Sea Level Forecasts and Early-Warning Application: Expanding Cooperation in the South Pacific

2015 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Rashed Chowdhury ◽  
Pao-Shin Chu
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Hazard Management ◽  
The Pacific

Abstract Because of the need for information related to the variability and predictability of sea level on season-to-longer time scales, the Pacific ENSO Applications Climate (PEAC) Center runs the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-based canonical correlation analysis (CCA) statistical model to generate sea level forecasts for the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) region with lead times of 3–6 months in advance. However, in order to meet the increasing demand for longer lead-time (e.g., 6–12 months) forecasts, the PEAC Center, as part of the advances in operational sea level forecasts, recently incorporated both SST and zonal wind components of trade winds (U) for modulating sea level variability on longer time scales. The combined SST and U-based forecasts are found to be more skillful on longer time scales. This improvement has enabled the capability of our clients in the USAPI region to develop a more efficient long-term response plan for hazard management. In a recent “Regional Integrated Water Level Service” meeting, it was revealed that the development and distribution of “seasonal water level outlooks” in the Pacific basin region is an area of mutual interest. We therefore synthesize the current operational forecasting, warning, and response activities of the PEAC Center and discuss the manner in which our experience in the USAPI region can contribute to the development of adaptation strategies for longer time-scale climate variability and change for the non-USAPI region in the south Pacific.

Pacific Islands Countries Declare Permanent Maritime Baselines, Limits and Boundaries

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 685-695
Author(s):  
David Freestone ◽  
Clive Schofield
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Major Development ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Coastal Features ◽  
International Law Commission

Abstract The Pacific Island countries are in the front line of adverse impacts from sea level rise. For the last decade the South Pacific Forum Members have been seeking ways to preserve their entitlements to their maritime zones and resources in the event of inundation of coasts and coastal features as a result of sea level rise. The issue was explored by the International Law Association in its 2018 Report and is being considered by a Study Group of the International Law Commission. This 2021 Declaration by the 18 Members of the South Pacific Forum purporting to fix permanently their maritime entitlements represents a major development in State practice for the region.

Kava : A Challenge to Alcohol?

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
J.E. Cawte
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
The South ◽  
Aboriginal Communities ◽  
North East ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Arnhem Land

Kava has been introduced into Aboriginal communities in Northern Australia. Persons from Yirrkala in North East Arnhem Land visiting the South Pacific region on study tours have been impressed by their welcome in Kava bowl ceremonies, and some of them hoped that the Aborigines might use Kava instead of alcohol.In 1983 many Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land used Kava, and much more was used in 1984. By 1985 it became a social epidemic or ‘craze’ in many communities. Rings of people of both sexes and of all ages often sit together under trees around Kava bowls for many hours. They may drink up to a hundred times the amount normally drunk in the Pacific Islands by the same number of people in the same time.

The Pacific Islands Press

1974 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-477
Author(s):  
Jim Richstad ◽  
Michael McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Area

“Pacific-style journalism” seems to be emerging from the news-papers published in the diverse and widely scattered societies of the South Pacific area.

scholarly journals REVIEW: An unusual, insightful Pacific book

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-181
Author(s):  
Ian Boden
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
The Public ◽  
Practical Guide ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
On Line

Review of The Pacific Journalism: A Practical Guide, edited by David Robie. Suva: University of South Pacific Journalism Programme/ USP Book Centre, and South Pacific Books. Very rarely does a book appear in the South Pacific that is generated within the region and intended for those working here. Even more unusually does a book address itself to the need of Pacific Islands journalism, to the rights of the public to be informed, and to the responsibilities and obligations of journalists. Add to that an attempt to cover not only the print media, but to address television, radio and on-line news dissemination and you have a book with the potential to become a landmark publication. 

Decadal Sea Level Variability in the South Pacific in a Global Eddy-Resolving Ocean Model Hindcast

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 1731-1747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshi N. Sasaki ◽  
Shoshiro Minobe ◽  
Niklas Schneider ◽  
Takashi Kagimoto ◽  
Masami Nonaka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Sea Level Variability ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Sea level variability and related oceanic changes in the South Pacific from 1970 to 2003 are investigated using a hindcast simulation of an eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model (OGCM) for the Earth Simulator (OFES), along with sea level data from tide gauges since 1970 and a satellite altimeter since 1992. The first empirical orthogonal function mode of sea level anomalies (SLAs) of OFES exhibits broad positive SLAs over the central and western South Pacific. The corresponding principal component indicates roughly stable high, low, and high SLAs, separated by a rapid sea level fall in the late 1970s and sea level rise in the late 1990s, consistent with tide gauge and satellite observations. These decadal changes are accompanied by circulation changes of the subtropical gyre at 1000-m depth, and changes of upper-ocean zonal current and eddy activity around the Tasman Front. In general agreement with previous related studies, it is found that sea level variations in the Tasman Sea can be explained by propagation of long baroclinic Rossby waves forced by wind stress curl anomalies, if the impact of New Zealand is taken into account. The corresponding atmospheric variations are associated with decadal variability of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Thus, decadal sea level variability in the western and central South Pacific in the past three and half decades and decadal ENSO variability are likely to be connected. The sea level rise in the 1990s, which attracted much attention in relation to the global warming, is likely associated with the decadal cooling in the tropical Pacific.

scholarly journals South Pacific Ocean Dipole: A Predictable Mode on Multiseasonal Time Scales

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1648-1658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanhong Guan ◽  
Jieshun Zhu ◽  
Bohua Huang ◽  
Zeng-Zhen Hu ◽  
James L. Kinter III
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Active Centers ◽  
Austral Spring ◽  
South Pacific Ocean ◽  
South Indian

