WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

3-7 July 2006

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2006 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 28 August 2006. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• WELCOME to the weather and ocean educators attending the Seventh International Conference on School and Popular Meteorological and Oceanographic Education (EWOC 2006) and the 2006 Project Atmosphere-DataStreme Workshop that are being held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder CO from 3 to 7 July 2006. (EWOC=Education: Weather, Oceans, Climate)
• Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun early this evening (officially at 23Z on Monday, 3 July 2006, which is equivalent to 7 PM EDT or 6 PM CDT). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year on the morning of 3 January.
• Finding a divide in the Southern Ocean -- Using the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Modular Ocean Model, scientists with this laboratory have found that a demarcation exists between waters of the Southern Ocean immediately surrounding Antarctica and waters farther north also serve as a "biochemical divide" involving complex relationships between the assimilation of atmospheric carbon dioxide and biological productivity. [NOAA News]
• Deep-sea corals discovered off Washington State -- NOAA scientists on a recent scientific research mission onboard a NOAA vessel discovered an area of deep-sea corals that include more than a half dozen species in the NOAA Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary offshore of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.[NOAA News]
• Gray whales appear to be thriving -- NOAA researchers who have counted gray whale calves traveling northward along the California coast this spring note an increase in number, suggesting an increase in reproduction and an increase in gray whale population. They also think that a warming Arctic Ocean is providing a good environment. [San Francisco Chronicle]
• New GPS satellite software may aid in timely tsunami warnings -- Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno and other institutions have been using GPS (Global Positioning System) software developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to monitor ocean floor and ocean waves from satellites, thereby shorting the time that an ocean-wide tsunami warning is issued to 15 minutes. [NASA JPL]
• New hybrid submersible is named -- The new Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle being built for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been named Nereus, a mythical god with a man’s torso and a fish tail. This vehicle will be able to descend to a depth of 36,000 feet below the ocean surface. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ]
• Biological treasures found in the subtropical ocean -- Using a towed underwater digital microscope, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have discovered a multi-cell organism, identified as Trichodesmium, in the subtropical waters of the Atlantic that appears to play a major role in the fixation of nitrogen into the upper layers of the tropical and subtropical ocean This discovery could help find a possible missing link in the global nitrogen cycle. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• Jellyfish-like organisms could affect CO₂ in oceans -- Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found that at a jellyfish-like organism called a salp could be transferring large quantities of carbon dioxide from surface waters to the deep ocean, thereby helping affect the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• A new volcano found in Mediterranean -- Italian scientists have discovered a large underwater dormant volcano in the Mediterranean approximately 25 miles off the southern coast of Sicily.  They have named this volcano Empedocles, an ancient Greek natural philosopher. [BBC News]
• A "lake burst" could have caused a major chill -- Researchers at the University of East Anglia and Cardiff University claim that ocean circulation changes caused by sudden North American "lake bursts" of fresh water during the current interglacial epoch could have resulted in a substantial cooling of the climate about 82000 years ago, a finding that indicates how changes in ocean circulation can cause an even greater affect on the climate than previously thought. [EurekAlert!]
• Offshore platforms serve as a habitat for fish -- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara report that some rockfish species along the California coast have found a suitable nursery habitat around the offshore oil and gas platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel and along the coast. [EurekAlert!]
• Opening a window on "oceans in motion" -- Two programs are developing a new global window on marine life called the Ocean Tracking Network that will follow the movements of a variety of marine species using electronic tags. One of the programs is Project POST (Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking), based in British Columbia and the other is Project TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Pelagics) from California. [EurekAlert!]
• Floods could stress Chesapeake Bay -- The heavy rain that fell across Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna River watershed early last week produced a near record flood on the river that empties into Chesapeake Bay. This flood water could be extremely harmful to the crab and shellfish populations in the Bay, the nation's largest estuary. [USA Today]
• 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:

• 3 July 1903...The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced and completed between San Francisco on the US West Coast, Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila in the Philippines. After testing, the first official message was sent the next day. A cable between San Francisco and Hawaii had been established at the beginning of the same year, with its first official message sent on 1 Jan 1903. This technological event ended Hawaii's isolation by connecting it to the mainland U.S. and the rest of the world. The cable was a mainstay of communications into the early 1950s when newer technology rendered it obsolete. (The 1902 all-British telegraph line from Canada to Australia and New Zealand was the first line to cross the Pacific Ocean.) (Today in Science History)
• 3 July 1992...At 11 PM EDT, several waves to heights of 18 feet crashed ashore at Daytona Beach, FL. Sailboats were tossed onto cars, 200 vehicles damaged and 75 minor injuries reported. While the exact cause was unknown, morning storms were moving parallel to the coast approximately 430 miles to the east. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4 July 1687...An early experience of a tropical revolving storm was made by Captain William Dampier, whose ship survived what he called a "tuffoon" off the coast of China. In New Voyage Round the World, (published in 1697) Dampier wrote that this violent whirlwind storm had a calm central eye, and its winds moved from opposite directions as the storm moved passed. This was one of the earliest known European descriptions of a typhoon, which also presented a new understanding that storms somehow move, rather than remain stationary. During his ocean travels, he kept a detailed journal, noting native cultures, and made careful descriptions of natural history which in effect made him an early contributor to scientific exploration. (Today in Science History)
• 4 July 1840...The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer, RMS Britannia, departed from Liverpool, England bound for Halifax, NS on its first transatlantic passenger cruise. (Wikipedia)
• 4 July 1903...President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first official message over the new cable across the Pacific Ocean between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. (Today in Science History)
• 5 July 1805...Robert FitzRoy, British naval officer, hydrographer, and meteorologist who commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle, aboard which Charles Darwin sailed around the world as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. FitzRoy retired from active duty in 1850 and from 1854 devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). His death on 30 April 1865 was by suicide, during a bout of depression. (Today in Science History)
• 5 July 1916...An early season hurricane produced 82 mph winds, an 11.6 foot tide, and a barometric pressure of 28.92 inches at Mobile, AL. (David Ludlum)
• 5 July 1989...Moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Allison triggered thunderstorms over the Middle Atlantic Coast Region, which deluged Wilmington, DE with a record 6.83 inches of rain in 24 hours, including 6.37 inches in just six hours. Up to ten inches of rain was reported at Claymont, northeast of Wilmington. July 1989 was thus the wettest month in seventy years for Wilmington, with a total of 12.63 inches of rain. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 6 July 1484...Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão located the mouth of the Congo River. (Wikipedia)
• 6 July 1988...The world's worst offshore accident occurred when 167 oil workers were killed by explosions and fires that destroyed the Piper Alpha drilling platform in the British sector of the North Sea.
• 7 July 1901...First three-day weather forecast issued for the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 7 July 1952...The liner SS United States made the fastest-ever eastbound crossing of the Atlantic of 3 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes on her maiden voyage from Nantucket Light Ship off New York's Long Island to Bishop Rock Lighthouse in western England.
• 8 July 1497...The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, set sail from Lisbon, Portugal with four ships on the first direct European voyage to India, first rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and reaching Calicut on India's southwest coast on 20 May 1498. (Wikipedia)
• 8 July 1879...The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, CA.

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.