Weekly Ocean News

WEEK ELEVEN: 14-18 November 2016

Items of Interest

Watch for the spectacular November "supermoon" and perigean spring tide -- The moon reached its full moon phase early Monday (14 November) morning at 1352Z (8:52 AM EST, 7:52 AM CST, etc.), approximately 2 hours after perigee, when the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. In fact, the moon is the closest to the Earth since 1948, as it comes within 221,524 miles of Earth; the next time the moon will come as close should be in 2034. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature] Like the full moons in October and December, the November full moon will be called a "supermoon," as its closeness makes the moon appear larger than usual. In fact, this full moon will be the closest supermoon of the year. The closeness of the moon and increased gravitational pull will cause an increase in the height of ocean tides over next weekend, resulting in what is called a "perigean spring tide" (or King Tide). [EarthSky] [NOAA National Ocean Service Facts]
Teachers invited to join the 2017 NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project Stewardship Community --
Educators across the United States working with elementary through university-age students are invited to learn more about climate change and climate resilience by applying to become part of the 2017 NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project (CSEP) Stewardship Community for the 2017/18 academic year. Selected educators who meet project requirements will be eligible for: mini-grants up to $2000 to support a climate stewardship action project; • travel reimbursements to attend select workshops and/or national conferences; special professional development opportunities; and additional monetary and educational resources. Applications are due by midnight, Sunday 20 November 2016. For more information, go to the NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project Web Site
Celebrate Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day -- This week (13-19 November 2016) has been identified as Geography Awareness Week. National Geography Awareness Week, launched by presidential proclamation in 1987, is designed to draw attention to geo-literacy and "the importance of geographic understanding in ensuring our nation's economic competitiveness, national security, environmental sustainability, and the livability of our communities in the 21st century." Since the US National Park Service is celebrating its 100th anniversary, this year's Geography Awareness Week theme is "Explore the Power of Parks."
In conjunction with Geography Awareness Week, this Wednesday (16 November 2016) has been designated GIS Day, which commenced in 1999 and "provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society." This year's theme "Discovering the World Through GIS." [ GIS Day]
Watching a meteor shower -- This year's Leonid meteor showers should peak during the predawn hours of this coming Wednesday night and Thursday morning (16-17 November 2016). The Leonid meteor showers, which appear to emanate from the constellation Leo, occur in November as Earth passes through the debris trail from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. As many as 10 to 15 meteors per hour are expected this year. Unfortunately, a waning gibbous moon should sufficiently bright so as to interfere with viewing conditions, even where city lights and clouds do not block the sky. The shower's radiant, or originating point, will be in the eastern sky after sunset and then will shift to the west after local midnight. [Astronomy]
A Long Polar Night -- After being above the horizon for only 38 minutes this Friday, the sun set at 1:31 PM Alaska Standard Time (18 November 2016) at Barrow, the northernmost city in Alaska, for the last time this year. The next time the sun will rise above the local horizon in Barrow will be at 1:17 PM AST on 22 January 2017. On that date, the sun will remain above the horizon for 45 minutes. While the sun will be below the horizon for the next 65 days, residents of this city will have roughly three hours of some diffuse sunlight each day that is equivalent to civil twilight, provided the cloud cover is not too thick. To check the sunrise and sunset times of Barrow or any location in the United States go to the US Naval Observatory's on-line, interactive service for the entire year.
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2016 Campaign resumes -- The twelfth in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2016 will commence this coming Sunday (20 November) and continue through Wednesday, 30 November. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Perseus in the Northern Hemisphere and Grus in the Southern Hemisphere) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The next and final series in the 2016 campaign is scheduled for 20-30 December 2016. [GLOBE at Night]
Species dominance and ocean properties -- Discover how variations in both the physical and chemical properties of ocean waters can be accompanied by changes in the dominance of the various species of marine life in this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the Tropics -- Tropical cyclone activity was confined to the western North Pacific basin during the last week. Typhoon Meari , a category 2 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, passed to the southeast of Iwo To, Japan (also know as Iwo Jima) at the beginning of last week. Traveling to the northeast, Meari lost its tropical characteristics and became an extratropical cyclone (or midlatitude storm) as it passed approximately 650 miles to the southeast of Yokosuka, Japan. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Typhoon Meari.
Tropical Storm Ma On developed late last week from a tropical depression that was located approximately 600 miles to the northeast of Guam. However, Tropical Storm Ma On was relatively short-lived as it weakened to a tropical depression less than 48 hours after formation. A satellite image and additional information on Ma On is available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Tsunami generated by strong earthquake in New Zealand -- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred early Monday morning (local time) approximately 30 miles from Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island. A tsunami with a 8-foot wave above usual astronomical tide level was generated by this earthquake and traveled across the waters of the western South Pacific along the eastern coast of New Zealand However, since the tsunami did not appear to pose a hazard to the Hawaiian Islands the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Ewa Beach, HI did not issue any tsunami warnings. [CNN]
