Weekly Ocean News

WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

BREAK WEEK: 10-14 October 2016

This is Break Week One for the Fall 2016 offering of the AMS Ocean Studies course. This Weekly Ocean News contains new information items and historical data, but the Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

For Your Information

Celebrate Earth Science Week 2016 -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the National Weather Service, along with NASA, the US Geological Survey and several professional scientific organizations such as the American Geological Institute have recognized this week (9-15 October 2016) as Earth Science Week 2016 to help the public gain a better understanding and appreciation for the earth sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth. This year's theme for the 18th annual Earth Science Week is “Our Shared Geoheritage” that is designed to encourage young people and others to explore geoheritage throughout all five Earth systems. Geoheritage is considered to be "the collection of natural wonders, landforms, and resources that have formed over eons and come to this generation to manage, use, and conserve effectively." [American Geological Institute]
Observe Earth Observation Day -- On Tuesday 11 October 2016, Earth Observation Day (EOD) will be observed as a celebration of the NASA/USGS (US Geological Survey) Landsat mission. EOD is a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educational outreach event sponsored by AmericaView, a nationwide, university-based, and state-implemented consortium, and its partners. The goal of EOD is to engage students and teachers in remote sensing as an exciting and powerful educational tool. Lesson plans and educational resources for educators and students are available from the EOD website. [AmericaView]
Perigean spring tide to occur next weekend with a supermoon -- The moon will reach full moon phase next Sunday morning (at 12:23 AM EDT) or late Saturday evening (9:23 PM PDT) or officially at 0423 Z on 16 October 2016. This full moon will occur approximately 19 hours earlier than perigee, when the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. Since the moon will come within 221,873 miles of Earth, it is called a "supermoon," as its closeness would make the moon appear larger than usual.
The closeness of the moon and increased gravitational pull will cause an increase in the height of ocean tides, resulting in what is called a "perigean spring tide" (or King Tide) over next weekend. [NOAA National Ocean Service Facts]
Biomixing in ocean motion -- If you would like information on recent findings that indicate marine organisms contribute to motion in the ocean, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.
Words to be used and not used to describe extreme rainfall events -- A somewhat humorous article appearing in NASA's Earth Observatory entitled "The Language of Science: Do's and Don'ts of Extreme Rainfall" provides a variety of terms that are both appropriate and inappropriate for describing torrential or excessive rainfall events, like those that inundated coastal Louisiana during this past August. [NASA Earth Observatory]

Ocean in the News

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week, tropical cyclone activity was confined to the North Atlantic and western North Pacific basins:

In the North Atlantic basin, the powerful Hurricane Matthew began making a turn to the north at the start of last week, taking it in a direction toward Haiti and Cuba. After becoming a category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) briefly during the previous weekend, Matthew remained a major category 4 hurricane as it made landfall and traveled across western Haiti early Tuesday morning and then making landfall on the eastern tip of Cuba on Tuesday evening. By early Wednesday, Matthew had weakened as it continue traveling northward after passing across eastern Cuba. On Thursday, this powerful hurricane traveled toward the northwest across the Bahamas, approaching the eastern coast of Florida during the predawn hours of Friday. Throughout most of Friday, Matthew traveled northward, paralleling the Florida and then Georgia coasts, with its central eye remaining several miles offshore. On late Saturday morning, Matthew made landfall as a minimal category 1 hurricane along the South Carolina coast, approximately 55 miles to the south-southwest of Myrtle Beach, SC. During the afternoon and evening, Hurricane Matthew continued to the northeast, hugging the South Carolina and then North Carolina coasts. By Sunday morning, Matthew was considered to be a post-tropical cyclone as it was approximately 30 miles off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Early Sunday evening, the National Hurricane Center issued its last public advisory on Post-Tropical Cyclone Matthew as it was located approximately 200 miles to the east of Cape Hatteras, NC. Strong winds, torrential rain and storm surge resulted in numerous fatalities in Haiti [The Weather Channel] Satellite imagery and additional information on Hurricane Matthew are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
Tropical Storm Nicole formed last Tuesday approximately 525 miles to the northeast of San Juan, PR. Traveling initially toward the northwest, Nicole intensified, becoming Nicole became the sixth hurricane of 2016 in the North Atlantic Basin on Thursday afternoon. As of late Thursday evening, Hurricane Nicole had strengthened to a category 2 hurricane as it was 340 miles to the south of Bermuda. According to a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Thursday marked the latest in the calendar year that two hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean have had winds over 105 mph simultaneously. On Friday, Nicole weakened as it drifted southward, becoming a tropical storm by late morning. Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Nicole continued to drift slowly southward before stalling. As of early Sunday evening, Tropical Storm Nicole was located approximately 560 miles to the south of Bermuda. At that time, Nicole showed signs of strengthening. Current forecasts indicate that Nicole could slowly strengthen to become a hurricane on Monday as it begin traveling toward the north and north-northwest. See the NASA Hurricane Page for further details on Hurricane Nicole.
In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Chaba had strengthened to a category 5 typhoon early last week as it passed near Okinawa, Japan. Traveling toward the northeast, Chaba made landfall along the South Korea coast as the strongest typhoon in four years. Eventually, Chaba lost its tropical characteristics and became extratropical by midweek. Satellite images and additional information on Super Typhoon Chaba can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Tropical Storm Aere formed during the week just to the north of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Travel was to the west and west-northwest. As of Monday (local time), Aere was located approximately 220 miles to the east of Hong Kong.
Tropical Storm Songda formed over the western Pacific to the south of the main Japanese islands last week and traveled toward the northwest. As of Monday (local time), Songda was located approximately 380 miles to the east of Iwo To (also know as Iwo Jima).

