Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Broken! Risk of Global Climate Change By BP Oil Spill!

gdpetti

Inactive
Lots of charts, go to links to see them.
Socio-Economics History Blog
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.co...isk-of-global-climate-change-by-bp-oil-spill/
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:35 EDT



Factual satellite images in the past several weeks are showing that the Gulf Loop Current is broken and may cease to function entirely! This will result in massive climate change and possibly an ice age for Europe! Major trouble brewing?? More freakish weather on its way??

RISK OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE BY BP OIL SPILL by Gianluigi Zangari

Abstract: BP Oil Spill may cause an irreparable damage to the Gulf Stream global climate thermoregulation activity.

The Gulf Stream importance in the global climate thermoregulation processes is well assessed. The latest real time satellite ... data maps of May-June 2010 processed by CCAR (Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research), checked at Frascati Laboratories by the means of the SHT congruent calculus and compared with past years data, show for the first time a direct evidence of the rapid breaking of the Loop Current, a warm ocean current, crucial part of the Gulf Stream. As displayed both by the sea surface velocity maps and the sea surface height maps, the Loop Current broke down for the first time around May 18th generated a clock wise eddy, which is still active (see Fig. 1).


Figure 1| Real time satellites data maps. Real time sea surface height maps (above) and sea surface velocity maps (below) starting from april 22nd until June 9th processed by CCAR1,2 and checked at LNF (Frascati) by SHT calculus3. The star indicates the site of BP platform Deepwater Horizon. The yellow arrow indicates the breaking of the Loop Stream.


As of today the situation has deteriorated up to the point in which the eddy has detached itself completely from the main stream therefore destroying completely the Loop Current, as in figure 2 below, dated June 12th 2010.


Figure 2: Real time satellites data maps updated. Real time sea surface height map (left) and sea surface velocity maps (right) updated on June 12th processed by CCAR1,2 and checked at LNF (Frascati) by SHT calculus3. The star indicates the site of BP platform Deepwater Horizon. The yellow arrow indicates the breaking of the Loop Stream.


Since comparative analysis with past satellite data until may 2010 didn't show relevant anomalies, it might be therefore plausible to correlate the breaking of the Loop Current with the biochemical and physical action of the BP Oil Spill on the Gulf Stream. It is reasonable to foresee the threat that the breaking of a crucial warm stream as the Loop Current may generate a chain reaction of unpredictable critical phenomena and instabilities due to strong non linearities which may have serious consequences on the dynamics of the Gulf Stream thermoregulation activity of the Global Climate.

Comment: As you can see from the images below, the Gulf Stream appears to be breaking up. There are animations you can look at that go back a long way and give a good perspective on the last image. If our previous observations are anything to go by, the northern hemisphere is in for some wild weather.


Current status of the Gulf Stream:

Relative Gulf Stream velocity fields are derived from near-realtime data from the radar altimeters of the satellites Envisat, Jason-1, and Jason-2.

This page presents four maps of current velocities of the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of the East coast of North-America. Velocities are represented in meters per second. To get the approximate velocity in knots you have to multiply by 2 (1.9438445 to be precise). The maps represent the situations on four different days, each separated by one week from the next.
fair use http://www.sott.net/articles/show/2...isk-of-Global-Climate-Change-By-BP-Oil-Spill-
 
IF it is true that the Gulf Current is breaking up permanently, then it would result in a significant climate change...if. The Gulf Current spins off a whirlpool now and again. I think we'd have to see a few more weeks worth of pictures to know whether or not the current is broken. It's temperature driven, by the way, so the colder the water gets, the more the current changes.
 

Wilbur

Inactive
Fascinating article. With the break-away of the loop, I wonder what the impact (if any) on a hurricane traversing that area? I have seen hurricanes become nearly stationary so it makes me wonder if a hurricane could actually be "caught up" in that loop.
 

FarmerJohn

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The break-off of the gulf loop current is a recurring event.

The breaking-off of a piece of the Gulf Loop Current is not a crisis.

Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

2006 Gulf of Mexico Loop Current outlook

Posted by: JeffMasters, 2:41 PM GMT on May 08, 2006
The Loop Current is an ocean current that transports warm Caribbean water through the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico. The current flows northward into the Gulf of Mexico, then loops southeastward through the Florida Keys (where it is called the Florida Current), and into the Bahamas. Here, the waters of the Loop Current flow northward along the U.S. coast and become the Gulf Stream. With current speeds of about 0.8 m/s, the Loop Current is one of the fastest currents in the Atlantic Ocean. The current is about 200-300 km (125 -190 miles) wide, and 800 meters (2600 feet) deep, and is present in the Gulf of Mexico about 95% of the time. During summer and fall, the Loop Current provides a deep (80 - 150 meter) layer of vary warm water that can provide a huge energy source for any lucky hurricanes that might cross over.

The Loop Current commonly bulges out in the northern Gulf of Mexico and sometimes will shed a clockwise rotating ring of warm water that separates from the main current (Figure 1). This ring of warm water slowly drifts west-southwestward towards Texas or Mexico at about 3-5 km per day. This feature is called a "Loop Current Ring", "Loop Current Eddy", or "Warm Core Ring", and can provide a key source of energy to fuel rapid intensification of hurricanes that cross the Gulf, in addition to the Loop Current itself. The Loop Current pulsates in a quasi-regular fashion and sheds rings every 6 to 11 months. When a Loop Current Eddy breaks off in the Gulf of Mexico at the height of hurricane season, it can lead to a dangerous situation where a vast reservoir of energy is available to any hurricane that might cross over. This occurred in 2005, when a Loop Current Eddy separated in July, just before Hurricane Katrina passed over and "bombed" into a Category 5 hurricane. The eddy remained in the Gulf and slowly drifted westward during September. Hurricane Rita passed over the same Loop Current Eddy three weeks after Katrina, and also explosively deepened to a Category 5 storm.

So, a key question to ask this hurricane season, is when will the next Loop Current Eddy break off, creating a ready-made high-octane energy source for any hurricane that might pass by? Well, the behavior of the Loop Current over the past year can be viewed at Navy Research Lab's web site (51 Mb). This movie has arrows showing the direction of the current, plus a color coding that represents the height of the sea surface above mean level. The higher the height, the warmer the water (since warm water expands and thus raises the sea level where it is at). One can see near the beginning of the animation that the Loop Current Eddy that fueled Katrina and Rita breaks off from the Loop Current in July 2005, then slowly moves west-southwest to a point off the Texas coast by November, where it gradually dissipates. Another Loop Current Eddy breaks off eight months later in March, and lies south of Louisiana in early May. If the Loop Current maintains its 6 - 11 month periodicity shedding these eddies, the next eddy is due sometime between September and February. Oceanographic models can't forecast these events realiably, so we don't know when the most likely time is. Let's hope that this doesn't occur in September or October--we could do without another big eddy of warm water in the Gulf at the height of hurricane season, fueling explosive hurricane intensification!

The Navy web site offers a 1-month forecast of the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico. The current forecast hints that the Loop Current may shed an eddy at the beginning of June. I don't know how reliable these forecasts are, but keep in mind that currents are driven by winds, and wind forecasts are not reliable out more than about 10 days. Given that the Loop Current just shed an eddy in March, I'd be surprised if a new eddy comes off in June [2006].

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=351&tstamp=200605
 

TJA

Veteran Member
Saying that this could lead to an ice age in Europe based on just the pictures shown here is ridiculously speculative. There simply is not anywhere near enough data to come to any conclusion, especially since the status of the current on the other side of Florida isn't shown. For all we know the current is now looping to the East of Cuba and then heading North. If the current was any significant source of warm water within the Gulf of Mexico itself and if it is re-established to the East of Cuba then it could very well mean that all the warming energy that was being pumped into the Gulf is now going directly to Europe and they may very well get a warmer climate. If on the other hand the Gulf was adding to heat in the Gulf Stream then this could easily mean cooler climate for Europe.

As the guy said this is unprecedented. Therefore impossible to predict the ramifications.

