WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

15-19 December 2008

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 19 January 2009. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- Tropical cyclone activity last week was limited to the western North Pacific Basin, A tropical cyclone formed to the northeast of the Federated States of Micronesia last week and traveled west toward the Philippines. As of Monday (local time), this storm had intensified to become Typhoon Dolphin. This category-1 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) wad forecast to curve to the north before it reaches the Philippines. For more information and a satellite image of Typhoon Dolphin can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season Animation -- NOAA's Environmental Visualization Program has produced a high-resolution satellite animation of the recently concluded 2008 North Atlantic hurricane season. [NHC] Note a Quicktime player is required for this animation and can be downloaded for free.
• First Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season -- Last week, Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University released their first forecast for what they believe to be an active 2009 North Atlantic hurricane season. They predict that 14 named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes) will form next season, seven of which could develop into hurricanes. Three hurricanes could become intense (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity scale). They also anticipate an above-average probability that at least one major hurricane would make landfall along the coast of the continental US. Currently, they do not expect El Niño conditions to develop during the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season. Subsequent forecast updates will be issued beginning in April 2009. Details of their forecast appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colo. State Report] (Note this document is in a 27-page pdf file.)
• Hurricane provides ecosystem research material -- While Hurricane Ike that made landfall this past September along the upper Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston destroyed many of the dunes and marshes that a ecosystem scientist and his graduate students at Texas AgriLife Research were studying, these researchers have noted the hurricane's destruction and plan on studying the recovery of the ecosystem. [Texas A&M AgNews]
• Pacific Decadal Oscillation continues to dominate -- Based upon sea surface temperatures from NOAA satellites and sea-surface height measurements from the U.S./French Jason-1 oceanography satellite, researchers claim that the Pacific Ocean basin remains locked in a strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation that has resulted in a general cooling of the basin's waters. [NASA JPL]
• San Francisco is TsunamiReady™ -- NOAA's National Weather Service has recently recognized that the City of San Francisco, CA has become a TsunamiReady™ community as it NOAA's National Weather Service TsunamiReady™ recognition program, which better equipping the city to prepare and warn its citizens for tsunamis. [NOAA News]
• New simulation tool to help emergency managers in Oregon's coastal communities -- The National Geophysical Data Center and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science have created four high-resolution digital elevation models of the Oregon coastline that can be used to simulate tsunamis and coastal flooding events, thereby aiding emergency managers develop life-saving plans for their coastal communities. [NOAA News]
• Slow for the North Atlantic right whales -- A recent regulation that went into effect last week requires ships that have a length of at least 65 feet can travel no faster than 10 knots in certain areas of the western North Atlantic where endangered right whales gather, specifically in the waters off New England. [NOAA News]
• Role of humans and oceans in North American climate assessed -- The U.S. Climate Change Science Program has recently released an assessment report entitled " Reanalysis of Historical Climate Data for Key Atmospheric Features: Implications for Attribution of Causes of Observed Change" that addresses the role that human activity and the regional ocean temperatures have shaped North America's climate over the past half century. [NOAA News]
• Coral reefs under increased threat from climate change -- A report, "Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008", released recently by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and the International Coral Reef Initiative warns that the health of the planet's coral reef ecosystems is threatened by increased pressures from climate change. A call was made for urgent global action. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean chemistry altered by climate change -- A team of researchers from the Carnegie Institution and the University of California, Santa Cruz who analyzed ocean core samples from the Pacific Ocean have discovered that the chemical characters of the world's oceans appears to have been less stable than previously thought and more prone to changes in climate. They cite the dramatic shifts in the ocean's calcium levels between 13 and 8 million years ago, at the time of the growth of the Antarctic ice sheets. [EurekAlert!]
• Tracing evolution in ancient oceans by following the elements -- Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the distribution of key chemical elements on Earth during its early history helped define the distribution of life and the course of evolution, especially in the oceans. [EurekAlert!]
• Tsunami-producing Indian Ocean earthquake caused tremors in California -- A researcher at the University of Washington claims that the major earthquake of Indonesia on 26 December 2005 that generated the catastrophic tsunami in the Indian Ocean also created tremors along the San Andreas fault in California, approximately 9000 miles distant. [EurekAlert!]
• New initiative needed to monitor nutrients entering the Gulf -- A report from the National Research Council advises that the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Agriculture should jointly establish a Nutrient Control Implementation Initiative and a Mississippi River Basin Water Quality Center to investigate the effectiveness of actions designed to improve water quality throughout the Mississippi River basin and into the northern Gulf of Mexico. [EurekAlert!]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 15 December 1488...Bartholomeus Diaz returned to Portugal after sailing round Cape of Good Hope.
• 15 December 1582...The Spanish Netherlands, Denmark and Norway adopted the Gregorian calendar.
• 15 December 1965...The third cyclone of the year killed another 10,000 people at the mouth of the Ganges River, Bangladesh.
• 15 December 1987...High seas to 12-foot heights caused in part by 30-mph winds associated with an arctic cold front capsized a fishing boat in the coastal waters near California's Channel Islands. The ship's cargo shifted in the high seas and strong winds. Three of the nine people onboard drowned. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 16 December 1897...The Argonaut, the first US submarine with an internal combustion engine, was demonstrated on the Patapsco River. Simon Lake invented and patented the engine. (Today in Science History)
• 16-17 December 1997...Torrential rain from Super Typhoon Paka fell on Guam with nearly 21 inches of rain observed at Tiyan before instrumentation failed two hours before Paka's eye passed to the south. Winds gusted to 171 mph before wind instruments failed. However, unofficial sources at Andersen Air Force Base believed that wind gusts may have reached 236.7 mph during the height of the storm. This super typhoon left major damage to 60 percent of the homes on Guam and caused 500 million dollars in damage. Fortunately, no one was killed and only two injuries were reported. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
• 17-18 December 1832...The HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin onboard rounded Cape San Diego at Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of South America) then sailed through the Strait of Le Maire, to anchor at Good Success Bay and visit Vurland.
• 17-18 December 1944...A typhoon with wind gusts to 142 mph in the Philippine Sea devastated Task Force 38 of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet northeast of Samar. Approximately 800 men were lost, the destroyers USS Hull, USS Monaghan and USS Spence sank, while 21 other ships were damaged, along with loss of 147 aircraft. The wind and sea tore life vests from the backs of some survivors. (Naval Historical Center) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 19 December 1551...The Dutch west coast was hit by a hurricane.
• 19 December 1741...Vitus J Bering, Dutch navigator/explorer, died on this date.
• 19-21 December 1835...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin approached New Zealand and sailed into the Bay of Islands.
• 20 December 1987...Worst peacetime shipping disaster occurred as the Dona Paz, a Philippine ferry, sank after collision with oil tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion. As many as 1749 confirmed deaths, but the death toll was probably closer to 3000.
• 21 December 1163...A hurricane hit villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods.
• 21 December 1872...The HMS Challenger set sail from Portsmouth, England on the 4-year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography. (Wikipedia)
• 21 December 1936...Ice breaking operations in channels and harbors by the US Coast Guard was authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Executive Order No. 7521. (USCG Historian's Office)

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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.