More powerful tropical cyclones in North Atlantic foreseen in future due to changing climate -- Scientists at Rutgers University, including the New Jersey state climatologist, claim that as the Earth's climate continues to change, the combined warming of the Atlantic Ocean and the atmosphere should increase the potential for more power tropical cyclones than Hurricane Sandy that hit the New Jersey coast in October 2012. The researchers also noted the rising number of people that would be at risk. [Rutgers University News] Editor's Note: The above referenced item is the third story in a three-part series with previous parts that are of interest: [Part 1] Learning from lessons provided by Hurricane Sandy and [Part 2] "Rogue" storm in 1950 produced stronger surge along New Jersey coast than Sandy. EJH
Explaining reason for record-breaking 2015 eastern North Pacific hurricane season -- A team of researchers from NOAA, the University of South Florida, Colorado State University and Weatherbell Analytics LLC provided an explanation for the near record number of hurricanes that developed in the eastern North Pacific basin during 2015. In addition, Hurricane Patricia was the strongest hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere. They claim that this large number was due to the record sea surface temperatures across the basin associated with last year's very strong El Niño event that coincided with a "positive" phase in the Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM), a tropical climate pattern involving interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. [EOS Earth & Space Science News]
New marine species discovered in Hawaii's deep coral reefs -- A team of scientists from two federal agencies and five research institutions recently reported that they discovered unique fish species in the deep mesophotic (low light) coral reefs that are found at depths between 100 and 500 feet below the ocean's surface in the Hawaiian Archipelago. [NOAA News] or [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Changing climate impacts New England lobsters -- A contractor with NOAA's Climate Program Office wrote an article describing how increases in the water temperatures of the western North Atlantic Ocean due to the changing climate have had an impact upon the American lobster (Homarus americanus), causing the populations of lobsters to move northward along the coast of New England into the Gulf of Maine. Changes associated with ocean acidification that result in imbalances in pH are also considered. The shift in the lobster populations has also had an impact upon New England coastal communities that depend upon the lobster industry. [NOAA News]
Global wildlife trade meeting focuses on marine species -- During the recent 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Johannesburg, South Africa, member nations of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) agreed to conservation actions for several marine species that included chambered nautiluses, devil rays and sharks. These slow-growing species are at risk of over-exploitation due to commercial trade for their shells, fins, gill rakers, or meat. [NOAA Fisheries Newsroom]
Grants awarded to advance climate research and improve community resilience -- During the past week NOAA's Climate Program Office announced it had awarded $44.3 million for 73 new research projects at a variety of governmental and university laboratories that are designed to advance the understanding, modeling and prediction of Earth's climate system and to improve decision making processes designed to facilitate community resilience. [NOAA Climate Office Program News]
Sustainable multi-partner "dead zone" monitoring program established in northern Gulf of Mexico -- Last week the 6th Annual NOAA/Northern Gulf Institute Hypoxia Research Coordination Workshop was held in Silver Spring, MD under the sponsorship of NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science in order to establish a sustainable multi-partner hypoxia (or "dead zone") monitoring program in the northern Gulf of Mexico. This workshop was attended by scientists, managers, and agency personnel from 26 stakeholder agencies and institutions. A report was prepared that identifies g monitoring requirements and collaborations necessary to implement and sustain this monitoring program. [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
Fisheries observer safety program review is launched -- NOAA Fisheries announced during the last week that it is now conducting an Observer Safety Program Review designed to assess and evaluate procedures for keeping U.S. fisheries observers and at-sea monitors safe. Fishery observers and at-sea monitors collect data from U.S. commercial fishing and processing vessels, as well as from shore-side processing plants and motherships. This review, which is scheduled to be completed with a final report in late 2017, will focus on seven areas including: safety reporting, communications, practices and policies, training, regulations, equipment, and international observer programs.[NOAA Fisheries Feature Stories]
Satellite detects phytoplankton diversity in bay in western Greenland -- Natural color images were made of western Greenland and sections of Baffin Bay from data collected by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite last July. These images show green color stains along the coast of Disko Bay, an embayment found along the western coast of Greenland, that indicate phytoplankton blooms. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Four new billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in summer 2016 reported across nation -- Scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) recently updated their national annual list of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters for 2016 to include four new billion-dollar disasters that occurred between May and August 2016. These four events were tornadoes and other severe weather across the nation's midsection in early May; historic flooding in West Virginia and tornadoes in the Ohio Valley during late June; severe weather in the Rockies and the Northeast in late July; and massive flooding in Louisiana in mid August. With the addition of these four disasters, the nation has experienced a total of 12 billion-dollar disasters through August. According to NCEI, these 12 events, which do not include recent notable disasters during September and October, represent the second most number of events in a calendar year since 1980, running behind the 16 individual disasters in 2011. [NOAA News]
EPA launches new interactive climate change adaptation resource for communities -- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it launched "Climate Change Adaptation Resource Center" (ARC-X)" a new web portal designed to as an interactive resource designed to help communities prepare for climate change through adaptation strategies and practices. This tool is tailored to the geography and climates of different regions of the country. [US Environmental Protection Agency]
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]

This Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

Concept of the Week: Abyssal Storms

Until recently, ocean scientists thought of the deep ocean abyss as a dark and cold, but serene place where small particles rained gently onto the ocean floor. However, instruments lowered to the sea floor to measure ocean motion or currents and resulting mobilization of bottom sediments detected a much more active environment. Scientists found that bottom currents and abyssal storms occasionally scour the ocean bottom, generating moving clouds of suspended sediment. A surface current of 5 knots (250 cm/sec) is considered relatively strong. A bottom current of 1 knot (50 cm/sec) is ripping. Although this may be called an abyssal storm, the water motion pales by comparison to wind speeds in atmospheric storms.

Abyssal currents and storms apparently derive their energy from surface ocean currents. Wind-driven surface ocean currents flow about the margins of the ocean basins as gyres centered near 30 degrees latitude. (Refer to Figure 6.6, page 152, in your textbook.) Viewed from above, these subtropical gyres rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. For reasons given in Chapter 6 of your textbook and this week's Supplemental Information, surface currents flow faster, are narrower, and extend to greater depths on the western arm of the gyres. These are known as western boundary currents and include, for example, the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic basin. Abyssal currents are also most vigorous on the western side of the ocean basins, moving along the base of the continental rise, which is on the order of several kilometers deep.

