12-16 December 2011

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 16 January 2012. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

• NOAA's scientific integrity policy issued -- Last week, the NOAA administrator and undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, Dr.Jane Lubchenco, released a scientific integrity policy for her agency that shows NOAA’s commitment to science. This commitment involves the use of science without distortion, as well as to be transparent and accountable in production and use of science. [NOAA News]

• Student scholarships announced -- The NOAA Office of Education recently announced that scholarships are available to undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, along with several of the other scientific and technical disciplines that support NOAA's mission and programs. [NOAA Office of Education] These scholarships include:
• Educational Partnership Program (EPP) Undergraduate Scholarship: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_undergrad_page.html. This program provides an opportunity for rising junior students to study disciplines relating to the NOAA's mission. Students attending Minority Serving Institutions are encouraged to apply. The application deadline is 17 February 2012.
• Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program: http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/Hollings_info.html. This program is designed to: (1). increase undergraduate training in oceanic and atmospheric science, research, technology, and education and foster multidisciplinary training opportunities; (2) increase public understanding and support for stewardship of the ocean and atmosphere and improve environmental literacy; (3.) recruit and prepare students for public service careers with NOAA and other natural resource and science agencies at the federal, state and local levels of government; and (4.) recruit and prepare students for careers as teachers and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science and to improve scientific and environmental education in the United States. The application deadline is 6 January 2012.
• Graduate Sciences Program (GSP): http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_grad_sciences_page.html. This program is aimed primarily at increasing opportunities for students in NOAA-related fields to pursue research and educational training in atmospheric, environmental, remote sensing and oceanic sciences at minority serving institutions (MSI) when possible. The application deadline is 31 January 2012.
• Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program: http://www.fosterscholars.noaa.gov/. This program recognizes outstanding scholarship and encourages independent graduate level research -- particularly by female and minority students -- in oceanography, marine biology and maritime archaeology. The application deadline is 10 February 2012.