Abstract Evaluating the climate hindcasts for 1982–2009 from the NCEP CFS Reanalysis and Reforecast (CFSRR) project using the Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2), this study identifies substantial areas of high prediction skill of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the South Pacific. The skill is the highest in the extratropical oceans on seasonal-to-interannual time scales, and it is only slightly lower than that for the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Two regions with the highest prediction skills in the South Pacific in both the CFSv2 and persistence hindcasts coincide with the active centers of opposite signs in the South Pacific Ocean dipole (SPOD) mode, a seesaw between the subtropical and extratropical SST in the South Pacific with a strong phase locking to austral summer. Interestingly, the CFSv2 prediction exhibits skillful predictions made three seasons ahead, more superior to the persistence forecast, suggesting significant dynamical predictability of the SPOD. An austral “spring predictability barrier” is noted in both the dynamical and persistence hindcasts. An analysis of the observational and model data suggests that the SPOD mode is significantly associated with ENSO, as an oceanic response to the atmospheric planetary wave trains forced by the anomalous atmospheric heating in the western Pacific. Although previous studies have demonstrated that the pattern of subtropical SST dipole is ubiquitous in the Southern Ocean, the SPOD has been least known and studied, compared with its counterparts in the south Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Since the SPOD is the most predictable oceanic mode in the whole Southern Hemisphere, its climate effects for local and remote regions should be further studied.

South Pacific Commission

1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-482
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Work Program ◽  
The Pacific

From April 28 to May 7, 1952 the ninth session of the South Pacific Commission was held in Noumea, New Caledonia.1 The session, which was primarily concerned with administrative matters, was under the chairmanship of N. A. J. de Voogd (Netherlands). As a result of agreement by member governments at the eighth session to include Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands within the scope of the Commission, at the ninth session it was agreed unanimously to extend Commission activities to embrace these territories. Assurances of cooperation in Commission activities were given on behalf of both territories by the Acting Senior Commissioner for the United States (Leebrick) and the Secretary of Guam (Herman). Special aspects of its work program were reviewed by the Commission. The printing of two project reports dealing with the area was authorized: one, on economic development of coral atolls covered a survey made for the Commission in 1951 in the Gilbert Islands and the other was concerned with the possibilities of expanding the cacao industry in the area.

scholarly journals Industrial Relations and Trade Unions in the South Pacific: Introduction

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Leckie
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The South ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Pacific

While recently on the island of Pohnpei in the South Pacific, I made enquires about labour relations there and was repeatedly infoxmed that there are none! The same answer might be given for several of the island states within the South Pacific but this would overlook that even if formal industrial relations Channels are weakly established, employment and labour relations issues are by no means absent from the Pacific Islands. This special issue developed from a perceived lack of analysis and infotmation about the background of and current trends in labour relations in the South Pacific. The countries represented here are selective. This reflects the selectivity of research in the Pacific, particularly in the field of industrial relations. The nations chosen are of special relevance to New Zealand and Australia and those with the most developed industrial relations structures (Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) are included. Papua New Guinea and Fiji also have the biggest workforces in the region. In contrast, industrial Jielations in a small micro-state, Kiribati, are also analysed. It is regrettable that only one Polynesian country, Western Samoa, is discussed but this reflects the restricted role or absence (e.g., in Tonga) of fotrnal industrial relations in much of Polynesia. The papers also have not generally tackled their subjects from an employers' perspective, again an area of resean;h which has been virtually ignored in the South Pacific.

Across the Seas

2014 ◽  
pp. 204-217
Author(s):  
Jayshree Mamtora ◽  
Peter Walton
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Library Community ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Law Library ◽  
Successful Collaboration

This chapter reports on four current and significant collaborative projects between Australia and the Pacific Islands in the area of libraries, archives and information centres, their respective staff, and Pacific counterparts. In the context of this chapter, and mirroring the Australian Government’s Pacific policies, all the collaborations mentioned involve countries in the south Pacific (i.e. Melanesia and Polynesia), although two Micronesian countries with strong links to Australia—Kiribati and Nauru—are included. The projects are: Pacific Manuscripts Bureau – microfilming and preserving historic documents; Pacific Islands Law Library Community Twinning Program; Marine Library Twinning Project; and the Melanesian Agricultural Information System. Based on experiences in carrying out these projects, this chapter shares some strategies for successful collaboration and the value of such projects.

scholarly journals New Evidence for a Mid- to Late-Holocene Change in the Marine Reservoir Effect Across the South Pacific Gyre

Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Petchey
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
The South ◽  
Surface Ocean ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Australian Coastline ◽  
South Pacific Gyre

AbstractHolocene climate change in the South Pacific is of major interest to archaeologists and Quaternary researchers. Regional surface ocean radiocarbon (14C) values are an established proxy for studying changing oceanographic and climatic conditions. Unfortunately, radiocarbon variability in the marine environment over the period of specific importance to human colonization of the remote Pacific islands—the last 3500 years—has been poorly studied. In order to build robust and accurate archaeological chronologies using shell, it is important to rectify this. In this paper, radiocarbon marine reservoir offsets (ΔR) are presented from eight archaeological sites, ranging in age from 350 cal BP to 3000 cal BP, and compared to coral datasets from the east Australian coastline. The results indicate that a significant decrease in the South Pacific Gyre ΔR occurred between 2600 and 2250 cal BP, most likely caused by changes in ocean circulation and climate. Accurately recording the timing of variability in reservoir offset is critical to untangling changes in society that took place in the Pacific, in particular, the development of Ancestral Polynesian Society.

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