WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

4-8 December 2017

Items of Interest:

Nation's newest polar orbiting environmental satellite becomes NOAA-20 -- When the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1 spacecraft successfully attained its final polar orbit of Earth on Saturday, 18 November 2017, it was renamed NOAA-20 in accordance with a nearly 40-year old tradition for naming NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites. [NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service]
The "first light" image (or the first image transmitted back) from the newly launched NOAA-20 satellite was a composite image obtained from its Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) sensor that shows the global distribution of precipitable water (total amount of water vapor in the lowest 5 km of the atmosphere) as associated with antenna temperatures. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
GOES-16 satellite is on the move -- After an extensive series of tests run following its launch slightly more than one year ago (19 November 2016), the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-16 spacecraft began a move Thursday, 30 November 2017. The spacecraft is moving from its position in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth that is along the Equator at a longitude of 89.5 degrees West. GOES-16 should reach its new home over the equator at a longitude of 75.2 West on Monday, 11 December, where it will eventually replace NOAA's GOES-13 as the GOES-EAST Satellite. GOES-13 will continue to provide instrument data during an overlap period until 2 January 2018, at which time instruments will be turned off and moved to its storage location at 60 degrees west. [NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service]
Questions answered about the NOAA fleet of satellites -- NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) recently posted a set of questions frequently asked by the public about its fleet of satellites. Several of the questions included: "Can satellites see you?" and "Can you see a satellite?" Several satellite images are provided. [NOAA NESDIS News]
First European meteorological satellite launched 40 years ago -- On 23 November 1977, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched Meteosat-1 into geosynchronous orbit around the Earth, Europe's first meteorological satellite. This satellite was the first geosynchronous meteorological satellite to have a water vapor channel, where an onboard sensor takes measurements of the infrared radiation emanating from the planet in selected wavelength bands that permit the tracking of the motion of water vapor along with ice crystals and liquid droplets in clouds. [EUMETSAT News]
Role of weather in the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941 -- Although the weather at Pearl Harbor on the leeward side of Hawaii's Island of Oahu on the morning of Sunday, 7 December 1941, was relatively pleasant when the US Navy base was attacked by Japanese aircraft and submarines, the weather did play a role during the days preceding the attack. Six Japanese aircraft carriers left Japan's Kure Naval Base in late November 1941 and travelled essentially undetected across the western North Pacific under the cover of unsettled weather associated with several large storms moving across the Aleutians and the Bering Sea that had cold fronts trailing to the southwest across the North Pacific. One of the storms did scatter the ships over several hundred miles, but did regroup with minimal use of radio communication. The Japanese carrier fleet came to a staging point within 275 miles north of Hawaii, where they launched their attack aircraft early Sunday morning. When the two waves of more than 350 aircraft took off from the carriers in the predawn darkness, strong winds were helping produce rough seas. These aircraft flew through and above a thick deck of low clouds until reaching the leeward side of Oahu, where the skies cleared because of the light northeasterly trade winds descending the slopes of the mountain range. The pilots used the local radio stations
The weather also played a role in the planning, as the Japanese government sent codes to their overseas diplomats using bogus weather reports involving wind directions to announce which countries with which it was cutting diplomatic ties.
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2017 Campaign commences -- The twelfth in a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2017 will commence this Saturday (9 December) and continue through Monday, 18 December. 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 (Pegasus 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 first series in the 2018 campaign is next and is scheduled for 6-15 January 2018. [GLOBE at Night]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- During the last week, tropical cyclone activity was limited to the Indian Ocean basin:

In the northern Indian Ocean basin, near the end of last week Tropical Cyclone Ockhi formed near Sri Lanka. Over this past weekend Ockhi intensified into a category 3 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale for a short time as it traveled toward the north-northwest across the southeastern Arabian Sea offshore of the southwestern coast of India. Torrential rain associated with Ockhi fell across western India. As of early Monday (local time), Cyclone Ockhi was traveling northward as it was approximately 780 miles to the south of Karachi Pakistan. Current forecasts indicate that Cyclone Ockhi would slowly curve toward the northeast and weaken before reaching the northwest coast of India. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Cyclone Ockhi.
In the southern Indian Ocean Basin, Tropical Storm Dahlia formed late last week approximately 1000 miles to the north-northwest of Learmonth, Australia. Dahlia traveled to the southeast and then to the south toward the northwestern coast of Australia over this past weekend. Tropical Storm Dahlia began weakening as of early Monday (local time) as it was located approximately 460 miles to the north-northwest of Learmonth, Australia. Dissipation was anticipated by late Monday. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Dahlia.

