13-17 December 2010

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2011 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 17 January 2011. 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:

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics ---
No organized areas of disturbed tropical weather were found across the North Atlantic or the eastern North Pacific basins during the last week.
However, in the Northern Indian basin, an area of low pressure along with convective clouds and showers identified as System 94B formed at midweek over the waters of the Bay of Bengal off the eastern coast of India. However, this system never developed into a tropical depression although bringing locally heavy rain to sections of India. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and more information on System 94B.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Depression 19 formed over the waters of the South China Sea over this past weekend.
• First Atlantic hurricane forecast for next season --
During the last week, Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University released their first forecast for the upcoming 2011 North Atlantic hurricane season. They believe that this upcoming season should have an above average number of named tropical cyclones (tropical storms or hurricanes). They predict that 17 named tropical cyclones will form next season, of which nine should become hurricanes. 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 that El Niño conditions should not developed by the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season. Furthermore, sea surface temperatures in the far North Atlantic appear to remain near record high levels. Subsequent forecast updates will be issued beginning in April 2011. Details of their forecast appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report] (Note this document is in a 39-page pdf file.)
• Forecast system to warn Texans of toxic algal outbreaks --
Texas officials and coastal managers will now receive earlier notice of toxic algae outbreaks through weekly bulletins from the NOAA Harmful Algal Bloom Operational Forecast System. This system was developed from collaboration between NOAA’s CO-OPS (Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services) and the NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. [NOAA News]
• First trans-Atlantic underwater robot highlighted at Smithsonian --
The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) glider, Scarlet Knight, the first underwater robotic vehicle to cross the Atlantic Ocean, was placed on display in an exhibit that opened in the Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The technology used in this "glider" was used to help in the Deepwater Horizon BP response several months after the historic trans-Atlantic voyage. [NOAA News]
• Commercial mackerel and cod fishing restricted to protect sea lions in western Aleutians --
During the last week, NOAA's Fisheries Service announced that it will restrict commercial Atka mackerel and Pacific cod fishing in the waters around the western Aleutians in January 2011 in an effort to protect the endangered Western Steller Sea Lions. [NOAA News]
• Major milestones celebrated at a Hawaiian marine monument --
Early last week, representatives of the State of Hawaii and the US Departments of Commerce, Interior and State, along with the numerous conservationists and marine scientists gathered at Hawaii's Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to mark two major milestones. One milestone was the commemoration of Papahānaumokuākea’s inscription on the World Heritage List and the other was the tenth anniversary of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, the single largest nature preserve ever established in the United States. [NOAA News]
• Listing of ringed and bearded seals on threatened list is proposed --
NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently proposed listing four subspecies of ringed seals and two distinct population segments of bearded seals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. These four subspecies of ringed are found in the Arctic Basin and the North Atlantic, while the two distinct population segments of bearded seals are in the Pacific Ocean. [NOAA News]
• Fishing ban for South Atlantic red snapper is extended --
NOAA's Fisheries Service has announced that it was extending its ban of commercial and recreational fishing for the red snapper in federal waters off the Carolinas, Georgia and the Atlantic coast of Florida in order to protect the red snapper population in the waters of the western Atlantic. [NOAA News]
• Algae bloom off New Zealand --
A recent image produced from data collected by NASA's Aqua satellite shows a large area of phytoplankton bloom in the surface waters of the South Pacific Ocean surrounding New Zealand's Chatham Islands. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Cold Alaskan waters lead to fatter plankton that change fish diets --
Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found that during the last three years when the Bering Sea was the coldest on record, larger zooplankton have been found, which may have resulted in a change in the feeding habits of the Walleye pollock, a whitefish species indigenous to the Bering Sea. [University of Alaska Fairbanks]
• Another view of a warming planet --
Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies have produced two global maps that show the temperature anomalies for two ten-year intervals from 1970-1979 and 2000-2009, which represent differences in the ten-year average temperatures and the 30-year climatological mean from 1951 to 1980. These temperature anomalies were based upon temperature data collected by more than 6300 surface weather stations, ship observations and satellite observations of sea-surface temperatures. Comparison of these two maps indicates during the recent ten-year span positive temperature anomalies occurred across most of the planet, indicative of warming, while during the earlier decadal span, large areas experienced some slight cooling as indicated by negative anomalies. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide measured over the open ocean --
Scientists from the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre and Norway's Bjerknes Center for Climate Research recently reported on their measurements of the flux of carbon dioxide on the surface North Atlantic during the High Wind Air-Sea Exchanges (HiWASE) experiment between September 2006 and December 2009. These measurements were conducted at higher wind speeds than previous measurements on the open sea. This air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide, which has an important influence on climate, may increase at high wind speeds because of the formation of bubbles in whitecaps associated with breaking waves. [National Oceanography Centre]
• Solar activity changes affect local climate --
A scientist at Sweden's Lund University and colleagues claim that their research involving sediment cores off Mexico's Baja California indicates that variations in the surface water temperature in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean have varied inversely with solar activity during the early Holocene (between 11,000 and 7000 years ago). Specifically, high solar activity appeared to have had a cooling effect in this region.[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, 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:

• 13 December 1577...Five ships and 164 men under the command of English seaman Francis Drake (later knighted) set sail from Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, the first by a British explorer. The journey took almost three years. (The History Channel)
• 13 December 1642...Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman became the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. (The History Channel)
• 13 December 1816...The first US patent for a dry dock was issued to John Adamson of Boston, MA. (Today in Science History)
• 13 December 1879...The first federal fish-hatching steamer was launched at Wilmington, DE.
• 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.

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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.