El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & La Niña advisory outlook updates released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) that showed La Niña conditions were developing in October and early November as below average sea surface temperatures (SST) were found across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. SST values ranged from between one and two Celsius degrees below normal across this region. Consequently, the CPC forecasters released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their La Niña advisory, as they envision the present La Niña conditions are slightly favored to persist through this upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter (December through February). They gave the La Niña an approximately 55-percent chance of continuation for the next three to four months. A technical description of the forecasters' reasoning is provided. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] An ENSO blog written by a contractor for CPC provides a non-technical description of how the CPC forecasters arrived at their forecast of La Niña conditions through winter. The blog also accompanying graphics showing several maps across the tropical Pacific Ocean basin showing anomalies in SST, outgoing long wave radiation (OLR) and the near-surface winds across the Pacific basin in October 2016 compared with the corresponding 30-year (1981-2010) averages. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
A 14-second video is available that an animation of maps of the SST-anomalies across the tropical Pacific made approximately every two weeks from 21 November 2015 through 24 September 2016. This video shows the peaking of a strong El Niño event last winter in the Northern Hemisphere, followed by a fading during the boreal spring and summer and then a hint at La Niña conditions during early fall. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Predicting "the Blob" is assessed -- Researchers from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, George Mason University and a software development firm have been investigating the evolution and predictability of a large pool of abnormally warm water that developed across the northeastern Pacific Ocean in the October 2013 and persisted until June 2016. This large warm water pool, which was dubbed "the Blob", was the most prolonged episode of warming in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska and other coastal areas of western North America, resulting in the devastation of some native marine ecosystems. Apparently, the unusual pattern of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific may have resulted in the long-lived anomalous atmospheric circulation regime over the northeastern Pacific. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]
Document released that sets NOAA Fisheries' priorities for 2017 -- Early last week Eileen Sobeck, Head of NOAA Fisheries, announced that her agency had released a 20-page document entitled "Fisheries Priorities and Annual Guidance for 2017" that outlines NOAA Fisheries' goals, priorities and anticipated accomplishments during the upcoming year. [NOAA Fisheries Leadership Message]
Shellfish larvae struggle in estuaries with fluctuating oxygen and acidity levels -- Researchers from Stony Brook University are studying the demands placed upon the survival and growth of larval stages of three species of bivalves to diurnal fluctuations in carbon dioxide and dissolved oxygen in East Coast estuaries. Changes in carbon dioxide affect the acidity of the water, while changes in oxygen could lead to hypoxia, a level of low oxygen. This study was supported by NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) and the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program. [NOAA NCCOS News]
International climate change conference is underway -- The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) and the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12) is currently being held through this Friday (18 November 2016) in Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco. [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change]
A report published that analyzes global climate between 2011 and 2015 -- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently published a report entitled "The Global Climate in 2011-2015" that was submitted to the U.N. climate change conference. This WMO report is a detailed analysis of global climate over the period 2011-2015, which represents the warmest five-year period ever measured globally. These record temperatures were also associated with a measured rise in sea level, a sharp decline in Arctic Sea Ice and a period of many extreme climate events and episodes. [World Meteorological Organization Press Release]
Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations reach record levels in 2015 -- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently released its "WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin" describing the state of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere based upon global observations in 2015. This bulletin reported that for the first time since monitoring began more than 55 years ago, the globally averaged atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration reached the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million by volume (ppmv) in 2015, remaining there for essentially the entire year. This increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide was driven in part by the strong El Niño event that developed during the second half of 2015 and continued into early 2016. The report also notes a 37 percent increase in radiative forcing occurred between 1990 and 2015, which represented a warming effect on the planetary climate because of record or near record levels of other long-lived greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities. .[World Meteorological Organization Media Centre]
Nominations can be made for "Climate Adaptation Leadership Award for Natural Resources" -- An award called the "Climate Adaptation Leadership Award for Natural Resources" will be awarded to as many as seven recipients along with seven honorable mentions in recognition of their outstanding efforts to increase awareness and safeguard the nation's natural resources from the negative effects of climate change. This award is through the efforts an interagency group of federal, state, and tribal agencies that included NOAA and the US Departments of Interior and Agriculture and is part of the President's Climate Action Plan and the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy. Individuals or groups can be nominated for this through the first week of December 2016. [National Fish, Wildlife & Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy]
Changing climate is already dramatically impacting nature -- A study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida and their colleagues from ten countries concludes that global climate change associated with an approximately one Celsius degree increase in temperature has already been impacting every aspect of life on planet Earth, ranging from individual genes to entire ecosystems. Many of these impacts will affect the human population. [University of Florida News]
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]

