Weekly Ocean News

Weekly Ocean News

PREVIEW WEEK: 29 August-2 September 2011

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- The weather across the tropical waters of the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans were active during the past week, with the development of several named tropical cyclones (low pressure systems that form over tropical ocean waters, with near surface maximum sustained winds that intensify to tropical storm or hurricane force status):

In the North Atlantic basin, Tropical Storm Irene, the ninth named tropical cyclone of the 2011 North Atlantic hurricane season, formed from a weak weather system over the tropical Atlantic waters east of the Leeward Islands early last weekend. During the early part of this past week, Tropical Storm Irene intensified to become the first Atlantic hurricane of 2011 as maximum sustained surface winds increased to over 74 mph as it traveled to the west-northwest, crossing the Leeward Islands and then the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the eastern sections of Hispaniola. By midweek, Hurricane Irene began curving to the northwest and then to the north-northwest as it passed across the Bahamas. As it traveled through the Bahamas, Irene intensified to become a major category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. By late in the week, Irene weakened as it approached the coastal waters of the Southeastern States. Early Saturday morning, Hurricane Irene made an initial landfall in the continental US near Cape Lookout along the southeastern coast of North Carolina. After this initial encounter with the North Carolina coast, Hurricane Irene continued northward just off the Middle Atlantic coast, making a second landfall on US soil when it passed over New York City on Sunday morning. By late morning, Irene had weakened to a tropical storm as it traveled into sections of southeastern New York State and southern New England. Hurricane Irene was responsible for strong, hurricane force winds and widespread flooding from the heavy rain and from the wind-driven storm surge on top of relatively high astronomical tides due to this weekend's occurrence of a new moon. As of late Sunday afternoon, more than six million people from the Middle Atlantic States northward to New England were without power. Several storm related fatalities were reported. [USA Today] For additional information, along with satellite imagery, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
Late last week, a tropical depression (a disorganized area of low pressure over tropical waters) formed over the waters of the tropical North Atlantic west of the Azores. This system, identified as Tropical Depression 10, was short-lived, as it weakened within two days during its travels to the northwest. The NASA Hurricane Page contains satellite images of Tropical Depression 10, along with additional information.
A new tropical storm, identified as Tropical Storm Jose, formed over the waters of the North Atlantic near Bermuda on Sunday morning. Jose, the tenth named tropical cyclone of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, was traveling northward and was expected to pass near Bermuda by late Sunday.
In the western North Pacific basin, a tropical depression formed over the waters of the Philippine Sea early last week east of Luzon Island in the Philippines. This depression intensified into Typhoon Nanmadol as it traveled westward and then to the northwest as it just skirted the northeastern coast of Luzon Island by late in the week. (Note: A typhoon is any tropical cyclone in the North Pacific west of the International Dateline that has the intensity of a hurricane, with maximum sustained wind speeds in excess of 74 mph.) During its travels to the northwest, Nanmadol intensified to become a super typhoon as maximum sustained surface winds approached 150 mph with gusts to 180 mph. Equivalently, this super typhoon was classified as a category 4 typhoon in the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The winds helped produce high seas with 32-ft waves. As of this past weekend, Nanmadol weakened to a category 1 typhoon as it traveled northward and approached the southern coast of Taiwan. For additional information and satellite imagery on Super typhoon Nanmadol, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
Late last week, Tropical Storm Talas formed over the waters of the western North Pacific south of Iwo Jima. This tropical storm strengthened as it traveled northward. By late in the weekend, this Tropical Storm Talas was traveling north toward the Japanese archipelago. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information on Tropical Storm Talas.

