WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

16-20 January 2017

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 23 January 2017. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Items of Interest:

Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2017 Campaign commences -- The first in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2017 will commence on Thursday (19 January) and continue through Saturday, 28 January. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Orion in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The next series in the 2017 campaign is scheduled for 18-27 February 2017. [GLOBE at Night]
Approaching coldest time of the year -- This upcoming week is the third week of January, which for many locations across the nation typically marks the coldest week of the year, as indicated by the daily normal high and low temperatures. Usually, those stations located away from the moderating influences of the oceans reach their lowest temperatures during the third week of January, or a roughly one month after the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere receives the fewest hours of daylight and the smallest amounts of solar radiation. During that month, temperatures continue to fall to their lowest typical values as cooling continues. However, the increased length of daylight and increased sunshine during this month begins to warm the ground and overlying atmosphere as normal daily temperatures begin to rise toward their highest levels in mid to late July.
End of a long polar night -- After being below the horizon for approximately 65 days, the Sun should rise at Barrow, the northernmost city in Alaska, for the first time this new year on this coming Sunday, 22 January 2017, at 1:17 PM Alaska Standard Time (AKST). However, the Sun will only remain above the horizon for only 45 minutes, as it will set again at 2:02 PM. Although the Sun set for the final time last year at 1:31 PM AKST on 18 November 2016, residents of Barrow had roughly three hours of some diffuse sunlight each day that is equivalent to civil twilight, provided the cloud cover was not too thick. To check the sunrise and sunset times of Barrow or any location in the United States go to the US Naval Observatory's on-line, interactive service for the entire year.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- The weather across the tropical and subtropical ocean basins in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere remained relatively quiet during the last week. However, the only activity was found in the western North Pacific basin where the the first tropical depression of 2017 identified as Tropical Depression 1W (or TD 1W) weakened as it moved out over the South China Sea at the start of last week after traveling across the central Philippines over the previous weekend. However, remnants of TD 1W continued to travel west across the South China Sea toward the coast of Vietnam. Over this past weekend, the remnants of TD 1W strengthened and became a tropical depression as it came close to the coast. As of late Sunday night (local time) the center of TD 1W was located approximately 160 miles to the east-southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Current forecasts have TD 1W making landfall along the Mekong Delta and crossing southern Vietnam by late Monday before exiting out over the Gulf of Thailand on Tuesday. A slow weakening of this tropical depression was anticipated. Additional information and satellite imagery for TD 1W is available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Updated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & El Niño advisory outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their La Niña advisory, although they were expecting a transition to an ENSO-neutral situation with neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions beginning in February and continuing through the remainder of the first half of 2017. Below-average sea surface temperatures (SST) had been found across the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean in December 2016, a sign of the continuation of a weak La Niña. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies values across these sections of the equatorial Pacific were on the order of 0.5 Celsius degrees below normal. In addition to the pattern of sea surface temperature anomalies, the atmosphere patterns were also consistent with the weak La Niña in terms of the location of atmospheric convection and the low-level winds. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] A blog written by a contractor scientist from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center describing the development of La Niña conditions early in Northern Hemisphere autumn and peaking in late November. Attention was also paid to the global precipitation and temperature patterns for last fall (October through December 2016) and how they compared with other La Niña events. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
New climate data record bundle focuses on water from around the globe -- Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) have assembled a new bundle of data records that focuses on water and the climatic changes in hydrology. This "hydrobundle" Climate Data Record (CDR) contains a long-term record of such hydrological date such as precipitable water, rainfall, snow, and sea ice, along with surface temperature. The data were obtained over a span starting in 2000 using sensors onboard polar orbiting NOAA and EUMETSAT series (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). [NOAA NCEI News]
Ocean acidification expected to hit Dungeness crab fishery on West Coast -- Scientists at the University of Washington and NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center report warn that acidification of the ocean due to increasing amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide in seawater from human activity will affect the West Coast's marine food web, likely causing Dungeness crabs to suffer as their food sources decline. Sophisticated models of the California Current ecosystem off the Pacific Coast were used to assess the impacts of a projected 55 percent increase in acidity (or a 0.2 unit decline in the pH of seawater) over the next 50 years. Dungeness crab fisheries, which are currently valued at approximately $220 million annually, may face a strong downturn over the next half century. [NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center Features]
Stronger ocean wave activity on Antarctic Peninsula anticipated due to changing atmospheric conditions -- Scientists from Colorado State University and the US Geological Survey recently described how a shift in the large-scale pattern of atmospheric variability identified as the "Southern Annular Mode" may affect storm activity in the Southern Ocean and the extent of sea ice surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula. Sea ice may protect ice shelves from the impacts of ocean storms by weakening wave intensity before it reaches the coastline. Like its counterpart the Northern Annual Mode in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Annular Mode describes the north-south movement of the belt of westerly winds in midlatitudes and has been used to explain short-term variations or anomalous atmospheric flow outside the tropics (extratropical) on week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year time scales. [Colorado State University Source]
Moon is older than previous estimates -- A research team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and other research institutions recently reported that their analysis of zircons or minerals from the lunar surface that were brought back by the NASA astronauts on the Apollo 14 mission to the moon in 1971 indicate that the moon is 4.51 billion years old, which is between 40 and 140 million years older than previously estimated. These findings suggest that the moon formed approximately 60 million years after the birth of the solar system as the result of a violent collision between early Earth and a "planetary embryo" called Theia. [University of California, Los Angeles Newsroom]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]