Concept of the Week: Living Coral and El Niño

El Niño episodes of 1982-83 and 1997-1998, the most intense of the 20th century, confirmed the connection between higher than average ocean temperatures and bleaching of hermatypic corals. (Hermatypic corals live in warm shallow water and build large reefs.) Water temperatures higher than 29°C (the normal maximum sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific) can trigger expulsion of zooxanthellae, microscopic dinoflagellates whose symbiotic relationship with coral polyps is essential for the long-term survival of coral. Without zooxanthellae, coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral's white skeleton, a condition known as coral bleaching. If maximum temperatures are not too high for too long, corals can recover, but prolonged warming associated with an intense El Niño (that may persist for 12 to 18 months) can be lethal to coral. Most hermatypic corals thrive when the water temperature is 27°C, but do not grow when the water becomes too cold. Although the ideal temperature varies with species and from one location to another, the temperature range for optimal growth is quite narrow--only a few Celsius degrees. This sensitivity to relatively small changes in water temperature is an important source of information on past climates as fossil coral is a significant component of many limestones. Evidence of bleaching episodes in fossil corals may yield important clues to past changes in the world's tropical ocean.

Coral, sometimes referred to as "the rainforests of the ocean," provides a base for local ecosystems and have many benefits (e.g., fisheries, tourism) that are important in many parts of the globe. Hence, vulnerability to El Niño-associated warming is an object of considerable scientific interest. During the 1997-98 Niño, NOAA charted significant coral bleaching from portions of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia, French Polynesia in the south Pacific, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, and around the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Closer to home, coral bleaching was reported in the Florida Keys, the Cayman Islands, and off the Pacific coast of Panama and Baja California. Fortunately damage from the 1997-98 El Niño warming was less drastic than the 1983-84 El Niño when up to 95% of the corals in some locations died. Many of the corals damaged in the late 1990s have at least partially recovered including important reefs in the Florida Keys. For additional information on coral status, go to the NOAA website http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Most hermatypic corals thrive at an ocean water temperature of [(10) (27)] °C.
Corals [(can) (cannot)] recover from bleaching if high ocean water temperatures are not long lasting.