One possible semi-positive is that this breakup could contain the oil and all the crap with it to the Gulf.

What I'd really be concerned about though is that the oil mixture is reflecting solar energy and is causing the Gulf to cool along with also destroying the Gulf Stream heading to Europe. That could very well mean ice age.

I do wish I knew more about the Gulf Stream in it's entirety now.
 
What I'd really be concerned about though is that the oil mixture is reflecting solar energy and is causing the Gulf to cool along with also destroying the Gulf Stream heading to Europe. That could very well mean ice age.

I do wish I knew more about the Gulf Stream in it's entirety now.
In a nutshell...the Gulf Stream is powered by warm water. It takes that warm water along the eastern coast of N. America and up toward Greenland, IIRC (bear with me, it's been a long time since college).

The warmer air over the current impacts the climate on land. If the water cools, the current slows down, the warmer air slows down, and the climate changes. As the climate changes, the current cools down more, which slows the current down more, and the climate gets cooler...and it happens again. Eventually, the warm water would be just in the latitudes closest to the equator.

OK...I just looked it up. I recalled pretty correctly for the number of years. Here is what the article at http://kingfish.coastal.edu/gulfstream/p2.htm says:
Along the east coast of Florida the current is fed by the Antilles Current, and the flow, now called the Gulf Stream, runs parallel to the coast until reaching Cape Hatteras where it leaves the coast and enters deeper water. While flowing in deep water the Stream often forms large meanders or fluctuations in its path. At approximately 50°W, the Gulf Stream splits into several currents the largest being the North Atlantic Current. The North Atlantic Current then feeds both the Norwegian Current which transports water northward along the west coast of Europe and the Canary Current which flows equator-ward on the eastern side of the Atlantic. These currents are labeled in red in the figure below: Gulf Stream (GS), North Atlantic Current (NAC), Norwegian Current (NOR), Canary Current (CC).
So...the Gulf current flows around Florida and up the eastern U.S. coast, then it splits--with the largest current flowing north, which affects the west coast of Europe. Hence possible ice ages in both North American and Europe.
One of the primary reasons that the Gulf Stream increases in transport between Florida and 65°W and decreases in transport downstream of 65°W is the Recirculation Gyre. As the figure below shows, water leaves the Gulf Stream downstream of 65°W, and enters the Sargasso Sea. This water is recirculated clockwise throughout the Sargasso and eventually re-enters the Gulf Stream. This flow is known as the Recirculation gyre.
Now, if this Recirculation Gyre (which is driven by water temperature) broke down, there would be trouble...
 

Attachments

  • gulf stream 1.jpg
    gulf stream 1.jpg
    50.3 KB · Views: 230
  • gulf stream 2.jpg
    gulf stream 2.jpg
    52.3 KB · Views: 228
  • gulf stream 3.jpg
    gulf stream 3.jpg
    148 KB · Views: 234

DrJerry

Inactive
There are several Dutchmen on another forum who are very worried that they are going to be frozen solid. :shkr: Bugout discussions there generally involve Southern Europe. :groucho:
 
There are several Dutchmen on another forum who are very worried that they are going to be frozen solid. :shkr: Bugout discussions there generally involve Southern Europe. :groucho:
I guess I'm not surprised...think about The Day After Tomorrow. The science was flawed (it was a propaganda movie, after all), and the events wouldn't happen in a week (nor is climate change fueled by anthropological actions), but they could happen over time.

In the movie, the 'safer' latitudes were Spain (in Europe), India (in Asia), and south of Oklahoma (in N. America).

Even if the events leading to an ice age took 200 years, it would be as over-night in geologic time.
 

gdpetti

Inactive
Articles have been posted about how fast this situation can occur... like that infamous mastodon with food still digesting in its stomach... As the upper atmospheric winds 'hit the deck' with much, much colder air and high speed... quick freeze... but it seems that the usual pattern has the precip bands move towards the poles before this shift occurs... and I haven't seen that yet.