Easy access to historical hurricane tracks is made available -- NOAA Coastal Services Center in partnership with the agency's National Hurricane Center and National Climatic Data Center has improved a mapping application tool called "Historical Hurricane Tracks" that will permit the public to more easily generate customized maps of hurricane tracks and hurricane landfalls based on more than 150 years of Atlantic hurricane data. The website http://maps.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/ from where these maps can be accessed contains tropical cyclone data and information on coastal county hurricane strikes data through 2010. A searchable database of population changes versus hurricane strikes for U.S. coastal counties from 1900 to 2000 is available, along with detailed reports on the life history and effects of U.S. tropical cyclones since 1958. [NOAA News]

Marine debris partnership in Pacific Northwest continued -- NOAA officials, including the NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, recently joined with governmental and fishing industry representatives from Oregon at Newport, OR to celebrate the continued marine debris partnership that involves successful culmination of the Oregon Fishing Industry Partnership to Restore Marine Habitat and the commencement of an effort to remove derelict crab pots and other marine debris from Oregon's coastal fishing waters. [NOAA News]

New NOAA Marine Operation Center is dedicated -- The NOAA Administrator, Jane Lubchenco, along with other federal, state and local officials and the public, recently dedicated a new NOAA ship operations facility in Newport, OR. This center, called the NOAA Marine Operations Center-Pacific facility, will serve as homeport for four NOAA research and survey ships and will provide administrative, engineering, maintenance and logistical support for NOAA's Pacific fleet. [NOAA News]

Member of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is re-appointed -- The US Department of Commerce announced last week that John McMurray of New York was re-appointed to a position on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council that will run until August 2014. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act that prepare fishery management plans for marine fish stocks in their respective geographical areas of responsibility. [NOAA News]

Review of global weather and climate for July 2011 --Scientists with the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently released their preliminary monthly climate statistics for July 2010. The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2010 was the seventh highest reading for the period of record that extends back to 1880 when a sufficiently dense worldwide climate network was developed. The global average land surface temperature for July 2011 was the fifth highest on record, while the global ocean surface temperature for July was the eleventh highest. For the first seven months of 2010, the January-July combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the eleventh highest on record, as was the global average ocean surface temperature. The global land surface temperature for January through July was the eighth highest.
The areal extent of the Arctic sea ice in July 2011 was the smallest since satellite records began in 1979, ? while the Antarctic sea ice for the month was above average. [NOAA News]

Satellites detect a slight reversal in long-term global sea level rise -- Sea level data recently collected by altimeters on several NASA satellites indicates that a fall in global sea level during the last year following a nearly two decade-long increase in global sea level by approximately 3 millimeters per year since the early 1990s. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory attribute this recent decrease of approximately one half centimeter to the switch from El Niño to La Niña conditions in the Pacific. El Niño and La Niña events that represent anomalous atmospheric and oceanic regimes across the tropics and subtropics contribute to changes in sea level changes through changes in ocean temperature and precipitation patterns. [NASA JPL]

German research vessel reaches the North Pole -- At the start of last week (22 August 2011) the research icebreaker Polarstern of Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research reported that it reached the North Pole. Researchers on the Polarstern are investigating on changes in the water, ice and air in the region around the pole. With little Arctic sea ice cover the route via the pole to the investigation area in the Canadian Arctic was made possible. [Alfred Wegener Institute]

Agreement reached on sharing environmental data for the Arctic -- Last week, officials from NOAA and three global energy companies (Shell Exploration & Production, ConocoPhillips, and Statoil USA E&P Inc) signed an agreement that would call for the sharing of oceanic, meteorological and coastal data obtained from the Arctic basis. The sharing of these data sets would enhance climate science throughout the basin. [NOAA News] [Note this link is to a pdf document and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader; see below]

A pause in Arctic ice melt could occur in near future -- Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research claim that their computer modeling study indicates that the observed Arctic sea ice loss during recent decades could cease in the near future, with possible ice expansion occurring over the next several decades prior to a return to decreasing ice. They believe that the possible increase in Arctic sea ice could be due to variations in atmospheric conditions involved with large-scale wind patterns. [UCAR/NCAR News Center]

Florida's coral reefs unable to endure a "cold snap" -- Scientists at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science have found an unprecedented level of mortality in Florida's coral reefs during the record-breaking cold snap across sections of the Sunshine State in January 2010. [Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science]

Newly discovered ocean current could change climate picture -- A team of scientists from the US, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands is currently collecting oceanographic data in the vicinity of a recently discovered ocean current in the North Atlantic off the coast of Iceland called the North Icelandic Jet. These researchers claim that this deep-ocean circulation could significantly influence the ocean's response to changing climate. [NSF 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.

