In Ioke's Wake

There's still not much news yet out of Wake Island, other than that there aren't any oil spills (um, why would there be?) But Hurricane/Supertyphoon Ioke left a different kind of, er, wake than its destruction of Wake. This incredible storm churned lots of cooler water up from below the ocean surface, as you can see in the sea surface temperature anomaly picture above from Remote Sensing Systems. A storm's capacity to mix up the oceans is, of course, proportional to its power. And Ioke had a hell of a lot of power at its height. Some scientists have even speculated that this type of cyclone-induced ocean mixing plays a significant role in heat transport by the oceans, and therefore, in regulating global climate. I'm not a scientist, but for me, looking at Ioke's dramatic cold wake helps make that idea believable.