Additional summaries of 2017 hurricane seasons in North Atlantic basins -- At the end of the official 2017 hurricane season in the North Atlantic, eastern North Pacific and central North Pacific basins last Thursday (30 November 2017), NOAA scientists issued their preliminary assessment of this hurricane season in the Atlantic basin. They reported that the Atlantic basin experienced an extremely active season, not only in terms of the number of named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes), but also upon the magnitude of a parameter noted as the "Accumulated Cyclone Energy" index, which measures the combined intensity and duration of the storms during the season. The scientists also noted that investments in research and forecasting during recent years have paid dividends in more accurate predictions of tropical cyclone tracks in 2017. A four-and-a-half-minute video was made of the 2017 hurricane season using an animation of satellite images obtained from the NOAA GOES-East satellite. [NOAA News]
The forecast team at Colorado State University released their summary of the tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic basin during 2017 along with a verification of their long-range seasonal and two-week forecasts. [Tropical Meteorological Project]
Come and explore the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the web -- For the next two and a half weeks, the public is invited to watch dives made by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Deep Discoverer from the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer as it explores the deep-sea ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. The exploration is being undertaken as part of the possible expansion of NOAA's Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary offshore of Galveston, TX. The Okeanos Explorer has real-time broadband satellite communications that will permit the public to view photographs and videos collected by the ROVs in essentially real-time. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries News]
The many uses of ocean surveys are revealed -- NOAA's National Ocean Service posted a feature article entitled "Ping Once, Use Many Times" that describes how hydrographic data collected by modern-day NOAA hydrographic ships can be used for many purposes in addition to updating nautical charts. Some examples of other uses include the mapping of habitats for marine life and the mapping fault lines and mud volcanoes. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Multiple models provide new guidance to mitigate "Dead Zone" in Gulf of Mexico -- Several models that included 3-D, time-variable models and an ensemble of regression-based models were the focus of attention at a recent meeting of the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force Coordinating Committee. The results from these models offered the task force new guidance on the levels of watershed nutrient reduction needed to mitigate the northern Gulf hypoxic zone, also known as the "Dead Zone." [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
Area around Norfolk and Hampton Roads in Virginia is sinking unevenly -- Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Virginia's Old Dominion University who analyzed synthetic aperture radar images acquired between 2007 and 2011 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's ALOS-1 satellite have found variations in subsidence in the land surface around Virginia's Norfolk and Hampton Roads, with some locations sinking at rates ranging between seven and ten times faster than other area locations. In Hampton Roads, the rate of relative sea level rise due to sinking land and rising sea has been approximately one inch in five years. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]
Satellite sees plume of sediment from rivers entering East China Sea -- A natural-color image obtained from data collected by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite reveals a large plume of suspended sediment that had flowed out of several large rivers in China moving out over the Great Yangtze Bank and then extending into the East China Sea. The plume is most prominent on satellite imagery during the winter months and could be the result of tides lifting sediments from the bottom of the Great Yangtze Bank at a time when the temperature and salinity of the waters off the coast of China create an environment that permits vertical mixing. [NASA Earth Observatory]
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]

Historical Events:

