WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

11-15 December 2006

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 15 January 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Upgraded tide stations to help detect tsunamis -- The National Ocean Service recently announced that 33 NOAA tide stations have been upgraded to allow them send one-minute averaged tide data via the NOAA GOES satellites to the detect tsunamis and transmit this information more quickly to Pacific and West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Centers. These tide data will supplement the data collected by the NOAA Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis, or DART, network of buoys, thereby enhancing NOAA's tsunami detection and warning efforts. [NOAA News]
• Current El Niño event strengthens --
  • Scientists at the Climate Prediction Center report that sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific indicate that an El Niño event has been strengthening. They anticipate that the El Niño event could continue to intensify during the next three months, remaining significantly weaker than the very strong event during the 1997-1998 winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. The current outlook for the winter season across the US issued by the Climate Prediction Center calling for warmer than average weather across the northern section of the nation and stormy weather across the southern sections is predicated on the assumption of the El Niño event peaking in the during the three winter months of December 2006 through February 2007. [NOAA News]
  • NASA scientists have posted an image of the sea surface height anomalies (differences between actual and long-term average values) obtained from the NASA/French Jason-1 satellite that shows higher than average sea surfaces across the equatorial Pacific, signifying above average water temperatures for the near surface layers of the Pacific. The scientists identify the wavelike eastward progression of this region of higher heights and warm water as a "Kelvin wave". [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Bluefin tuna recovery is sought -- The United States has made an attempt to protect the dwindling population of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean by requesting tougher conservation measures designed to prevent overfishing of this species along with others at a recent meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. [NOAA News]
• A change in command at the National Hurricane Center -- Top officials with the Department of Commerce and NOAA recently appointed Xavier William (Bill) Proenza to replace Max Mayfield as the director of the National Hurricane Center and the Tropical Prediction Center. [NOAA News] The retiring director of the National Hurricane Center is featured in a NOAA Magazine article. [NOAA Magazine]
• Eye on the tropics --
  • In the western North Pacific, Typhoon Utor, a Category 1 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity scale, was traveling to the west-northwest across the South China Sea toward Viet Nam on Monday (local time). This typhoon had briefly become a major Category 3 typhoon as it passed across the Philippines over the weekend. At least four deaths in the Philippines were attributed to the typhoon, while thousands were made homeless. [USA Today] A visible image obtained by Japan's MTSAT satellite shows Tropical Storm Utor moving west across the western Pacific toward the Philippines at the end of last week. [NOAA OSEI]
  • Early last week, Typhoon Durian made landfall along the coast of Viet Nam, causing the deaths of at least 47 people and injuring 300 others. Earlier, this typhoon was responsible for the deaths of at least 1000 people in the Philippines. [USA Today]
• An Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season -- Late last week, Professor Bill Gray, his protégé, Philip J. Klotzbach, and other colleagues at Colorado State University released their first forecast for the 2007 North Atlantic hurricane season. They predict that next season will also be active, with 14 named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes), seven hurricanes, three intense hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity scale). They also anticipate an above-average probability that a major hurricane would make landfall along the coast of the continental US. Subsequent forecast updates will be issued beginning in April 2007. [USA Today] Details of their forecast appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colo. State Report]
• Phytoplankton growth is slowed by warmer ocean waters -- Scientists from Oregon State University and Rutgers University and their colleagues report that their analysis of phytoplankton productivity data collected from NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) on board the SeaStar satellite and sea surface temperature data from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensors onboard NOAA satellites indicate that phytoplankton activity decreased where surface temperatures increased, and vice versa. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Southern Ocean could slow global warming trend -- A geoscientist at the University of Arizona and colleagues report that they have found that the Southern Ocean appears to reduce the upward trend in global temperatures by absorbing significant amounts of heat and carbon dioxide, based upon their realistic computer simulation of the atmospheric and oceanic circulation regimes in the Southern Hemisphere. [EurekAlert!]
• Lake Superior approaches record low levels -- A drought across the Upper Midwest appears to be primarily responsible for Lake Superior to fall to near a record low level, which causes numerous problems involving shipping, fish populations and development along lakeshores. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]
• Flood could be tragic -- A researcher from Delft University of Technology reports that more than 4000 casualties could result if seawalls were breached and seawater from the North Sea flooded southern Randstad in the Netherlands. Roughly 600 people could be rescued. [Delft University of Technology]
• An answer to "Darwin's Dilemma" sought -- A paleontologist at Queen's University in Ontario and colleagues believe they have found that a dramatic increase in free oxygen in the world ocean following glaciation may have allowed the sudden appearance of large animal fossils approximately 500 million years ago, thereby proving an answer to "Darwin's Dilemma". [Queen's University]
• Another major tsunami could occur shortly -- Scientists at the University of Southern California and Caltech warn that Sumatra is in a seismically active region and could be subject to another major tsunami like the one that caused much devastation in December 2004. [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 11 December 1901...Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, covering over 2000 miles from Cornwall in England to Newfoundland, Canada. (The History Channel)
• 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, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.