Historical Events:

14 November 1825...The Codorus, the first ship made in the U.S. with sheet iron, was tested on the Susquehanna River at York, PA. The ship weighted five tons, of which two tons was for the coal- and wood- fueled boiler which provided power for an 8-hp engine. With a keel length of 60-ft and a 9-ft beam, the ship drew about seven inches of water. (Today in Science History)
14 November 1977...The "Andhra Cyclone" formed over the Bay of Bengal. The Super Cyclone would strike India on the 19th, killing over 10,000 people, with winds up to 125 mph and a storm surge of 16 feet. (National Weather Service files)
14-21 November 1991...Tropical Cyclone Tia spent most of its life near the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. However, it completely destroyed 90 percent of all dwellings on Tikopia Island. The remaining 10 percent of the buildings sustained collapsed walls or roofs that had been blown off. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
14 November 1999...Hurricane Lenny formed in the Caribbean and began moving in an unusual direction: eastward. Forecasters nicknamed the storm "left-handed Lenny." (National Weather Service files)
15 November 1860...The light in the massive stone Minots Ledge Lighthouse at the entrance to Boston Harbor, which was built on the original site of the one lost in 1851, was exhibited. Work on the new lighthouse commenced in 1855 and was finished in 1860. "It ranks, by the engineering difficulties surrounding its erection and by the skill and science shown in the details of its construction, among the chief of the great sea-rock lighthouses of the world." (USCG Historians Office)
15 November 1854...In Egypt, a royal concession from Said was made that ultimately permitted construction of the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. (Wikipedia)
15 November 1888...The Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist Harald Ulrik Sverdrup was born on this date. He was known for his studies of the physics, chemistry, and biology of the ocean. He died in August 1957. (Today in Science History)
16 November 1999...Hurricane warnings were in effect as late-season Hurricane Lenny was threatening Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Lenny was a Category 3 hurricane with top winds of 115 mph. Lenny was not only unusual because of its late-season strength, but because of its forward movement. Lenny was moving from west to east across the Caribbean. It was the first hurricane in recorded history to threaten Puerto Rico from the west. The unusual motion meant that some harbors normally protected from hurricanes were threatened. (National Weather Service files)
17 November 1820...Captain Nathaniel Palmer, USN, became the first American to see Antarctica. He saw the Palmer Peninsula, which was later named after him. (Wikipedia)
17 November 1869...The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas, was officially inaugurated in Egypt with an elaborate ceremony. (Wikipedia)
17 November 1973...The "Largest Icebreaker in the Western World," USCGC Polar Star, was launched. (USCG Historians Office)
18 November 1421...Wind-driven waves from an intense storm breached Dutch dikes on the Zuider Zee, sweeping away 72 villages. At least 10,000 people died in "St. Elizabeth's flood." (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
18 November 1929...A magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on the Grand Banks off the south coast of Newfoundland broke 12 transatlantic telegraph cables and triggered a tsunami that destroyed many south coast communities on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula. (Wikipedia)
19 November 1493...The explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on modern day Puerto Rico one day after seeing it for the first time. At the time, he named the island San Juan Bautista. (Wikipedia)
19 November 1978...A waterspout came onshore to become a tornado near Muhio Wharf in Hilo Harbor on Hawaii's Big Island. Some industrial buildings lost their roofs. The proximity of the waterspout-tornado caused an airliner to change its landing approach to Hilo's airport. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
19 November 1996...The last component of the Confederation Bridge was placed that crosses the Northumberland Strait between Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island and Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick. This two-lane eight mile long bridge, which was opened in May 1997, is the longest bridge over ice covered salt waters in the world. Ice covers the strait for five months per year. (Today in Science History)
20 November 1820...The 238-ton American whaler Essex from Nantucket, MA was attacked by an 80-ton bull sperm whale approximately 2000 miles off the western coast of South America. Of the 20 crew members that escaped in three open boats, only five survived the 83-day journey to the coastal waters of South America. The classic novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851) was inspired in part by the story of the Essex. (The History Channel)
20 November 1985...Kate intensified to a major Category 3 Hurricane and as she moved west of Key West, Florida with top winds of 115 mph and a minimum central pressure of 954 millibars or 28.17 inches of mercury. The next day Kate made landfall between Panama City and Apalachicola, Florida. Tides ran 8 to 10 feet above normal. Many houses were damaged by fallen trees. Many power poles and lines were downed. Several roads were washed out. (National Weather Service files)