Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives

Back Off the Beach and the Rising Sea? No Way, California Cities Say

April 29, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Julie Cart

The view from high up in Del Mar’s 17th Street lifeguard station is a visit-California poster: a sweeping curve of sand, dramatic coastal bluffs, a welcoming sea. What scientists see, though, is somewhat more sobering: the Pacific Ocean as seething menace, a marine battering ram born of climate change that will inexorably claim more and more land and whatever sits upon it.

With rising seas now posing a greater threat to California’s economy than wildfires or severe earthquakes, state authorities are cautioning those who live along some of the Golden State’s famous beaches to do what they’re loath to do: retreat. Turn their backs to the sea and move homes, businesses, schools and critical infrastructure out of harm’s way.

The ocean could rise two to ten feet by 2100, imperiling $150 billion in property, according to state estimates, and erasing two-thirds of California’s beaches.

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Forty Atmospheric Rivers Have Hit West Coast Since October

April 10, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Weather Channelby Chris Dolce

More than three dozen atmospheric rivers made landfall on the West Coast from fall through early spring, but a lack of strong events in California led to the development of drought conditions in parts of the state.

An atmospheric river is a thin, but long plume of moisture in the atmosphere that stretches from the Pacific Ocean tropics or subtropics into higher latitudes. They provide a boost to the rain and snow totals produced by storm systems taking aim at the West Coast, mostly from late fall into early spring. Although these events can bring hazardous impacts, they are also beneficial since they help replenish the water supply in the West.

The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography studies atmospheric rivers and other extreme weather. Graphic: CW3E Scripps/UC San Diego

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To Study a Problem That’s Everywhere, They’re Getting Creative

April 7, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /New York Timesby Sarah Elizabeth Richards

Dimitri Deheyn’s lab has become a hub of novel research on the microfibers found in our waterways and even the air we breathe.

Three years ago, Dimitri Deheyn noticed intensely blue stringy shapes as he examined jellyfish samples through a microscope in his marine biology lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

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Microplastics: A Macro Problem

February 19, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /PHYS.orgby University of California, San Diego

Flying somewhere over the planet, there’s a plane equipped with research-grade, double-sided tape on the outside of its hull. Each time the pilot lands the plane, he removes the tape, seals it in a package, and replaces it with a new one before he takes off again. He then mails the package to Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, care of Dimitri Deheyn, Associate Researcher.

Looking at the tape under a microscope, Deheyn sees what he’s looking for: microfibers, stuck to the adhesives.

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To Study Atmospheric Rivers, Scientists Need to Get Close. So They Fly to Them

February 5, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The Air Force research crew on the WC-130J Super Hercules airplane was cruising at 28,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, preparing to deploy 25 weather-sensing devices over a long band of water vapor known as an “atmospheric river” when the hazards of air travel got in the way of science.

Lt. Col. Jeff Ragusa, a pilot with the Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters, was on the second of 12 missions to study atmospheric river storms and was ready to drop the sensors when fuel suddenly began leaking from a tank, forcing the aircraft to turn back.

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UCSD Scientists Will Ride Research Aircraft into Huge Storms to Study Atmospheric Rivers

January 28, 2020/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

UC San Diego will send airborne scientists into huge offshore storms to deepen their understanding of ”atmospheric rivers,” the plumes of moisture that can bring nourishing rains, and flooding, to the West Coast.

The second of up to 12 winter weather reconnaissance flights is scheduled to take off from Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento on Tuesday, carrying researchers from NOAA and the Air Force. UCSD will add its own researchers to the trips in about a week.

The university is partnering with the government and military on the project, which is being run out of the UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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Atmospheric Rivers That Hit California Getting a Boost From Melting Arctic Ice

January 28, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The fast-melting ice in the Arctic may be the primary cause of extreme weather across the globe, including some of the most violent, damaging storms to hit the Bay Area and California, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography study has found.

The Scripps paper, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first definitive study of the links between melting polar ice and changing climatic conditions reaching to the tropics, a cause-and-effect relationship that scientists had plenty of evidence for but had never precisely documented to this extent.

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How Much Damage Do Atmospheric Rivers Cause

December 5, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The New York Times by Jill Cowan

It rained in Southern California again on Wednesday.

The storm, Marty Ralph told me, was caused by an atmospheric river, a meteorological phenomenon you have been hearing more about lately as climate change drives bigger swings between tinder dry conditions and pounding rain.

And although the rain caused the usual traffic headaches and advisories against swimming at the beach, this particular atmospheric river was actually “primarily beneficial,” according to a scale that Mr. Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, helped develop.

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Report: San Diego Has Unique Edge To Tackle Climate Change

October 10, 2019/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /PHYS.orgby Deborah Sullivan Brennan

The Earth’s coastal and polar areas are on thin ice, a new climate report warns, but San Diego may be in a better place than others to weather those changes if it acts swiftly, several authors said.

“The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,” released last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explored the effects of warming on the world’s oceans and frozen places.

San Diego is grappling with rising seas, coastal erosion and marine heat waves, periods when seawater hits record-high temperatures. However, natural variability in the region’s sea level, ocean temperature and chemistry may position coastal cities to stay ahead of future changes, several authors said.

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Report: San Diego Has Unique Edge To Tackle Climate Change

October 7, 2019/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Deborah Sullivan Brennan

The Earth’s coastal and polar areas are on thin ice, a new climate report warns, but San Diego may be in a better place than others to weather those changes if it acts swiftly, several authors said.

“The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,” released last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explored the effects of warming on the world’s oceans and frozen places.

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