Abyssal storms may be linked to or may actually be eddies (rings) that occasionally break off from the main current of the Gulf Stream (and other western boundary currents). During an abyssal storm, the eddy or ring may actually reach to the bottom of the ocean where the velocity of a bottom current increases ten-fold to about 1.5 km (1 mi) per hr. While that is an unimpressive wind speed, water is much denser than air so that its erosive and sediment-transport capacity is significant even at 1.5 km per hr. At this higher speed, the suspended sediment load in the bottom current increases by a factor of ten. Abyssal storms scour the sea floor leaving behind long furrows in the sediment. After a few days to a few weeks, the current weakens or the eddy (ring) is reabsorbed into the main surface circulation and the suspended load settles to the ocean floor. In this way, abyssal storms can transport tons of sediment long distances, disrupting the orderly sequence of layers of deep-sea sediments. Scientists must take this disruption into account when interpreting the environmental significance of deep-sea sediment cores.

Historical Events

10 October 1780...The Great Hurricane of 1780 made landfall on the island of Barbados on this day with estimated wind gusts of 200 mph. This hurricane went on to affect the islands of St. Vincent where only 14 of 600 homes stood at Kings Town. St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, and Puerto Rico were all impacted from this hurricane. This is the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record with between 20,000 and 22,000 deaths. (National Weather Service files)
10 October 1845...Naval School, renamed the U.S. Naval Academy, opened in Annapolis, MD with 50 midshipmen students and seven faculty. (Navy Historical Center)
10 October 1861...Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer, oceanographer, statesman, and humanitarian was born. Nansen led a number of expeditions to the Arctic (1888, 1893, 1895-96) and oceanographic expeditions in the North Atlantic (1900, 1910-14). He wrote The Oceanography of the North Polar Basin (1902). For his relief work after World War I, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1922. (Today in Science History)
10 October 1913...President Woodrow Wilson with the aid of a telegraph signal sent from Washington, DC triggered the demolition of the Gamboa Dike, allowing water to fill the Culebra Cut and create Lake Gatun, at 85 ft above sea level, the largest man-made lake at that time. This act signaled the completion of construction of the Panama Canal, which would eventually open to ship traffic between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on 14 August 1914. (Wikipedia, Today in Science History)
11 October 1737...A deadly cyclone and storm surge of 42 ft raced up the Hooghly River in India and through the city of Calcutta destroying an estimated 40,000 boats and drowning as many as 300,000 people. (The Weather Doctor)
11 October 1846...One of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes of the 19th century ravaged Havana, Cuba and Key West, FL. At Havana the entire city was demolished and at Key West 594 of the town's 600 buildings were destroyed, with 5 feet of water reported in the city. The old Key West lighthouse and Fort Taylor were reduced to ruins.The storm eventually traveled up the entire U.S. East Coast and into the Canadian Maritimes. (Intellicast) (National Weather Service files)
11 October 1897...Property saved at Cape Hatteras, NC. During a severe storm, the surf threatened to wash away a fish house, with valuable nets and other gear. Surfmen saved the property and took it to a place of safety. They also assisted a lighthouse keeper by removing lenses from the beacon to a secure place. The lighthouse was in danger of being washed away by the sea. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
12 October 1492...Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sighted and landed on an island (possibly Watling Island) in the Bahamas during his travels westward across the Atlantic Ocean in search of an ocean route to eastern Asia. Apparently he underestimated the size of the world and assumed that he had reached East Asia after setting sail with three ships from Palos, Spain on 3 August 1492. During this expedition, which was the first known European expedition to the Americas since the 10^th century Viking colonies in Newfoundland, he sighted Cuba and landed on Hispaniola. (The History Channel)
12 October 1886...A hurricane made landfall between Sabine Pass, TX and Johnson's Bayou, LA. Waves were said to be as high as 2-story buildings. The surge extended 20 mi inland, with 150 people killed. Survivors clung to trees or floated on mattresses. Only two of 100 homes in Sabine Pass were reparable. (Accord Weather Calendar)
