WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

11-15 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:

• Eye on the Tropics -- In South Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Edzani developed last week over 1000 miles to the east-southeast of Diego Garcia and traveled to the southwest, intensifying to become a major, category 4 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. As of Sunday, this cyclone was continuing to travel southwestward as a category 2 cyclone. For more information on Tropical Cyclone Edzani, including satellite imagery, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Lead times for hurricane watches and warnings to be extended -- Beginning this 2010 hurricane season, forecasters at NOAA's National Hurricane Center will be extending by 12 hours the lead times for issuing their watches and warnings for tropical storms and hurricanes. Specifically, tropical storm or hurricane watches will being issued with a lead time of 48 hours, while warnings will be made for up to 36 hours in advance of anticipated tropical storm or hurricane conditions. [NOAA News]
• More on the tsunami-producing earthquake near the Solomon Islands -- A combination topographic and bathymetric map of the Solomon Islands and the surrounding waters of he western South Pacific show the locations of the epicenters of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Monday 4 January that generated a minor tsunami that struck Rendova, one of the Solomon Islands. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Earth tides may help in earthquake prediction -- A researcher from Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention claims that some of the giant earthquakes, such as the magnitude 9.0 earthquake of Sumatra that generated the deadly 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, could be predicted if one looks at the earth tide signal. These earth tides are associated with the combined effects of the weight of the ocean and gravitational pull of the sun and moon [Discovery News]
• Expansion of critical habitat for leatherback sea turtles considered -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service officials are seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would expand the critical habitat for the endangered leatherback sea turtles in three areas of the Pacific coastal waters off Washington State, Oregon and California. [NOAA News]
• Atlantic sturgeon may be place on the threatened or endangered list -- Officials with NOAA’s Fisheries Service are considering a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council that would list the Atlantic sturgeon species as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Several years ago, a formal review was made of five Atlantic sturgeon populations off the US East Coast by biologists from NOAA, the US Geological Survey and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. [NOAA News]
• Iceberg slowly disintegrates in southern Indian Ocean -- A natural-color image obtained at the end of December from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite shows the largest remaining section of the B17-B iceberg that broke from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf nearly ten years ago and drifted around the Southern Ocean before turning northward in the southern Indian Ocean. Currently, this large section is southwest of Australia. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• CIA data shared with climate scientists -- During the last year, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency has permitted images of Arctic sea ice obtained by reconnaissance satellites to be declassified and shared with climate scientists. [New York Times]
• Loop currents in eastern Gulf of Mexico studied -- Using data obtained collected a long deepwater mooring cable that was deployed for two years in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, scientists from the US Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service have released a report detailing the circulation in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, with particular attention paid to the behavior of the Loop Current and Loop Current Eddies. [EurekAlert!]
• Atlantic puffin population affected by worsening North Sea conditions -- Scientists from the United Kingdom's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the British Antarctic Survey who used geo-positioning devices to monitor the behavior of Atlantic puffin report that the observed decline the population of these birds is due in part to increased winter mortality associated with worsening conditions within the North Sea, as well as a migration that is farther than previously thought. [Centre for Ecology & Hydrology]
• Melting of Arctic Ocean ice cover could result in increased mixing and marine life -- Researchers at the University of Washington report that the rapid loss of the Arctic Ocean's summer ice cover could create internal waves in the Arctic waters that could dramatically change marine life and may even accelerate the loss of sea ice. [Discovery 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:

• 12 January 1836...Charles Darwin onboard the HMS Beagle reached Sydney, Australia.
• 12 January 1937...A plow for laying submarine cable was issued an U.S. patent. Designed to feed a cable at the same time that it would dig a trench in the ocean bed, the device could be used at depths up to a half mile. The first transatlantic cable of high-speed permalloy was buried on 14 June 1938. The inventors were Chester S. Lawton of Ridgewood, NJ and Capt. Melville H. Bloomer of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Today in Science History).
• 12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 January 1840...The 207-ft long side-wheel steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound four miles off the northern coast of New York State's Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. Only four people survived. (Wikipedia)
• 15 January 1833...HMS Beagle anchored at Goeree Tierra del Fuego.
• 17 January 1773...HMS Resolution, commanded by English explorer Captain James Cook, became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle (66º 33' S). (Wikipedia)
• 17 January 1779...The English explorer Captain James Cook made his last notation in ship's log Discovery. He was killed less than one month later on Hawaii's Big Island.

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, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.