WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

14-18 December 2009

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 January 2010. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Items of Interest:

• NOAA student scholarships announced -- The NOAA Office of Education recently announced that scholarships are available to undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences, along with several of the other scientific and technical disciplines that support NOAA's mission and programs. [NOAA Office of Education] These scholars hips include:
  • Educational Partnership Program Undergraduate Scholarship: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_undergrad_page.html . The application deadline is 17 February 2010.
  • Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program: http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/Hollings_info.html . The application deadline is 29 January 2010.
  • Graduate Sciences Program: http://www.epp.noaa.gov/ssp_grad_sciences_page.html . The application deadline is 22 January 2010.
  • Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program: http://www.fosterscholars.noaa.gov/ . The application deadline is 31 March 2010.
• A great holiday gift idea -- NOAA's National Weather Service encourages the public to consider purchase of a NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio as a gift for this upcoming holiday season. [NOAA News]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- During the last week the western Pacific and Indian Ocean basins had several named tropical cyclones:
  • In the western South Pacific basin, Cyclone Mick formed near Fiji at the end of last week and moved to the south-southeast over the weekend.
  • In the North Indian Ocean, Tropical Storm Ward (also known as Cyclone 5B) formed early last week over the waters of the Bay of Bengal east of Sri Lanka and moved westward. As of late Sunday (local time), this storm was close to the east coast of Sri Lanka. For additional information on this tropical cyclone, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
  • In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Cleo formed to the east-southeast of Diego Garcia early last week. By midweek, Cleo had become a major Category 3 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. By early Sunday, this system was dissipating to the east-northeast of La Reunion. More information and satellite images for Cyclone Cleo can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page,
    Tropical Storm-5 formed east of Diego Garcia over this past weekend and was moving toward the southwest.
    Tropical Storm Laurence formed over the Indian Ocean off Australia to the west of Darwin over the weekend. This system moved to the west-northwest.
• First Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season -- Last week, Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University released their first forecast for the upcoming 2010 North Atlantic hurricane season, which they believe would have an above average number of named tropical cyclones (tropical storms or hurricanes). They predict that 11 to 16 named tropical cyclones will form next season, of which six to eight should become hurricanes. Between three to five of the hurricanes could become major hurricanes, reaching category-3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale. They also anticipate an above-average probability that at least one major hurricane would make landfall along the coast of the continental US. Currently, they expect the current El Niño conditions to diminish by the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. Subsequent forecast updates will be issued beginning in April 2010. Details of their forecast appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report] (Note this document is in a 34-page pdf file.)
• Joint Typhoon Warning Center marks its golden anniversary -- The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), a joint U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force office located in Pearl Harbor, HI, celebrated its 50th anniversary. The JTWC, which provides forecasts, advisories and warnings on tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and southern hemisphere, was established in 1959 by the U.S. Pacific Command to consolidate and improve the United States military tropical cyclone forecasting effort. NASA Hurricane Page
• Jason-1 satellite turns 8 years old -- Last week marked the eighth anniversary of the launch of NASA's Jason-1 satellite, a satellite orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 1336 km that has instruments that measure the surface topography of the global ice-free oceans to an accuracy of 3.3 cm once every ten days. This satellite, which followed its predecessor, TOPEX/Poseidon, has now been jointed by its eventual successor, OSTM/Jason-2 in 2008. NASA Hurricane Page
• Heavy tropical cyclone rainfall across Philippines documented by satellite -- Images of satellite-estimated rainfall made from data collected by the instruments onboard NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall-Measuring Mission) satellite shows the locally heavy rainfall totals across the Philippines during 2009 that resulted from at least eleven named tropical cyclones passing over or sufficiently close to this island nation. NASA Hurricane Page
• Instrumented ocean glider makes Trans-Atlantic journey -- The Scarlet Knight, a 7-foot long, 135-pound instrumented glider, recently made a successful 7300-mile trip across the North Atlantic from New Jersey to Spain in 221 days. This glider made continuous measurements of ocean water temperature, salinity and density as it dove to depths of 200 meters as part of the partnership effort among the U.S. interagency Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and European agencies designed to gather information on ocean currents and changes in the ocean environment. [NOAA News]
• Red snapper fishery in Gulf recovering -- The director of the NOAA Fisheries Service's Southeast Fisheries Science Center recently announced that science-based management techniques appear to have helped in rebuilding the red snapper fish population in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico during the last several years. [NOAA News]
• Hawaiian swordfishing restrictions removed -- Based on a study that found sea turtle protections have been effective, NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently removed restrictions on the number of gear deployments by the Hawaii swordfish fleet since 2004. [NOAA News]
• "Catch shares" use encouraged as an effective fishery management tool -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service officials have released a draft of a national policy statement for public comment that encourages the use of "catch shares" programs designed as a fishery management tool to end overfishing of various fisheries and rebuild not only these fisheries, but the economy of the fishing communities. [NOAA News]
• Bigeye tuna catch limit approved from Pacific waters -- The rule established by NOAA that sets a catch limit for bigeye tuna in U.S. pelagic long-line fisheries of the western and central Pacific Ocean recently was published in the Federal Register. This rule is meant to reduce the overfishing of these tuna. [NOAA News]
• Pitch of blue whale songs declining worldwide -- Researchers with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center and WhaleAcoustics have determined that the sound level frequency emitted by blue whales for mate competition have decreased during the last several decades, due possibly due to an increase in the whale population size. The researchers hope that information concerning population monitoring can deciphered from these songs emitted by whales. [Scripps News]
• Planet could be warmer next year -- Forecasters at the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office are forecasting that the upcoming year of 2010 could be warmer than 2009, which has been ranked as the fifth warmest since 1850 reliable climate records began. These forecasters base their 2010 forecast on a combination the current El Niño event that has resulted in a warm equatorial Pacific Ocean and "trend analysis" of the global temperature increases from the last several decades attributed to human activity. [UK Met Office]
• Studying ocean climate -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre, Southampton have developed high-resolution computer simulations designed to help them to visualize the inflow of North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean and understand how this flow influences ocean climate. [EurekAlert!]
• Sea level appears to be rising along East Coast -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Florida International University, Tulane University and the University of Toronto report that their analysis of sediment cores and tide gauge records along the Atlantic coast of the US indicates that coastal subsidence along the Middle Atlantic coast during the 20th century has been faster than over the last 4000 years and more rapid than other sections of the coast. [University of Pennsylvania]
• New technique for measuring oceanic carbon dioxide absorption could help in climate change predictions -- A team of European scientists led by the University of East Anglia has developed a new method of measuring the absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans that has allowed them to map the uptake of this gas across the entire North Atlantic Ocean. These researchers hope that their work will allow them to develop an "early-warning system" involving changes in the oceanic carbon sink, which would make predictions that are more accurate on changes in the global climate. [EurekAlert!]
• New global precipitation measurement mission advances -- NASA officials recently approved critical elements that will be placed upon the agency's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, which represents a new generation satellite designed to make observations of the global precipitation from space. This satellite, called the GPM Core Observatory spacecraft bus, will be launched in July 2013 and will build upon the success of its predecessor, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). [NASA GSFC]
• 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, 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, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 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)
• 19 December 1551...The Dutch west coast was hit by a hurricane.
• 19 December 1741...Vitus J Bering, Dutch navigator/explorer, died on this date.
• 19-21 December 1835...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin approached New Zealand and sailed into the Bay of Islands.
• 20 December 1987...Worst peacetime shipping disaster occurred as the Dona Paz, a Philippine ferry, sank after collision with oil tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion. As many as 1749 confirmed deaths, but the death toll was probably closer to 3000.

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.