WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

28 December 2009-1 January 2010

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.

Sincerely,

• No "leap second" will lengthen 2009 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2009. Just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) on 31 December 2008, the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. Tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. [US Naval Observatory]
• In Close -- Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the sun (147.1 million kilometers or 91.2 million miles), on Sunday, 3 January 2010 at 00Z (7 PM EST, 6 PM CST, etc. on 2 January).

• Eye on the tropics --- Several tropical cyclones were found in the South Indian Ocean basin early last week:
  Cyclone Laurence, which had become a powerful category-3 cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale), made a final landfall along the north coast of Western Australia at the beginning of last workweek. For information and satellite images of Tropical Cyclone Laurence, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Tropical Storm David, which formed over the waters of the South Indian Ocean several hundred miles to the south of Diego Garcia over the previous weekend, moved westward and then curved to the south and southeast by midweek. At the start of this most recent weekend, this system had weakened as it moved erratically across the basin. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm David can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Another oil spill occurs in Alaska's Prince William Sound -- Last Wednesday, the tugboat Pathfinder ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, which was the same rock where the Exxon Valdez ran aground over 20 years ago that resulted in the infamous major oil spill. Some oil was spilled from the disabled Pathfinder. Transfer of the remaining fuel oil in the tug was being made late Christmas Eve. Some containment of the oil slick was also being made. [Anchorage Daily News]
• Monitoring the flow of African dust over the Atlantic -- Several images generated by data collected by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and the MISR (Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors onboard NASA's Terra satellite show airborne dust being carried by winds from the Sahara Desert westward over the Atlantic Ocean. Images such as these are used by NASA scientists to track dust storms over West Africa that can affect sea surface temperatures and the frequency of tropical cyclone activity. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Ocean acoustics affected by increased dissolved carbon dioxide -- Oceanographers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute report that increased amounts of carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans because of human activity has affected the acoustical properties of seawater, resulting in the seawater being more transparent to low-frequency sound waves. They believe that this change is due to the acidification of the seawater. [EurekAlert!]
• Improved consistency rather than health occurs with catch shares -- A researcher at the University of Washington claims that NOAA's implementation of catch shares for fishery management appears to help in more consistent and predictable fisheries, but the catch shares program does not necessarily improve the ecological conditions and hence, the health of the fisheries. [EurekAlert!]
• Melting glaciers modifies marine food chain -- A field study of eleven coastal watersheds along the Gulf of Alaska has led researchers from the University of Alaska Southeast, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of California Davis, Virginia Tech and the US Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station to conclude that as glacial ice disappears, the meltwater is enriching stream and near shore marine ecosystems from ancient carbon contained in glacial runoff. While this added ancient carbon was increasing high quality food to marine ecosystems, the trend will not last long, resulting in serious consequences for marine food webs. [EurekAlert!]
• A larger rise in global temperatures foreseen -- Geologists at Yale University and the University of California, Santa Cruz warn that global temperatures could rise more than expected because of the sensitivity of the global climate to the increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. They base their conclusions upon their analysis of sediment cores collected from six different locations under the global oceans by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Their analysis, which bridged the substantial warming of the global climate in the mid- and early-Pliocene era (three to five million years ago), was due to a relatively small rise in carbon dioxide levels in this ancient atmosphere. [EurekAlert!] [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

• 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)
• 29 December 1897...Congress prohibited the killing of fur seals in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 1 January 1850...The lamp was lit at the first iron pile lighthouse in the U.S. built on Minot's Ledge, just outside the Boston (MA) Harbor. The Minot's Ledge Light, the first lighthouse in the U.S. to be exposed to the ocean's full fury, was swept away in a great gale on 16 April 1851. (Today in Science History)
• 1 January 1903...The first message telegraphed on the transpacific cable was sent from Honolulu, Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC. The Cable Ship Silvertown began laying the 2620-mile long cable on 14 December 1902 when it left San Francisco, CA and it completed the project following its arrival at Oahu's Waikiki on 26 December. The cable now lies abandoned on the bottom of the Pacific after being abandoned in November 1951. (Today in Science History)
• 1 January 1954...The "Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1948" commonly known as the "Revised International Rules of the Road" became law. These were a result of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1958...The U.S. Coast Guard ceased listening continuously for distress calls on 2670 kilohertz. Although the countries of the world had agreed at the Atlantic City Convention of the International Telecommunication Union in 1947 to use 2182 kilohertz for international maritime mobile radiotelephone calling and distress, the U.S. Coast Guard had continued listening on the old frequency until the public had had sufficient time to change to the new one. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1959...The U.S. Naval Observatory introduced the system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures. (Naval Historical Center)
• 1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1993...Cyclone Kina battered Fiji with wind gusts to 130 mph and heavy rain. Up to 21.65 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, resulting in the worst flooding in 60 years. Twenty-three people were killed and damage was estimated to be in excess of 547 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2 January 1998...Tropical Cyclone Ron (the Southwest Pacific's counterpart of a hurricane) destroyed most of the structures on Swains Island in American Samoa. The island's 49 residents sought safety in a concrete structure, which withstood the cyclone's 90-mph sustained winds. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide 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, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.