WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

22-26 December 2008

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 19 January 2009. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff!

Ed Hopkins

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- In the South Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Cinda (or 4S) formed to the southwest of Diego Garcia during the middle of last week ad traveled southwestward. This cyclone began to dissipate over this past weekend over the waters to the northeast of La Reunion. Additional information can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page. Another system, Tropical Cyclone Billy (or 05S) formed late last week over the coastal waters of western Australia near Darwin and traveled southwestward across coastal sections of that continent. Over this past weekend, had moved back over coastal waters and was proceeding along the Australian coast. For more information and satellite imagery on Tropical Cyclone Billy, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
  In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Dolphin, which had reached a category 2 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, dissipated over the waters of the Pacific to the west-southwest of Iwo To (formerly Iwo Jima) late last week. For more information and satellite images of Typhoon Dolphin, see NASA Hurricane Page
• Sea surface topography data available from new satellite -- Last week, NOAA announced that scientists may now access data collected from the Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission, a satellite that was launched last June as part of a joint effort between NOAA, NASA, France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). These data can be used to monitor changes in global sea level and the ocean surface topography around tropical cyclones. [NOAA News]
• Global computer model simulates life cycles of tropical cyclones -- A team of scientists from the University of Hawaii, the Japan-Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo have developed a computer model that runs on a supercomputer and simulates the global atmosphere with a detailed representation of individual clouds. By running this model, this team has successfully replicated the observed life cycle of two tropical cyclones that formed over the Indian Ocean in late 2006 and early 2007. [EurekAlert!]
• Objections to California coastal toll road upheld -- The US Department of Commerce recently upheld the objections made by the California Coastal Commission to a toll road in southern California under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. [NOAA News]
• Review of November 2008 weather and climate across the globe -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center recently reported that based upon their analysis of preliminary data, the globally averaged land and ocean temperature for November 2008 was 1.06 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average temperature, making it the fourth warmest November since reliable climate records began in 1880. They also note that if the first 11 months of 2008 were any indication, the year would be one of the ten warmest during this 128-year instrumental period. [NOAA News]
• Puget Sound recovery is slow -- Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory warn that despite federal environmental regulations, the natural restoration of the sediments beneath Washington State's Puget Sound may take between 10 to 30 years longer than originally predicted, mainly because of the untreated runoff from a growing urban area. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]
• Report issued on health of nation's coasts -- According to the National Coastal Condition Report III, an environmental assessment of the nation's coastal and Great Lakes waters produced by NOAA, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Geological Survey, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, coastal states and the National Estuary Program, America's coastal conditions were rated as "fair" and have improved slightly. [EurekAlert!]
• Algal bloom seen in the Gulf of Tonkin -- An image made from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows the phytoplankton bloom in the surface waters of the Gulf of Tonkin offshore of China's southeastern coast. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Loss in Greenland's glacial ice is a record -- Examining data obtained daily from the MODIS sensors on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites, researchers at Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Research Center report that the loss of ice from Greenland's ice cap during the summer of 2008 was nearly three times greater than what was lost during the record-setting summer of 2007. The ice lost from continental glaciers added to ice shelves that break off into the surrounding seas. They also noted that some increases in snowfall have been detected over the ice sheet. [Ohio State University Research News] Comparisons between images made in August 2000 and 2008 by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite shows the retreat of the Sermersuaq (or Humboldt) Glacier in northwestern Greenland. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Abrupt shifts in climate could occur soon across the nation -- The US Climate Change Science Program recently released a report "Abrupt Climate Change" warn that the United States could suffer from effects of abrupt changes in climate within a few decades, or much sooner than previously thought, because of rises in sea level from melting polar ice; from a persistent western drought that would desiccate the region; from changes in the Atlantic Oceanic circulation regime and from rapid change of atmospheric methane. [Earth Institute News] Note: A brochure describing the report is available as a 4-page pdf file, while the entire final report is in a 477-page pdf-file.
• Network monitors changes in elevation of Antarctic bedrock as ice sheet melts -- Researchers from Ohio State University who collected data from three global positioning system (GPS) sensor networks on the Antarctic continent report that as ice melts from the continental ice sheet, parts of the underlying continental bedrock has been rising in response, while other parts have been sinking. These researchers claim that the measurements of the response of the bedrock together with satellite measurements of ice loss, such as from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite, could help in estimating the future changes in global sea level. [Ohio State University Research News]
• Stronger coastal winds could have many added effects -- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz recently reported on the results of their regional climate model that indicates future increased the winds along the West Coast due to higher land temperatures would have far reaching consequences that would include more intense and earlier season upwelling of cold water along the California coast and increased wildfire danger in southern California. [EurekAlert!]
• Satellites designed for oceanography help measure inland floods -- Researchers at Ohio State University have used data obtained from NASA's TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and the European Space Agency's ENVISAT satellite to measure the height and extent of flooding in North America, South America, and Asia. These satellites typically are used to monitor changes in the height of sea level. [Ohio State University Research 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, 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.

Historical Events:

• 22 December 1832...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reached the Barnevelts Islands
• 22 December 1837...Congress authorized the President "to cause any suitable number of public vessels, adapted to the purpose, to cruise upon the coast, in the severe portion of the season, and to afford aid to distressed navigators." This statute was the first authorizing activities in the field of maritime safety, thereby interjecting the national government into the field of lifesaving for the first time. Although revenue cutters were specifically mentioned, the performance of this duty was imposed primarily upon the Revenue Marine Service and quickly became one of its major activities. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 22 December 1894...The Dutch coast was hit by a hurricane.
• 23 December 1811...A cold storm hit Long Island Sound with a foot of snow, gale force winds, and temperatures near zero. During the storm, many ships were wrecked, and in some cases, entire crews perished. (David Ludlum)
• 23 December 1854...A tsunami struck the coast of Japan, with water in the harbor of Simoda changing depth between 8 and 40 feet. Twelve hours later this giant wave reached the Pacific coast of the U.S. The newly installed self-registering tide gauges noted these waves. The information derived from this event enabled Alexander D. Bache, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, to apply a newly derived law relating ocean depth to wave speed and provide the first relatively accurate scientific estimate of the depth of an ocean between Japan and the Pacific coast of the U.S. The velocity of the sea wave from Simoda to San Francisco was 369 mph. (Today in Science History)
• 25 December 1492...The Santa Maria, one of the ships that Christopher Columbus used in his historic trans-Atlantic voyage, landed at the Dominican Republic.
• 25 December 1974...Tropical Cyclone Tracy (a hurricane in the waters surrounding Australia) made landfall near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Excellent warnings kept the death toll to between 50 and 60, with more than 20,000 people evacuated in the week following the storm. Some areas were totally devastated. Peak wind speeds reached exceeded 174 mph. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 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)
• 27 December 1831...The HMS Beagle, along with the 22-year old British naturalist Charles Darwin, set sail from Plymouth, England on a five-year expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Based upon his study of the flora and fauna of such places as the Galapagos Islands, he developed his famous theory of evolution that was described in his 1859 work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. (The History Channel)
• 27 December 1965...The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.
• 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)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.