8-12 January 2007

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 15 January 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

• A pair of storms seen over the North Atlantic -- The spiral swirl to the clouds associated with two midlatitude storms (or cyclones) moving across the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland can be seen from this image made from the MODIS sensor on NASA'S Terra satellite in November 2006.  [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Locating the collapsed ice shelf --  Images from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite made on 13 August 2005 show sections of ice that began to float away from the Ayles Ice Shelf on Canada's Ellesmere Island after the collapse of the ice shelf.  [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Satellites aid in documenting health of coral reefs -- An image from the orbiting Landsat satellite of the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean off the island of Madagascar is one of many that have been used to help create a global survey of the location, structure and overall health of coral reefs, which are susceptible to bleaching due to higher ocean temperatures over the last several decades.  [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Heat stress could make fish species suffer -- Scientists at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research recently reported on their research into the relationship between seasonal water temperature in the North Sea and the population density of a fish species, finding that warmer waters resulted in a deficiency in oxygen uptake by the fish, which eventually led to limiting the stock size of the fish species.  [EurekAlert!]
• A region with large contrasts -- An image of western Mauritania and the adjoining Atlantic Ocean off the Banc d'Arguin National Park obtained from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows the contrast between the environment of the Sahara Desert and the ocean.  The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. -- [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 8 January 1958...The Coast Guard LORAN Station at Johnston Island began transmitting on a 24-hour basis, thus establishing a new LORAN rate in the Central Pacific. The new rate between Johnston Island and French Frigate Shoal gave a higher order of accuracy for fixing positions in the steamship lanes from Oahu, Hawaii, to Midway Island. In the past, this was impossible in some areas along this important shipping route. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8 January 1971...Twenty-nine pilot whales beached themselves and died at San Clemente Island, CA.
• 8-11 January 1980...Winds, waves and rain pounded Hawaii, resulting in 27.5 million dollars in storm damage, which was the greatest amount to that date in the Aloha State's history. Four houses were destroyed and 40 others damaged by a possible tornado in Honolulu's Pacific Palisades area on the 8^th. Ocean waves with heights to 20 feet entered beachfront hotels along the Kona Coast of the Big Island. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 12 January 1836...Charles Darwin onboard the HMS Beagle reached Sydney, Australia.
• 12 January 1937...A plow for laying submarine cable was issued a U.S. patent. Designed to feed a cable at the same time that it would dig a trench in the ocean bed, the device could be used at depths up to a half mile. The first transatlantic cable of high-speed permalloy was buried on 14 June 1938. The inventors were Chester S. Lawton of Ridgewood, NJ and Capt. Melville H. Bloomer of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Today in Science History).
• 12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 January 1840…The 207-ft long side-wheel steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound four miles off the northern coast of New York State's Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. Only four people survived. (Wikipedia)

Return to DataStreme Ocean Website

Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.