Gulf Oil Slick Approaching Loop Current

During the first weeks following the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico, oil drifting from the site of the incident usually headed west and northwest to the Mississippi River Delta. But in the third week of May, currents drew some of the oil southeast. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the southward spread increased the chance that the oil would become mixed up with the Loop Current and spread to Florida or even the U.S. East Coast.
This pair of sea surface temperature images shows how the warm waters of the Loop Current connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean (top image, May 1–8, 2010) and the dynamic northern margin of the Loop Current a week and a half later, on May 18 (bottom image). Based on observations of infrared energy collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, the images show cooler temperatures in blue and purple and warmer temperatures in pink and yellow. Cloudy areas are light gray.
The Loop Current pushes up into the Gulf from the Caribbean Sea. The current’s tropical warmth makes it stand out from the surrounding cooler waters of the Gulf of Mexico in this image. The current loses its northward momentum about mid-way through the gulf, and bends back on itself to flow south. It joins warm waters flowing eastward between Florida and Cuba, which then merge with the Gulf Stream Current on its journey up the East Coast.
At a May 18 press conference, NOAA reported that “satellite imagery on May 17 indicates that the main bulk of the oil is dozens of miles away from the Loop Current, but that a tendril of light oil has been transported down close to the Loop Current. NOAA is conducting aerial observations today to determine with certainty whether oil has actually entered the Loop Current…. The proximity of the southeast tendril of oil to the Loop Current indicates that oil is increasingly likely to become entrained. When that occurs, oil could reach the Florida Straits in 8 to 10 days.”
The bottom image shows the location of the leaking well and the approximate location of the southern arm of the oil slick on May 17 (based on natural-color MODIS imagery). Oil was very close to the Loop Current, whose warm waters appear in yellow near the bottom of the image. However, there is also an eddy of cooler water (purple) circulating counterclockwise at the top of the Loop Current. According to NOAA, “Some amount of any oil drawn into the Loop Current would likely remain in the eddy, heading to the northeast, and some would enter the main Loop Current, where it might eventually head to the Florida Strait.”

Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

Nearly a month after a deadly explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the damaged well on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico continued to spill oil. In the weeks since the accident occurred, the oil slick has periodically drifted northeast toward the Mississippi Delta and reached the the Chandeleur Islands.

On May 17, 2010, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image, a large patch of oil was visible near the site of the accident, and a long ribbon of oil stretched far to the southeast.

Oil slicks are not always visible in natural-color satellite images. A thin sheen of oil on an already dark background may be impossible to detect. On this day, however, the slick was located in the sunglint part of the image, which makes the slick stand out.

Sunglint is the mirror-like reflection of the Sun off the water. If the ocean surface were as smooth and calm as a mirror, a series of perfect reflections of the Sun would appear in a line along the path of the satellite’s northeast-to-southwest orbit. Instead, waves blur the reflection, creating a wide, washed-out strip through the ocean.

A coating of oil smoothes the sea surface relative to the oil-free water, causing it to reflect light differently. Depending on where in the sunglint area it occurs, the slick may look brighter or darker than adjacent clean water. In this image, the slick appears as an uneven shape of varying shades of bright gray-beige.

Sen. Pat Roberts Suggests Obama’s CMS Nominee Supports ‘Death Panels,’ Insists Health Care Is Not A Right

Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) took to the Senate floor today to continue the GOP’s ’second opinion’ campaign against the new health care law and Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). During a rather meandering speech about health care rationing, Roberts tried to connect Berwick to the British health care system and imply that the nominee supports death panels:

ROBERTS: What did he [Berwick] mean when hesaid that equity is a necessary component of quality? Does that mean that high-quality care should not be available unless it is available to all? This certainly seems to square with the United Kingdom’s practice of denying or delaying access to the latest break though drugs or technologies because of its high cost…Now I know that “socialized medicine and “death panels” have become loaded terms. I understand that. But if that is what you are for, you should just say so. Don’t be afraid to have this discussion. Dr. Berwick certainly hasn’t been shy about his views in the past.

Watch a compilation:


Roberts also criticized Berwick for supporting universal health care, noting that Berwick’s sentiment may “sound very nice” and “very realistic.” “The reality is, that declaring health care a human right necessarily places one above others, suppressing the rights of others in favor of another government favored group….what you’re essentially saying is that some people have a right to somebody else’s property, whether that be taxable income or doctor’s services or their health care,” he said. Health care “cannot be properly described as a right without egregious government coercion and income redistribution and patient care consequences.”
Despite Roberts’ fear mongering and use of ‘loaded terms’ like ‘rationing,’ the non-GOP talking point reality is that “Medicare makes decisions on coverage all the time.” As Bush appointee Thomas Scully, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from 2001-2003, told me last year, “I made decisions on coverage all the time… You got to do it the right way” by relying on research about the effectiveness of certain drugs. There is simply no way around it. However, since the government spends about $700 billion a year on treatments that don’t improve health care outcomes, the first order of business is to identify this waste and redistribute it to other parts of the health system.

UPDATEThis afternoon, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) -- aka 'Wyoming's Doctor' -- appeared on MSNBC to argue that Berwick likes the British health care system so much, he managed to get himself knighted! (He has, along with Rudy Giuliani, George H. W. Bush, J. Edger Hoover, and Henry Kissinger). Watch the segment:

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