• Eye on the tropics --- No organized areas of disturbed tropical weather were found across the North Atlantic or the eastern North Pacific basins during the last week.
  In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Depression 25 formed over the waters of the South China Sea at the start of last week. This depression traveled to the northwest toward the central Vietnam coast dissipating before making landfall.
  In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Alenga (initially known as Tropical Storm 01S) formed at the start of last week over the waters west of the Cocos Islands to become the first tropical storm of season in the Southern Hemisphere. This tropical storm intensified to become a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it traveled to the southeast. By late in the week it dissipated approximately 700 miles west of the coast of Australia. For more information on Tropical Storm Alenga, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Early in the week, another tropical cyclone, identified as Tropical Storm 02S, formed over east-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. However, this system remained a weak tropical storm that was relatively short lived, surviving for only one day. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Tropical Storm 02S.
• First Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season -- Usually during the first week of December, Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University release their initial quantitative forecast of the tropical cyclone activity for the forthcoming hurricane season in the North Atlantic Basin. However, this past week they elected to discontinue this quantitative forecast and provide a qualitative discussion as to what they perceive as the factors that would determine the hurricane activity across the basin in 2012, citing little real-time skill in making forecasts seven months in advance, especially with the apparent breakdown of several previously used long-term relationships. They have found that assessment of next year's tropical cyclone activity depends upon the strength of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation and the phase of ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation). They will make their first quantitative forecast in early April 2012. Details of their assessment appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report] (Note this document is in a 27-page pdf file.)
• Study indicates how ocean dead zones cause shrinking habit for high-value fish--A study conducted by a NOAA Fisheries biologist and colleagues indicates expanding "dead zones," or regions of low dissolved oxygen levels in the ocean, caused by changes in climate appear to be affecting the movement of such high-energy and high-value fish such as blue marlins and many other tropical billfish. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
• Link between earthquakes and tropical cyclones detected -- Scientists from the University of Miami and Florida International University claim that earthquakes including recent temblors in Haiti and Taiwan may have been triggered by tropical cyclones (hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the western Pacific basins), primarily because the torrential rains accompanying these tropical cyclones have created landslides and severe erosion, thereby releasing stress load near faults. [University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science]
• Jason-1 satellite marks 10-yr anniversary -- Last week, the NASA/French Space Agency Jason-1 satellite celebrated 10 years in orbit as onboard sensors precisely measured ocean surface topography, extending to a 20-year continuous satellite record of global sea level and monitoring El Niño and La Niña events started by the Topex/Poseidon mission. In 2008, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite was launched to further extend the global ocean monitoring effort. [NASA JPL]
• GOES-15 satellite replaces 12-year old GOES-11 satellite -- Last Tuesday, NOAA activated GOES-15 satellite as the nation's operational geosynchronous environmental satellite used to monitor weather systems across western North America, Hawaii and a large section of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean basin. This new satellite, launched in March 2010, replaces the agency's GOES-11 satellite that was deactivated after 12 years of service. GOES-15 joins GOES-12 that currently monitors weather systems over central and eastern sections of North America, South America and the Atlantic Basin. [NOAA News] [NASA ] [Editor's Note: the first satellite images obtained from GOES-15 come on the 45th anniversary of the launch of the Applications Technology Satellite, ATS-1, the first geosynchronous satellite launched by NASA to monitor global weather systems. Compare one of the first visible images from ATS-1 made of the eastern Pacific made on 11 December 1966 (courtesy of Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison) with last week's first visible image from GOES-15 (courtesy of NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory. Note the increased resolution that results in a clearer image. EJH]
• Challenges to assuring health of Gulf of Mexico outlined -- Early last week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans & Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, addressed the State of the Gulf Summit 2011 meeting in Houston, TX, identifying the challenges that continue in assuring the health of the Gulf of Mexico. She noted the Gulf's ecosystem, the role of changing climate, last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and NOAA's role in restoration of the ecosystem. [NOAA News]
• Great Lakes yellow perch quickly purge harmful algal toxin -- A study conducted by scientists at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and Wayne State University indicates that the popular yellow perch caught in the waters of the Great Lakes efficiently eliminate a harmful algal toxin called microcystin from their tissues. This finding indicates that people eating this fish should not be exposed to unsafe levels of the toxin, unless the fish were during a toxic algal bloom. [NOAA News]
• Regional saltwater recreational fishing plans released -- Officials at NOAA's Fisheries Service released the first regional saltwater recreational fishing action plans designed to improve fishing, stewardship and science in each of the nation’s six coastal regions. [NOAA News] Note that this link requires Adobe Acrobat Reader (see below).
• Interagency policy proposed to improve implementation of Endangered Species Act -- The US Interior Department’s US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service recently proposed a new federal policy designed to help clarify those species or populations of species that would be eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act, thus providing earlier and more effective opportunities to conserve declining species. The public has been invited to comment on this policy to these two federal agencies during the next two months. [NOAA News] Note that this link requires Adobe Acrobat Reader (see below).
• Levels of radioactivity released into ocean from Japanese reactor assessed -- Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Japan's Meteorological Research Institute and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology have analyzed the radioactivity that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear power plants in first four months after last spring's earthquake and tsunami accident. These researchers found that although levels of radioactivity were high, they did not appear to be a direct threat to humans or marine life, but cautions that the effect of accumulated radionuclides in marine sediments is poorly known. [NSF News]
• 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.

• 12 December 1966...A Greek passenger ferry foundered in heavy seas near Heraklion, Crete with the loss of 241 lives.
• 13 December 1577...Five ships and 164 men under the command of English seaman Francis Drake (later knighted) set sail from Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, the first by a British explorer. The journey took almost three years. (The History Channel)
• 13 December 1642...Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman became the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. (The History Channel)
• 13 December 1816...The first US patent for a dry dock was issued to John Adamson of Boston, MA. (Today in Science History)
• 13 December 1879...The first federal fish-hatching steamer was launched at Wilmington, DE.
• 14 December 1287...Zuider Zee seawall in the Netherlands collapsed with the loss of over 50,000 lives. (Wikipedia)
• 14 December 1902...The British Cable Ship Silverton set sail from the San Francisco Bay Area to lay the first telephone cable between San Francisco and Honolulu. The project, which involved laying a cable across 2277 nautical miles, was completed by 1 January 1903 as the ship landed and the first test message sent the same day. (Today in Science History)
• 14 December 1988...The first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service.
• 14 December 1991...A ferry, the Salem Express, carrying 569 passengers sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Safaga, Egypt, after hitting a coral reef. Over 460 people were believed drowned.
• 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)

Return to DataStreme Ocean Website

Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.