

President Joe Biden this week designated FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel as Chair and announced that he intends to re-nominate her and nominate another to fill the open seats on the Commission. Rosenworcel, a Democrat, is the first woman to head the Commission. She has served on the FCC since 2012.

Prior to joining the FCC, Chairwoman Rosenworcel served as Senior Communications Counsel...

ARRL has told the FCC that it agrees with two World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) Advisory Committee (WAC) draft positions on WRC-23 agenda items, but with conditions. ARRL based its support on provisions that amateur radio allocations are protected and amateur operations are not constrained. The two items consider spectrum requirements for the Earth Exploration-Satellite Service (Active)...

NOAA awards $15.2M to advance harmful algal bloom research One of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's (MBARI) long-range autonomous underwater vehicles (LRAUV) makes its way through the green, algae-rich waters of Lake Erie to track the 2019 harmful algal bloom as part of a research collaboration with NOAA. (Ben Yair Raanan, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)) Download Image October 27, 2021

      

Ocean & Coasts harmful algal blooms (HABs) 0

An experienced and successful member of the amateur radio contesting and DX community lost his life on October 21 as the result of a small plane crash. William “Will” Roberts, AA4NC, of Apex, North Carolina, was piloting the plane, which went down not long after take-off in a wooded area of Onslow County, North Carolina, near the Holly Ridge/Topsail Island Airport, killing Roberts and another p...

The WSJT-X development team has announced the general availability release of WSJT-X version 2.5.1. This release mainly contains improvements and repairs defects related to Q65 and JT65 when used with nonstandard and compound call signs. Those planning to use Q65 or JT65 to make weak-signal contacts involving a nonstandard call sign should upgrade to this version. Also included is a new feature...

Antarctic ozone hole is 13th largest on record and expected to persist into November Lt. Timothy Holland, NOAA Corps, emerges from a balloon assembly station with an ozonesonde attached to a weather balloon before releasing it over the South Pole. (Josiah Horneman, Station Physician's Assistant, Antarctic Support Contract) October 27, 2021

The 2021 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum area on October 7 and ranks 13th largest since 1979, scientists from NOAA and NASA reported today. This year’s ozone hole developed similarly to last year's: A colder than usual Southern Hemisphere winter lead to a deep and larger-than-average hole that will likely persist into November or early December. 

“This is a large ozone hole because of the colder than average 2021 stratospheric conditions, and without a Montreal Protocol offsite link, it would have been much larger,” said Paul Newman, chief scientist for Earth Sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

What we call the ozone hole is a thinning of the protective ozone layer in the stratosphere (the upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere) above Antarctica that begins every September. Chlorine and bromine derived from human-produced compounds are released from reactions on high-altitude polar clouds. The chemical reactions then begin to destroy the ozone layer as the sun rises in the Antarctic at the end of winter. 

This visualization depicts the ozone hole over Antarctica at its maximum extent on October 7. 2021. Scientists define the "ozone hole" as the area in which ozone levels are depleted below 220 Dobson Units (dark blue, marked with black triangle on color bar). (Climate.gov)Download ImageSize matters. But how do you measure a hole in the atmosphere?

NOAA and NASA researchers detect and measure the growth and break up of the ozone hole with satellite instruments aboard Aura, Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20 satellites. 

This year, NASA satellite observations determined the ozone hole reached a maximum of 9.6 million square miles (24.8 million square kilometers) – roughly the size of North America – before beginning to shrink in mid-October. Colder-than-average temperatures and strong winds in the stratosphere circling Antarctica contributed to the hole’s size.

NOAA scientists at the South Pole Station record the ozone layer's thickness by releasing weather balloons carrying ozone-measuring instruments called ozonesondes  that measure the varying ozone concentrations as the balloon rises into the stratosphere. 

When the polar sun rises, NOAA scientists also make measurements with a Dobson Spectropherometer, an optical instrument that records the total amount of ozone between the surface and the edge of space known as the total column ozone value. This year, scientists recorded the lowest total-column ozone value of 102 Dobson Units on October 7, the 8th lowest since 1986. At altitudes between 8 and 13 miles (14 to 21 kilometers) ozone was nearly completely absent during the ozone hole’s maximum size. 

