WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

7-11 May 2007

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

Hollings scholarships for 2007 announced -- NOAA Office of Education officials recently announced that 111 undergraduate college students from 38 states have been awarded scholarships within the 2007 Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program. These scholarships are meant to provide training and experience as a means for encouraging students to pursue further study in atmospheric or oceanic sciences. [NOAA News]
International agreement on marine science and technology reached -- Officials from NOAA and their counterparts in the People Republic of China's State Oceanic Administration recently signed an agreement that would strengthen the collaboration between the two agency that would involve continued work on issues involved with marine and fisheries science and technology. [NOAA News]
A virtual world is launched as a 3-D Earth-Science island -- The NOAA Earth System Research Lab recently launched "NOAA Second Life Virtual World", a three-dimensional virtual world that contains Earth-Science "islands" allowing users to explore and experience a variety of adventures vicariously such as riding through a hurricane on a NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft or taking a trip through an underwater cave in a NOAA submersible. [NOAA News]
Artist creates commemorative painting for NOAA's 200th birthday -- A commemorative painting that celebrates NOAA's 200 years of science, service and stewardship will be created by Wyland, a highly regarded artist and environmental advocate who is the founder and the president of the Wyland Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting, protecting, and preserving the world ocean, waterways, and marine life. [NOAA News]
Coral reef fish find way home -- Scientists from the US, Australia and France who have used a novel tagging method to track fish populations claim that coral reef fish hatchlings are able to find their way back to their home reefs to spawn despite being dispersed by ocean currents. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
Rapid retreat of Arctic Ice found -- Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center claim that their analysis of the observations by satellites, aircraft and ships indicates that Arctic sea ice is melting at a much faster rate than has been projected by any of the computer models used to develop the 2007 IPCC assessments. [UCAR/NCAR]
High levels of contaminants found in post-hurricane urban sediments -- Scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science and their colleagues have found that the flood waters collected in New Orleans following in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the 2005 hurricane season contained high levels of fecal bacteria and microbial pathogens. [University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science]
Studying the air-sea interface near hurricanes -- Scientists at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science are using data collected as part of the Coupled Boundary Layer Air-Sea Transfer (CBLAST) – Hurricane field program to develop a high resolution computer model that would simulate the air-sea interactions and such variables such as surface air temperature, surface winds and ocean currents before, during and after a hurricane. [University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science]
Disastrous Bristol Channel flood of 1607 could have been a tsunami -- Two authors from Australia and the United Kingdom claim that based on analysis of geological features, the reported storm in the Bristol Channel on 30 January 1607 that killed 2000 people and flooded 500 square km of lowland may have been a tsunami. [EurekAlert!]
US environmental satellites are in jeopardy -- The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Board of Directors recently warned that proposed budget cuts are threatening the fleet of NOAA and NASA satellites used to monitor planet Earth and provide data essential to hurricane monitoring as well as weather and climate forecasting. [EurekAlert!]
Third part of IPCC Report released -- The third part of the four-part report entitled "Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change" prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released last Friday in Bangkok, Thailand. This part of the IPCC report, which follows the first two parts issued in early February and April, focuses upon the scientific, technological, environmental, economic and social aspects of mitigation of projected climate change; a distilled version of this portion of the IPCC report, a 35-page summary for policymakers, is available in pdf format. [IPCC] Delegates contend that the technology and money are currently available to aggressively act to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, improve fuel efficiency and utilize renewable energy resources such as solar power so as to avoid increases in global temperatures and associated climate-related disasters. [CNN]
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:

8 May 1961...The first practical seawater conversion plant in the U.S. was opened in Freeport, TX by the Office of Saline Water, U.S. Dept. of the Interior. The plant was designed to produce about a million gallons of water a day at a cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons. (Today in Science History)
8 May 1992...The source of a "red tide" in the Gulf of Mexico was suggested by scientists at a conference on the ecology of the Gulf. The red tide produced huge blooms of reddish algae in sufficient quantity to kill fish and cause severe respiratory problems for humans. A "green river" that started 60 miles inland of Florida was indicated as the source of the algae. The wind and water currents that bring nutrients from the floor of the ocean to the surface provided the food that caused the algae population to explode once it reached the Gulf. (Today in Science History)
9 May 1502...The explorer Christopher Columbus left Spain for his fourth and final journey to the "New World". (Wikipedia)
9 May 1926...The Baden-Baden, a ship propelled by two 50-ft high cylindrical rotors arrived in New York having left Hamburg on 2 Apr 1926, and completed a transatlantic crossing from Germany. Utilizing the aerodynamic power of the Magnus Effect (discovered in 1852), which builds air pressure behind a rotating cylinder, these rotors drove 45-hp electric motors that powered the ship. Although a theoretical success, it was not sufficiently effective for commercial application. (Today in Science)
9 May 1980...A blinding squall, followed by dense fog, reduced visibility to near zero at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. The Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hit the bridge piling, causing a 1200-foot section of the bridge to fall 150 feet into the bay. Several vehicles, including a bus, drove off the edge of the span, resulting in 35 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (Wikipedia).
9 May 1990...A tropical cyclone hit the southeast coast of India, killing 1000 people, even though 400,000 people evacuated because of early warning of the storm. More than 100 miles of coast were devastated as winds reached 125 mph and a storm surge measured at 22 feet flooded inland as far as 22 miles. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
10 May 1497...The Italian cartographer Amerigo Vespucci allegedly left the Spanish coastal city of Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World. (Wikipedia)
10 May 1503...Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands and named them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles that he found there. (Wikipedia)
10 May 1960...The submarine, USS Triton (SSRN-586), completed a submerged circumnavigation of world in 84 days following many of the routes taken by Magellan and cruising 46,000 miles. (Naval Historical Center)
11 May 1833...The ship Lady of the Lake struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic while bound from England to Quebec, resulting in the loss of 215 lives. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
11-12 May 1965...The first of two cyclones that struck East Pakistan (now called Bangladesh) during the year made landfall. This system, along with the one on 1-2 June killed about 47,000 people.
12 May 1916...Plumb Point, Jamaica reported 17.80 inches of rain in 15 minutes, which set a world record. (The Weather Doctor)
12 May 1978...The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.