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Climate scientist Doctor Jim Renwick of NIWA has been awarded the Kidson medal by the Meteorological Society at the Royal Society of New Zealand's Awards held at Te Papa on the 16th of November.

A 28-metre research vessel from NIWA will spend the next four and half months deploying ocean-profiling Argo floats across the Pacific.

Glaciers in New Zealand’s Southern Alps gained ice mass again in the past year. Fifty glaciers are monitored annually by the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

A paper to be published in the prestigious science journal, Nature, this week offers a rare piece of good news on climate change but signals that the atmosphere may be more variable than previously suspected.
Large areas of the ocean, such as the north Tasman and Mediterranean Seas, are low in nutrients with only limited growth of phytoplankton, the microscopic plant cells at the base of the food chain.

NIWA’s smaller research vessel, Kaharoa, leaves Wellington tomorrow (Thursday 21 April) on a 2-month voyage to deploy high-tech 'Argo' floats all the way to Hawaii and back.

Already, the crew of Kaharoa have deployed more Argo floats (141 so far) than any other vessel in the world. By the end of this trip, they will have deployed over 200 floats and clocked up over 40,000 nautical miles on Argo missions. That is almost the equivalent of sailing to the UK and back twice. (A round trip to the UK is approximately 24,000 nautical miles.)

Ash from the eruption of North Island volcanoes tens of thousands of years ago has attracted an American-led scientific expedition to New Zealand waters.

For some South Pacific countries near and east of the Date Line the chances of tropical cyclone activity are higher than normal for the November – May season, according to NIWA’s National Climate Centre.

Sandwiched between the extreme weather of February and July (with more lashing the country at present), Autumn seemed comparatively peaceful. But it was not without natural hazards, according to the latest update from the Natural Hazards Centre.

Sizeable earthquakes were recorded in the North Island, although the largest were at a depth of over 40 km. The biggest were: 5.1 at Kawerau (March 12) and Ohura (May 5); 5.2 at Maketu (May 31); and 5.4 offshore in the Bay of Plenty (April 17).

The 50 Southern Alps glaciers monitored annually by NIWA gained ice mass in the past year.

NIWA Senior Climate Scientist Dr Jim Salinger said today that after analysis of photographs taken on the survey of the glaciers in March this year it was apparent they had gained much more ice than they had lost during the past glacier year.

The NIWA vessel, Kaharoa, is setting sail on a 90-day voyage to deploy high-tech floats between New Zealand and Peru.

Kaharoa will carry 84 floats, which is the largest number ever deployed in a single voyage. Each float is worth about $20,000, making the total worth over $1.6 million.

The floats can help scientists measure global warming, predict the strength of tropical cyclones, and even get a better fix on the path of toxic algal blooms.

NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa leaves Wellington tomorrow tonight for the Southern Ocean on one of New Zealand’s largest oceanographic research surveys. The 30 scientists on board, from 17 organisations in 6 countries, will study how the ocean controls climate through the uptake and release of crucial greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

That is just one of many issues scientists, industry, and government representatives will discuss at a workshop on climate change and greenhouse gases in Wellington on Thursday and Friday this week.

The wild weather that saw parts of the lower North Island and top of the South Island under water last week had a definite touch of winter about it.

A New Zealand research vessel will set sail from Wellington Harbour this Sunday bound for Chile as part of a major international project to understand and predict the phenomena influencing the world’s climate.

“As New Zealand enters the third day with temperatures soaring into the mid thirties, the significance of this early 2004 heatwave is only being recognised as the official figures are filed,” said Senior Climate Scientist Dr Jim Salinger.

New Zealand scientist Mike Williams has received $100,000 funding over two years to study how ice shelves respond to climate change in one of the world’s most pristine and least explored parts of Antarctica – and he won’t even need to get his feet wet.

Ever fancied yourself as a climate scientist? Well, now you can have a go at being one with the launch of the world’s largest climate prediction experiment at the Science Museum in London and the BA Festival of Science in Salford on Friday, 12 September 2003 (British Standard Time).

The severe drought that struck much of New Zealand during the summer and autumn of 2003 has broken.

A mild winter is expected La Niña developing for winter.

Temperature

Above average temperatures are expected in all districts except the east of the South Island, where above average or average temperatures are expected. Some cold spells typical of winter are also likely, with frosty conditions at times in inland places. Local sea surface temperatures are likely to remain above average during the June–August period.

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