4 December 1786...The first of two great early December storms began. The storm produced high seas at Nantucket that did great damage. (David Ludlum)
4 December 1887...Tropical storms and hurricanes are very rare in December in the Atlantic. However, on this date not one but two tropical systems existed. One was dissipating after having been a Category 1 hurricane over the eastern Bahamas between 29 and 30 November. The other was just being born and would become a Category 1 hurricane over the open North Atlantic on 7 and 8 December. (National Weather Service files)
4-13 December 1991...Tropical Cyclone Val with gusts to 150 mph caused $700 million damage. Seventeen deaths were reported in American and Western Samoa, with 95 percent of the houses in Savaii either destroyed or badly damaged. Savaii was essentially hit twice by Val as the system completed a loop on the 8^th. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
4 December 2003...A tropical depression became Tropical Storm Odette in the Caribbean well south of Kingston, Jamaica, becoming the first December tropical storm of record to form in the Caribbean Sea. Odette made landfall on near Cabo Falso, Dominican Republic on 6 December, causing eight deaths and destroying 35 percent of the banana crop. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
5 December 1872...A British brigantine, the DeGratia, discovered the American ship Mary Celeste derelict and boarded her. The Mary Celeste, a brigantine had set sail from New York harbor for Genoa, Italy, on 5 November 1872. Everyone aboard the Mary Celeste had vanished-her captain, his family, and its 14-man crew. The ship, which appeared to have been abandoned for approximately nine days, was in perfect order with ample supplies and there was no sign of violence or trouble. The fate of the crew remains unknown. (Infoplease.com) (Wikipedia)
5 December 1492...The explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, which now contains the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. (Wikipedia)
5 December 1949...A typhoon struck fishing fleet off Korea; several thousand men reported dead. (Infoplease.com)
5 December 1999...Denmark saw its worst storm on record as 109-mph winds tore through the country and local sea levels rose almost 17 feet above normal, ending in over $134 million in damages. Six people were killed. (National Weather Service files)
6 December 1830...The US Naval Observatory, the first U.S. national observatory, established as the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, DC, under commander of Lieutenant Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough. Its primary mission was to care for the U.S. Navy's chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment. (Naval Historical Center)
6 December 2003...Tropical Storm Odette made a rare appearance after the official end of hurricane season, releasing 7 inches of rain on the Dominican Republic and doing 8 million dollars in damage. (National Weather Service files)
7-8 December 1703...A monstrous storm raked southern England and adjacent waters with winds in excess of 100 mph. Approximately 8000 deaths were the result of this storm, mostly at sea. Many naval and supply ships were anchored in harbors or in the English Channel. The Eddystone Lighthouse disappeared. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
7 December 1872...An expedition put to sea from Sheerness aboard the corvette H.M.S. Challenger under the command of Captain George Nares on a 3 1/2-year world oceanographic cruise. During the 68,890-nautical mile cruise that ended on 24 May 1876, the ship traversed the North and South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, traveled north of the limits of drift ice in the North Atlantic polar seas and south of the Antarctic Circle. The scientists onboard the Challenger sounded the ocean bottom to a depth of 26,850-ft, found many new species, and provided collections for scores of biologists. (Today in Science History)
7 December 1932...The first gyro-stabilized vessel to cross the Atlantic, the Conte di Savoia of the Italian Line, arrived in New York City. The ship had 48,502 gross tons, an overall length 814.6 ft by beam 96.1 ft, two funnels, two masts, four screws and a speed of 27 knots. As one of the first ships to be fitted with gyrostabilizers, it was claimed that rolling was limited to a maximum of three degrees. The maiden voyage began from Genoa to Villefranche and New York on 30 November 1932. (Today in Science History)
8 December 1777...Captain James Cook left the Society Islands (French Polynesia).
8 December 1866...The first transpacific side-wheeler steamship launched in the U.S. was the Celestial Empire (later named China) with capacity for 1,300 passengers. The builder, William H. Webb of New York, introduced many features of naval architecture in this liner, since in common use. (Today in Science History)
8 December 1993...The U.S. Secretary of Defense declared that the Global Positioning System (GPS), accurate within 100 meters, had 24 GPS satellites operating in their assigned orbits, available for navigation use at Standard Positioning Service (SPS) levels for civil users. This worldwide satellite-based radionavigation system used as the Defense Department's primary radionavigation system provided authorized users encrypted Precise Positioning Service accurate to at least 22 meters. (Today in Science History)
8 December 2002...Super-typhoon Pongsona hit Guam with sustained winds of 144 mph and gusts to 173 mph, along with a storm surge to 20 feet. The 40-mile wide diameter eye was over Anderson AFB for 2 hours. One indirect death and 193 injuries were attributed to the typhoon. Some bridge pavement was "scrapped off" by wind and wave action. Damage was estimated at $700 million. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
9 December 1938...A prototype shipboard radar designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory was installed on the battleship, USS New York (BB-34). (Naval Historian Center)
9 December 2003...A subtropical storm became Tropical Storm Peter approximately 700 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands. With Tropical Storm Odette having formed in the Caribbean on the 4th, the development of Peter marked the first time since 1887 that two tropical storms formed in the Atlantic Basin in December. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
10 December 1582...France began use of the Gregorian calendar.
10 December 1799...The metric system was made compulsory by law in France. (Today in Science History)
10 December 1922...Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian oceanographer explorer, author, athlete and statesman in recognition of his work for refugees and the famine-stricken. Other prize winners that year were Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein.
10 December 1978 (date approximate)...A 90-foot research ship chartered by the University of Hawaii left Honolulu on the 9th, but failed to arrive in Kawaihae on the 11th. Except for an empty box, no trace of the ship, crew or scientists was found by an extensive air and sea search operation. Gusty trade winds prevailed over the area. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)