WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

4-8 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.

Ocean in the News:

• Monday, Jan. 4th Tsunami strikes Solomon Islands -- A 7.2 magnitude earthquake caused a minor tsunami that struck Rendova, one of the Solomon Islands. Many homes were damaged although landslides from the earthquake and its aftershocks were thought to be more likely than the tsunami. No deaths had been reported immediately
• Eye on the tropics -- No organized tropical cyclone activity was detected in any of the world's ocean basins during the last week. However, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have produced a satellite-derived rainfall analysis map of the rainfall totals across Northwest Australia that were associated with Tropical Cyclone Laurence. This cyclone had made landfall nearly two weeks ago, resulting in local rainfall totals that exceeded 17 inches near Cape Bougainville. The rainfall data were obtained from NASA's TRMM satellite, with the analysis based upon the near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) [NASA Hurricane Page]
• National saltwater angler registry makes a start -- Effective on New Years Day, the NOAA's Fisheries Service has begun operating the National Saltwater Angler Registry, a comprehensive list of the nation’s saltwater anglers that will be used to improve surveys of fishermen, especially for assessing the health of fish stocks. [NOAA News]
• Data set standardization for national ocean observing system -- NOAA, along with other federal agencies and eleven independent regional associations of ocean observing partners, recently completed a year-long project to ensure consistent standards and Web services for various data sets are available via the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®), a system designed to enhance the nation’s collection, delivery, and use of ocean information, such as water level, salinity, temperature and wind and wave data. [NOAA News]
• South Pacific algae bloom seen from space -- An image made from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows large swirls in the near surface waters of the South Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and the Chatham Islands caused by a large bloom of phytoplankton. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• New acoustic tools employed to study marine mammals -- Researchers at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and their colleagues have been employing newly-developed real-time and archival acoustic sensors to monitor the behavior of various marine mammals in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, such as dolphins and North Atlantic right whales. [NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center]
• A warmer Arctic with more ice-free conditions is likely -- Researchers at the US Geological Survey warn that the recent increases in summer sea-surface temperatures across the Arctic Ocean could signal a warmer climate across the Arctic with seasonally ice-free conditions becoming more common. They base their forecasts upon comparison of the climate changes during the last century with their climate reconstruction during a warm period during the mid-Pliocene (3.3 to 3 million years ago). [USGS Newsroom]
• 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:

• 4 January 1493...The explorer, Christopher Columbus, began his return to Spain and completed his first journey to the New World. (Wikipedia)
• 5 January 1841...The British explorer, James Clark Ross, was the first to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica.
• 5 January 1875...CDR Edward Lull, USN, began an expedition to locate the best ship canal route across Panama. This route was followed 30 years later. (Naval Historical Center)
• 5 January 1903...The general public could use the San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable across the Pacific cable for the very first time.
• 6 January 1839...A two-day storm off the Irish and English coasts was immortalized as "The Big Wind".
• 6 January 1898...The first telephone message from a submerged submarine was transmitted by Simon Lake, the father of the modern submarine.
• 6 January 1928...An intense low pressure system over the North Sea created a storm surge that moved upstream along the Thames River to London in England. Water rose over embankments. The rapid rise of the river resulted in 14 deaths in basements. As many as 40,000 people were left homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 7 January 1904...The international Morse code distress signal "CQD" was established. Two years later, the 1906 International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea, resolved that the radio distress signal should become "SOS" because it was quicker to send by wireless radio. (Wikipedia)
• 7 January 1927...Transatlantic telephone service began between New York and London, with 31 calls made on this first day.
• 8 January 1958...The Coast Guard LORAN Station at Johnston Island began transmitting on a 24-hour basis, thus establishing a new LORAN rate in the Central Pacific. The new rate between Johnston Island and French Frigate Shoal gave a higher order of accuracy for fixing positions in the steamship lanes from Oahu, Hawaii, to Midway Island. In the past, this was impossible in some areas along this important shipping route. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8 January 1971...Twenty-nine pilot whales beached themselves and died at San Clemente Island, CA.
• 8-11 January 1980...Winds, waves and rain pounded Hawaii, resulting in 27.5 million dollars in storm damage, which was the greatest amount to that date in the Aloha State's history. Four houses were destroyed and 40 others damaged by a possible tornado in Honolulu's Pacific Palisades area on the 8^th. Ocean waves with heights to 20 feet entered beachfront hotels along the Kona Coast of the Big Island. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.