I liked the research above posted on the fact that these situations occur reguarly to some degree, so the question is how this spill will affect that recurring situation? Then add all the other cosmic energies instreaming into our sun/planet on top of that as the methane continues to increasingly leak out thru the crust of the planet 'warming up' the oceans, atmosphere and thereby affecting the ocean currents and winds etc.... various loops of energy exchange around the planet that then affects us... as it's all an energy show after all.

This current spinoff or disruption in the loop current could only be a warning sign of the larger changes in the works... same as all these spills/cracks/holes attest to.
-
 

gdpetti

Inactive
Maybe not such a regular event? Fair use http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=17588.msg186506#new

From Laura:
Re: Mother of all gushers - BP Oil Disaster in Gulf of Mexico
« Reply #724 on: Yesterday at 11:03:11 PM »

One site that published the Italian scientists' work on the Gulf of Mexico loop has added an update in the comments section to the original article:

http://socioecohistory.wordpress.co...isk-of-global-climate-change-by-bp-oil-spill/

Quote
There are some comments here that the eddy which has formed is a natural, recurring phenomena – nothing to worry about…

After reading the article, I emailed the author, Gianluigi Zangari, who promptly and courteously replied to me.

I am condensing his replies to me for brevity.

* I asked if there was further news, and GZ said he was working on an update – anyone who wants to, can email him and request a link when the work is complete. His email is: gianluigi.zangari(at)lnf.infn.it

*I asked if there was any improvement in the Gulf Stream loop break, and GZ said no, in fact, it was getting worse.

*Then I mentioned the “natural, recurring event” hypothesis for the current eddy (no pun intended). GZ said that his team had been monitoring the Gulf Stream since 2001, and the situation we face today is a new, never seen previously event.

If the Gulf Stream does not return to at least close to its normal flow pattern, it will have catastrophic, and global consequences. The situation warrants our closest attention, and media coverage as it evolves.

The natural forces involved are so vast, that we humans can do nothing now to alter the outcome, except to prevent ALL future oil spills, and perhaps, pray

Replies to me are welcome from all readers.

John Hechtman
 

gdpetti

Inactive
Not an update, just an article on it with more charts etc. I liked this on the temp difference...
Now, current temperature measurements for the Gulf Stream on the Atlantic Front (from 76 to 47 meridian) now appears to be about 10 degrees Celsius cooler than it was this time last year. Consequently, a direct causality nexus has now been established, between the stall of the Gulf Loop Current and this new temperature drop in the Gulf Stream on the Atlantic Front.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/2...l-Consequences-if-Current-Fails-to-Reorganize
 
Last edited:

knickgnat

Veteran Member
I guess none of you read the main page. Posted subject there a day ago because I thought it was so important.
 

gdpetti

Inactive
Yeah, saw it there today as I only go look at main when I have something to post... usually look to put it in another post that is already up on a same or similar subject.

That said, the way I understand these currents is that like our upper atmosphere with its circulations... jetstream etc, our ocean currents are a reflection of what's going on with the planet's inner core in relation to its interaction with the Sun... which is a reflection itself of its interaction with all the other stars (yes, dark as well) in our LISM or galactic center.. thus those 'ribbons' we pass through... these 'waves' etc. It is said that our planet is 'warming up'... a cyclical event that seems to tie in with the solar activity in large part but also interacts with this passing comet cluster (3600 yr orbit).... so like those astrology charts that show affects on us here on earth by our interaction with our cosmic cousins, near and far, fast or slow in effect, our planet is showing the same interaction of it in these ocean currents... the waters 'warm up' in the same geocentric locations of the planets' EM field... and circulate like the upper level winds... which are also affected by those EM field movements by the sun's activity.

So, it seems as we become more aware of WTF is going on, we become more aware of these cycles, the long ones as well as the shorter ones we are used to... as many such cycles are said to be converging in the very near future. The oil leak is just more fuel to the flame affecting it.... at a time in which more fuel isn't needed at all... add all that methane released that isn't talked about as well. Imagine how unstable the area must be now. Not a good time to be buying real estate on the coast lines of the planet.
--
Still waiting on confirmation of that loop current situation.
 
Top