Historical Events

17 January 1773...HMS Resolution, commanded by English explorer Captain James Cook, became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle (66 deg 33 min S). (Wikipedia)
17 January 1779...The English explorer Captain James Cook made his last notation in ship's log Discovery. He was killed less than one month later on Hawaii's Big Island.
18 January 1778...The English explorer Captain James Cook sailed past the island of Oahu, thereby becoming the first European to see the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands." (The History Channel)
18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-27 January 1980...Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced 223.5 inches of rainfall over the 10-day period at Cratère Commerson, on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor) (National Weather Service files)
19 January 1840...LT Charles Wilkes, USN was the first American to sight the eastern Antarctic coast, claiming this portion of the continent for the United States. The group that he led explored a 1500-mile stretch of the coast of eastern Antarctica, which later became known as Wilkes Land. (Naval Historical Center)
19 January 1883: The steamers of Cimbria and Sultan collided in the North Sea due to heavy fog. This collision resulted in the death of 357 people. (National Weather Service files)
19 January 1946...Staged jointly by the USCG and USN, the first public demonstration of LORAN was held at Floyd Bennett Field in New York. (USCG Historian's Office)
19 January 1996...The tug Scandia and its barge, the North Cape, ran aground on the shore of Rhode Island, spilling 828,000 gallons of oil, the worst spill in that state's history. The Coast Guard rescued the entire crew, pumped off 1.5 million gallons of oil and conducted skimming operations. (USCG Historian's Office)
20 January 1606...As many as 2000 people died around the Severn Estuary in England as the result of severe flooding. (The Weather Doctor)
20 January 1850...The Investigator, which was the first ship to effect a Northwest Passage, left England.
20 January 1914...The International Ice Patrol Convention was signed. (USCG Historian's Office)
20 January 1986...The United Kingdom and France announced plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, a railway tunnel underneath the English Channel, also known as the "Chunnel." (Wikipedia)
21 January 1881...The light was first shown at Tillamook Lighthouse, located 19 miles south of the Columbia River entrance on the Oregon coast. (USCG Historian's Office)
21 January 1941...The first commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater was made at Freeport, TX.
21 January 1954...The first nuclear powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched on the Thames River in Groton, CT, representing a landmark in the history of naval engineering and submersible craft. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower christened the vessel, which sailed beneath the Arctic ice pack to the North Pole in 1958. (Today in Science History)