Concept of the Week: Touring the DataStreme Ocean website

Welcome to DataStreme Ocean! You are embarking on a study of the world ocean and the role of the ocean in the Earth system. This unique teacher enhancement course focuses on the flow and transformations of energy and water into and out of the ocean, the internal properties and circulation of the ocean, interactions between the ocean and the other components of the Earth system, and the human/societal impacts on and responses to those interactions. Throughout this learning experience, you will be using the DataStreme Ocean website to access and interpret a variety of environmental information, including recent observational data. The objective of this initial Concept of the Week is to explore features of the DS Ocean website.

On Monday of each week of the course, we will post the current Weekly Ocean News that includes Ocean in the News (a summary listing of recent events related to the ocean), Concept of the Week (an in-depth analysis of some topic related to the ocean in the Earth system), and Historical Events (a list of past events such as tsunamis or specific advances in the understanding of oceanography). When appropriate, a feature called Supplemental Information-In Greater Depth will be provided on some topic related to the principal theme of the week.

You will use the DS Ocean website to access and download the weekly "Current Ocean Studies" (plus supporting images) that complement Investigations found in your Ocean Studies Investigations Manual. These materials should be available Monday morning. Click the appropriate links to download and print these electronic Current Ocean Studies and answer forms as well as your Chapter Progress and Investigations Response forms.

The body of the DS Ocean website provides links to the Earth System, information on Physical & Chemical, Geological, and Biological aspects of the ocean, Atmosphere/Ocean Interaction, the Great Lakes, and extras-a glossary of terms, maps, educational links, and DataStreme Ocean information. Following each section is a link to other sites that examine the various subsystems of the Earth system. Let's take a quick tour to become more familiar with the DS Ocean website.

Under Physical & Chemical, click on Sea Surface Temperatures. This image uses a color scale to depict the global pattern of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) (in degrees Celsius) averaged over a recent 7-day period and based on measurements by infrared sensors onboard Earth-orbiting satellites. (Depending on your browser, you may have to place your mouse cursor on the slide bar to the right and scroll down to view the entire image.) Compare SSTs in the Northern Hemisphere with those in the Southern Hemisphere. Return to the DS Ocean website.

Under Geological, click on Current Earthquake Activity. The USGS Current World Seismicity page provides a global map of the locations of seismic (earthquake) events color-coded for the past seven days. The size of the squares represents the magnitude of recent earthquakes. Note how earthquakes are concentrated along the margin of the Pacific Ocean. Details of recent earthquakes can be found by clicking on their map squares. Return to the DS Ocean website.

The ocean is home to a wide variety of habitats and organisms. Under Biological, click on Ocean "Color" (Productivity). This is a satellite-derived (SeaWiFS) color-coded map of biological productivity in the surface waters of the world ocean is averaged from October 1978 to date. Orange and red indicates the highest productivity, while dark blue and violet indicate the lowest productivity. Note the vast areas of relatively low productivity over the central regions of the subtropical ocean basins. Individual months within this period may be chosen for viewing. Now return to the DS Ocean website.

Under Atmosphere/Ocean Interaction, click on TRMM Tropical Rainfall. The TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) page includes color-coded maps of the Monthly Mean Rainrate (in mm per day) across the tropics for the last 30 days ending on the present date. Changes in rainfall are linked to large-scale shifts in the atmosphere/ocean circulation in the tropics. Now return to the DS Ocean website.

Take a few minutes when you have time to browse the other data and information sources available via the DS Ocean website. You should "bookmark" ("favorites") this page on your computer. Return frequently to learn more about the many resources on the ocean in the Earth system. Bon voyage!

Concept of the Week: Questions

The latest global sea surface temperature map indicates that SSTs are generally higher over the [(western)(eastern)] tropical Pacific Ocean.
The USGS map of Current Earthquake Activity indicates that earthquakes appear to be more common along the [(east)(west)] coast of North America.

