26-30 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.

Sincerely,

• No "leap second" will lengthen 2011 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2011. However, back on 31 December 2008, the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. At the time, tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. [US Naval Observatory]

• Eye on the tropics -- The only organized tropical cyclone activity during the last week was found in the western North Pacific basin. Tropical Storm Washi weakened to a tropical depression at the start of last week over the waters of the South China Sea off the southern coast of Vietnam. While this system never strengthen to typhoon status (maximum sustained winds exceeding 74 mph), the torrential rains accompanying Washi were responsible for more than 1000 fatalities in the Philippines as it traveled across that nation's southern islands at the end of the previous week. [USA Today] For satellite images, maps of satellite-estimated rainfall and additional information on Tropical Storm Washi, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Public comments sought on Arctic oil and gas exploration environmental impact statement -- Late last week, NOAA officials invited public comment on a draft environmental impact statement describing how offshore oil and gas activities in the US waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas could affect marine mammals and the Alaska Native communities. [NOAA News]
• Research grants awarded to help prevent Gulf and Caribbean seafood poisoning -- NOAA recently awarded a grant to an international research team led by the director of the Coastal Watershed Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University to conduct research on the causes and the prevention of Ciguatera fish poisoning, a common form of algal toxin-induced seafood poisoning in Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. [NOAA News]
• Air pollution levels from Deepwater Horizon spill are comparable to large urban area -- A research team from the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and several university recently reported that the amount of air pollutants in the atmospheric plume generated by last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill was similar to the air pollution originating in a large city. [NOAA News]
• Review of NOAA research activities around the globe in 2011 -- During the last week NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) provided a list of highlights of the scientific research the agency has conducted around the global in the calendar year of 2011 in an effort to advance weather forecasting, climate prediction, environmental modeling, and protection against coastal threats such as tsunamis and oil spills. Some of the OAR research activities during 2011 included studying the effects of water loss changes in Great Lakes levels; the causes of hurricane landfall in the North Atlantic basin; the role of aerosols on monsoon rainfall in South Asia; continued environmental studies of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; monitoring rainfall for West African Farmers; studying stratospheric ozone depletion in the Arctic and the accurate prediction of the propagation of the tsunami triggered by the March Japanese earthquake. Furthermore, twelve weather and climate-related disasters occurred across the nation that exceeded $1 billion each in 2011, setting a new record for the most billion dollar weather and climate disasters in a single year. [NOAA Research]
• Sea cucumbers could help dissolve coral reefs -- Scientists with the Carnegie Institution for Science report the dietary process that sea cucumbers, or marine animals called echinoderms, living along Australia's the Great Barrier Reef use to dissolve calcium carbonate from the reef accounts for approximately half of the total nighttime dissolution for the reef. Usually, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide has been thought to be the primary cause of the decrease the amount of carbonate available due to acidification. [Carnegie Institution for Science]
• New findings are made in oceanic pH variations -- Using sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a group of 19 scientists from five research organizations in the US and Italy have conducted a major field study of ocean acidification in the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. They found variations in the acidity (pH) of ocean waters due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with human activity. These pH changes can affect marine ecosystems. [Scripps Institution of Oceanography]
• First direct measurement of Earth's rotation is made -- Researchers at Germany's Technical University of Munich claim to be first to plot changes in the orientation of the Earth's axis and the planet's rotation using a stable ring laser they constructed. While accurate determination of the axial tilt and the rotation rate of the Earth is crucial for modern navigation systems, the information can also be used to monitor variations in atmospheric pressure, ocean loading and the wind. [Technical University of Munich]
• Post-Ice Age warming of oceans could have future implications -- Researchers from Quebec's McGill University have found that their analysis of marine sediments indicates dissolved oxygen in many of the word's oceans decreased significantly at the end of the last Ice Age (20,000 to 10,00 years ago) as ocean temperatures increased by approximately 2 Celsius degrees. They warn that these temperature changes are comparable to those projected for the rest of the 21st century, if emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere were not curbed. [McGill University Newsroom]
• Aquatic bacteria may have moved to land at a later date -- Scientists at the University of Tennessee and the US Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have discovered that bacteria may have moved from sea to land only 400 million years ago, much later than the approximately two billion years as previously thought. [EurekAlert!]
• 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, drought, floods, 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, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 26-31 December 1993...The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race off Australia was plagued by hurricane-force wind gusts in excess of 74 mph and 33 foot high seas. Of 104 starters, only 37 yachts finished the race. On the 28^th, one yacht owner spent five hours in the water after being swept overboard. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 26 December 2004...A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale approximately 100 miles off the western coast of Sumatra created a tsunami that caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed. (Wikipedia)
• 28 December 1857...The light was first illuminated in the Cape Flattery Lighthouse, located on Washington State's Tatoosh Island at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. "Because of Indian trouble it was necessary to build a blockhouse on Tatoosh Island before even commencing the construction of the lighthouse. Twenty muskets were stored in the blockhouse, and then the lighthouse work began." (USCG Historian's Office)
• 28 December 1903...An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the non-contiguous territory of the Hawaiian Islands. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 28 December 1908...An early morning earthquake under the Straits of Messina leveled cities in Sicily and southern mainland Italy, as well as producing a tsunami with 40-foot waves that inundated coastal communities. This earthquake, estimated to by a magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, and the resulting tsunami killed an estimated 100,000 people. Long stretches of coastline sunk into the Messina Straits and disappeared from view. A steady rain also added to the woes of the survivors. (The History Channel)
• 29 December 1897...Congress prohibited the killing of fur seals in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 1 January 1850...The lamp was lit at the first iron pile lighthouse in the U.S. built on Minot's Ledge, just outside the Boston (MA) Harbor. The Minot's Ledge Light, the first lighthouse in the U.S. to be exposed to the ocean's full fury, was swept away in a great gale on 16 April 1851. (Today in Science History)
• 1 January 1903...The first message telegraphed on the transpacific cable was sent from Honolulu, Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC. The Cable Ship Silvertown began laying the 2620-mile long cable on 14 December 1902 when it left San Francisco, CA and it completed the project following its arrival at Oahu's Waikiki on 26 December. The cable now lies abandoned on the bottom of the Pacific after being abandoned in November 1951. (Today in Science History)
• 1 January 1954...The "Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1948" commonly known as the "Revised International Rules of the Road" became law. These were a result of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1958...The U.S. Coast Guard ceased listening continuously for distress calls on 2670 kilohertz. Although the countries of the world had agreed at the Atlantic City Convention of the International Telecommunication Union in 1947 to use 2182 kilohertz for international maritime mobile radiotelephone calling and distress, the U.S. Coast Guard had continued listening on the old frequency until the public had had sufficient time to change to the new one. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1959...The U.S. Naval Observatory introduced the system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures. (Naval Historical Center)
• 1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Calendar)

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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.