This chart depicts the average extent of the Antarctic ozone hole during peak ozone depletion season from 1979 to present. Scientists said the 2021 ozone hole would have been 1.5 million square miles larger if atmospheric chlorine levels today were as high today as they were in the early 2000s. (NASA)Download ImageThe good news

Though the 2021 Antarctic ozone hole is larger than average, it’s substantially smaller than ozone holes measured during the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

The ozone hole is recovering due to the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments banning the release of harmful ozone-depleting chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. If atmospheric chlorine levels from CFCs were as high today as they were in the early 2000s, this year’s ozone hole would likely have been larger by about 1.5 million square miles (about four million square kilometers) under the same weather conditions.

Learn more about NOAA’s Antarctic ozone research.

Media contact

Theo Stein, Theo.Stein@noaa.gov, 303-497-6288

Research Climate ozone hole 0

A team of 135 radio amateurs from four states supported medical teams volunteering for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 10. The Chicago Marathon is the third largest marathon in the world. This marked the 13th year that amateur radio volunteers have partnered with the marathon medical team to help coordinate responses, arrange for deployment of medical supplies, and provide situa...

Who’s afraid of the dark? Follow a NOAA expedition into the deep sea Watch live online: October 27 - November 14 This deep-sea lizardfish, with its fearsome “smile,” was seen in the Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. Southeast coast at a depth of about 1,771 meters (5,810 feet) during the Windows to the Deep 2018 expedition. (NOAA Ocean Exploration) Download Image October 25, 2021

Ready for a treat this Halloween season? 

Join NOAA and partners virtually as we send our remotely operated vehicles to explore the unknown, dark, cold and deep waters of the Blake Plateau, right off the U.S. Southeast coast. See what the scientists see, when they see it — sometimes for the first time, no trick!

During this Windows to the Deep 2021 expedition, the team on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will expand our knowledge about the creatures and features of this largely unexplored deepwater backyard of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Previous discoveries in the region include an extensive landscape of coral mounds — likely the world’s largest deep-sea coral province — in an area thought to be flat and featureless.

Described by scientists on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer as a highway of coral, this image shows a section of the coral mounds discovered during the Windows to the Deep 2019 expedition off the Southeast US coast. (NOAA Ocean Exploration)Download Image

Though scary to some, the deep sea is vital to life on Earth. The ocean provides us with the air we breathe, food to eat, and it regulates weather and climate patterns. Windows to the Deep will collect information that will help us better understand, manage and protect critical ocean ecosystems and species.

What

NOAA's Windows to the Deep 2021: Southeast U.S. ROV and Mapping expedition

When

October 27 through November 14, 2021

Watch

Remotely operated vehicle dives livestreamed every day from about 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET (ocean and weather conditions permitting).

The expedition will build on previous work in the region, including Windows to the Deep 2018, Windows to the Deep 2019, and the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-Sea Exploration.

Media contact

Monica Allen, monica.allen@noaa.gov, (202) 379-6693

Research Ocean & Coasts ocean exploration 0

Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: Solar activity declined last week, and on Sunday, October 17, there were no sunspots at all. Most days had the minimum non-zero sunspot number, which is 11, indicating a single sunspot group containing a single sunspot.

Average daily sunspot number declined from 23.7 to 11.3, and average daily solar flux dropped 7 points from 85.6 to 78.6.

Geomagnetic indicators ...

Preview: 2022 will mark 50 years of your national marine sanctuaries Co-managed by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the State of Michigan, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuaries was designated in 2000 to protect and conserve the recreational, historical, and archaeological value of the region’s natural resources and maritime heritage. (NOAA) Download Image October 22, 2021

       

Sanctuaries Heritage sanctuaries heritage 0

Two recent Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) grants will benefit the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club (SBARC), K6TZ, and Oregon HamWAN.

A $35,550 grant will enable SBARC to construct an amateur radio station at the new Chrisman California Islands Center (CCIC) in downtown Carpinteria, California, at the invitation of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation (SCIF). According to Levi Maaia, K6L...

Fishing for sport ... and seafood An angler hooks a dolphinfish off the coast of Florida. Photo entered into the 2020 NOAA photo contest by Ian Van Moorhe of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Ian Van Moorhe) Download Image October 21, 2021

 

 

Fisheries fisheries 0

On the water: A look at life as fisheries observer Fishery observer Keenan Carpenter on a fishing vessel. Photo courtesy of Keenan Carpenter. (Keenan Carpenter) Download Image October 21, 2021

 

 

Fisheries fisheries 0

7 ways to celebrate National Seafood Month Shrimp, scallop, and fish dish. (iStock) Download Image October 21, 2021

 

 

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