Historical Events

29 August 1583...The Delight was wrecked on Sable Island, Nova Scotia during a heavy gale, blinding rain and thick fog. This was Canada's first recorded marine disaster, taking 85 lives. (The Weather Doctor)
29 August 1979...Winds associated with Hurricane David reached 145 mph as the hurricane crossed the island of Dominica. The capital city, Roseau, was devastated, with 56 fatalities and 60,000 out of a population of 80,000 left homeless. About three-quarters of the coconut and banana crops were destroyed. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
29 August 1988...The remnants of Tropical Storm Chris drenched eastern Pennsylvania with up to five and a half inches of rain, and produced high winds that gusted to 90 mph, severely damaging a hundred boats in Anne Arundel County, MD. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
29 August 2005...Hurricane Katrina, the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in US history, made landfall along the Louisiana Gulf Coast southeast of New Orleans as a category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale after reaching category 5 status. Massive destruction was reported in coastal Mississippi and in New Orleans. As many as 1833 people reportedly died from Katrina in the US. (National Hurricane Center)
30 August 1913...The US Navy tested the Sperry gyroscopic stabilizer (automatic pilot). (Naval Historical Center)
30 August 1942...A hurricane weakened in moving 160 miles across south Texas from landfall at Matagorda to San Antonio, winds still gusting from 50 to 70 mph at San Antonio for more than five hours. Seventy of 75 planes were damaged at the city airport. Many trees were destroyed, but the famed Alamo's walls withstood the storm. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
31 August 1842...The U.S. Naval Observatory was authorized by an act of Congress. (Today in Science History)
1 September 1858...The first transatlantic cable failed after less than one month of service. (Today in Science History)
1-2 September 1935...Perhaps the most intense hurricane ever to hit the U.S. struck the Florida Keys with sustained winds of over 155 mph with gusts exceeding 200 mph. On the 1^st, the "Labor Day Hurricane" formed rapidly over the Bahama Islands and intensified into a Category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir Simpson Scale) with sustained winds of over 155 mph and gusts exceeding 200 mph. On the next day, this hurricane generated a 15-foot tide and waves 30-ft high, as it became the first known Category 5 hurricane to hit the U.S. Mainland. More than 400 persons perished in the storm on that Labor Day, including many World War I veterans building a bridge from the Keys to the mainland. The barometric pressure at Matecumbe Bay, FL hit a record low for the U.S. at 26.35 inches of mercury (or 892 millibars). (David Ludlum) (The Weather Doctor)
1 September 1974...Navy Lieutenant Judy Neuffer became the first woman to pilot a plane through the eye of a hurricane. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
1 September 1985...A joint French-American expedition headed by the American explorer, Robert D. Ballard, located the wreck of the sunken liner RMS Titanic on the floor of the North Atlantic using an experimental and unmanned submersible craft Argo. The wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in April 1912 on its maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg, was found at a depth of about 13,000 feet and approximately 400 miles west of Newfoundland. (The History Channel)
2 September 1752...The British Empire adopted the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of western Europe (primarily 1582). To correct the imprecise leap year correction in the Julian Calendar, 11 days were dropped making the following day 14 September. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
3 September 1821...A hurricane made landfall at Long Island, near the current J.F. Kennedy Airport and then moved through western Connecticut. The hurricane produced a record high tide at New York City. (David Ludlum)
4 September 1954...Icebreakers, USS Burton Island (AGB-1) and USCG Northwind, completed first transit of the Northwest Passage through McClure Strait. (Naval Historical Center)
4-6 September 1970...Moisture from Pacific Tropical Storm Norma led to heavy rain and severe flooding over a three-day span. Unprecedented rains caused rivers in central Arizona to rise five to ten feet per hour, sweeping cars and buildings as far as 30 to 40 mi downstream, leading to the greatest natural disaster of record for Arizona. Flooding claimed the lives of 23 persons, mainly campers, and caused millions of dollars in property damage. Water crested 36 feet above normal near Sunflower. Workman's Creek was deluged with 11.40 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a 24-hour precipitation record for the Grand Canyon State. An estimated six inches of rain fell at Bug Point, UT, setting a 24-hour precipitation record for the Beehive State. (The Weather Channel) (NCDC)