12 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel pounded Haiti and the island of Hispaniola with winds of 125 mph. Many villages were reported totally destroyed and more than 1000 Haitians died. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1965...End of Project Sealab II where teams of naval divers and scientists spent 15 days in Sealab moored 205 feet below surface near La Jolla, CA. (Navy Historical Center)
12 October 1979...The lowest observed sea-level barometric pressure (870 millibars or 25.69 inches of mercury) was recorded approximately 300 miles west of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean at the center of Typhoon Tip. This super typhoon had 190-mph winds. Gale force winds extended 1,350 miles out from the eye making it the largest tropical cyclone on record. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1492...Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sighted and landed on an island (possibly Watling Island) in the Bahamas during his travels westward across the Atlantic Ocean in search of an ocean route to eastern Asia. Apparently he underestimated the size of the world and assumed that he had reached East Asia after setting sail with three ships from Palos, Spain on 3 August 1492. During this expedition, which was the first known European expedition to the Americas since the 10^th century Viking colonies in Newfoundland, he sighted Cuba and landed on Hispaniola. (The History Channel)
12 October 1886...A hurricane made landfall between Sabine Pass, TX and Johnson's Bayou, LA. Waves were said to be as high as 2-story buildings. The surge extended 20 mi inland, with 150 people killed. Survivors clung to trees or floated on mattresses. Only two of 100 homes in Sabine Pass were reparable. (Accord Weather Calendar)
12 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel pounded Haiti and the island of Hispaniola with winds of 125 mph. Many villages were reported totally destroyed and more than 1000 Haitians died. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1965...End of Project Sealab II where teams of naval divers and scientists spent 15 days in Sealab moored 205 feet below surface near La Jolla, CA. (Navy Historical Center)
12 October 1979...The lowest observed sea-level barometric pressure (870 millibars or 25.69 inches of mercury) was recorded near Guam in the western Pacific Ocean at the center of Typhoon Tip. (The Weather Doctor)
13 October 1775...Birthday of U.S. Navy. The Continental Congress established the Continental Navy, later the U.S. Navy. (Naval Historical Center)
13 October 1884...The longitude that passes through the principal Transit Instrument at the Observatory in Greenwich, England was selected as the single universal meridian at the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, DC. A universal day was also selected. (Today in Science History)
15 October 1947...A hurricane made a hairpin turn off the Georgia coast after being seeded with dry ice. The storm passed over Savannah and tracked inland through Georgia. (Intellicast)
15 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel struck the Carolina coastline near Cape Fear, NC. The hurricane (category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) demolished every pier along a 170-mile stretch from Myrtle Beach, SC to Cedar Island, NC, and obliterated rows of beach homes. At Long Beach, 300 homes vanished; no debris remained. Hurricane Hazel also destroyed 1500 homes as it made landfall with 17-ft tides. Winds between Myrtle Beach, SC and Cape Fear, NC gusted to 150 mph. Later, the remnants of Hazel moved northward into Ontario and became the most remembered storm in Canadian history. Winds gusted to 75 mph and as much as 7.2 inches of rain fell. Eighty people died, mostly from flooding in the Toronto area (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (The Weather Doctor)
15 October 1999...A waterspout (a tornado over water) moved onshore at Fort Lauderdale Beach, FL and blew out a plate glass window in a bar, injuring 8 patrons. The waterspout also overturned a vehicle and caused other significant damage on Los Olas Blvd. (Accord Weather Calendar)
16 October 1780...The most deadly Western Hemisphere hurricane on record raged across the Caribbean. It killed 22,000 people on the islands of Martinique, St. Eustatius, and Barbados. Thousands more died at sea. (National Weather Service files)
16 October 1877...Bjørn Helland-Hansen, the Norwegian pioneer of modern oceanography, was born on this date. His studies of the physical structure and dynamics of the ocean were instrumental in transforming oceanography from a descriptive science to one based on the principles of physics and chemistry. (Today in Science History)
16 October 1944...The 1944 Cuba - Florida hurricane, also known as the Pinar del Rio Hurricane, stuck western Cuba on this day as a Category 4 hurricane. This hurricane killed an estimated 300 people in Cuba and nine in Florida. This is currently the 7th costliest U.S. Atlantic hurricane with an estimated $40.6 billion in damage (adjusted to 2010 dollars). (National Weather Service files)