Weekly Ocean News

WEEK NINE: 4 - 8 November 2013

For Your Information

• Opportunity for Teachers: The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Teacher at Sea 2014 Field Season program is now accepting applications until the end of business on 18 November 2013. Gain your "sea legs" and first-hand experience in one-week to one-month voyages. For more information, or to apply, see http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov.
• "Falling back" this past weekend -- Early this past Sunday morning most of the nation reverted back to Standard time after nearly 8 months of observing Daylight Saving Time. Since Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico do not observe Daylight Saving Time, no time change will be needed in those parts of the country. The U.S. Congress has mandated time changes. Following the old adage of "spring ahead, fall behind", you will need to turn your clocks back by one hour to conform with the local time observance. Note:A recent Energy Policy Act has extended Daylight Saving Time, with the start on the second Sunday in March (10 March 2013) and the end on the first Sunday in November (3 November 2013). Next spring, Daylight Saving Time will start on Sunday morning, 9 March 2014.
  A change from Daylight Saving to Standard Time does not deduct an extra hour of daylight from the day nor does it affect weather and climate patterns. The daily climate data collected at those automatic weather stations operated by the National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration, together with all the cooperative weather observing stations around the nation are always made according to local standard time. NOTE: You may check the correct current official time at http://www.time.gov/
• Asteroids, climate change and mass extinctions -- You are invited to read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth that describes how geoscientists have gathered evidence of five major mass extinctions over the last 550 million years from fossil records. These records also help in reconstructing past climates and help in the understanding of climate change.
• President issues steps to help nation prepare for impacts of climate change -- Last Friday, President Obama issued an executive order designed to undertake actions to enhance the nation's preparedness and resilience to climate change. In his executive order, he directed federal agencies to make assist states and communities in building resilience against storms, droughts and other weather extremes. A high-level task force of state and local leaders was to be created that would offer advice to the federal government. [New York Times] The Executive Order is available in full. [The White House]

• Eye on the tropics --- Several named tropical cyclones developed across the world's ocean basins during the last week, with most of the activity in the Pacific basin:
• No named tropical cyclones developed last week over the North Atlantic basin that includes the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
• In the eastern North Pacific basin, Hurricane Raymond weakened to a tropical storm and then to a tropical depression as it curved to the north and then north-northeast early last week. By midweek, Raymond had become a remnant low approximately 400 miles to the west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Raymond.
  Over this past weekend, Tropical Storm Sonia formed from a tropical depression that was moving to the north-northwest approximately 300 miles off the Pacific coast of central Mexico. Sonia, which was the eighteenth named tropical cyclone of 2013 in the eastern sections of the North Pacific. As of Sunday, Tropical Storm Sonia was expected to strengthen only slightly as it would head to the north-northeast toward the coast of mainland Mexico, where it could make landfall on Monday. The NASA Hurricane Page has information and satellite imagery on Tropical Depression-18E that eventually became Tropical Storm Sonia.
  
• In the western North Pacific basin, the extratropical cyclone (or midlatitude storm) that had been Super Typhoon Lekima weakened over the previous weekend and eventually dissipated early this past week well to the east of Japan. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images of the former Super Typhoon Lekima.
  Early last week, another major typhoon called Typhoon Krosa formed from a tropical depression that was located over the Philippine Sea at least 700 miles to the east of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. Krosa intensified to become a typhoon as it traveled toward the west-northwest, passing across northern sections of the main Philippine island of Luzon. This typhoon battered the northern Philippines with high winds reaching 67 mph on Luzon, heavy rains that were as much as 12 inches and high seas. After passing Luzon, Krosa intensified to a major category 3 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) late in the week as it continued to move toward the west-northwest across the South China Sea. By late in the weekend (local time), Typhoon Krosa was forecast to curve toward the southwest and pass to the south of China's Hainan Island before making landfall along the central Vietnam coast near Hue by Tuesday. For satellite images and additional information on Typhoon Krosa, check the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Late in the weekend, Tropical Depression 30W formed over the waters off the eastern coast of Mindanao, one of the southern Philippine Islands. This system could become a tropical storm as it would travel generally to the west-northwest across the southern Philippines and out over the South China Sea early this coming week.
  Another tropical system, identified as Tropical Depression 31W, formed late in the weekend to the east of Chuuk, one of the states of the Federated States of Micronesia. This tropical depression was expected to become a tropical storm and possibly a typhoon as it would travel toward the west-northwest early this week.
• In South Indian Ocean, the first named tropical cyclone of the basin's season formed. This system, identified as Tropical Storm 1S, formed at the beginning of last week (local time) to the northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. After moving toward the west-southwest, this tropical storm weakened and became a remnant low within one day after forming. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for a satellite information and additional information on Tropical Storm 1S (also known as Tropical Cyclone 01S)
• A review of satellite imagery for Hurricane Sandy -- With the observance of the first anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Sandy along the New Jersey coast, NASA assembled updated images and additional information on this hurricane that merged with a midlatitude storm. [NASA Hurricane Page]
• Awards made to states hit by Sandy to better understand public response to coastal storm threats -- Early last week NOAA Sea Grant announced that $1.8 million in grant awards were being made to Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey in an attempt to enhance the public's ability to effectively plan, prepare and respond to natural disasters when they strike--particularly for major storms like Sandy. This type of research is a critical recommendation of the previously released "2013 NOAA Sandy Service Assessment," a comprehensive review that NOAA had undertaken. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
• Annual national fisheries report released -- During the last week, NOAA Fisheries released their annual Fisheries of the United States 2012 report indicating US seafood landings at the nation's fishing ports in the calendar year 2012 remained near the high levels reported from 2011. Commercial fishers landed 9.6 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2012 that was valued at $5.1 billion, while nearly 9.4 million recreational saltwater anglers took more than 70 million marine fishing trips during the year. The report reveals that Dutch Harbor, AK and New Bedford, MA remained the top fishing ports. Americans consumed 4.5 billion pounds of seafood. [NOAA News]
• Coral reefs may adapt to moderate climate change -- A study conducted by NOAA scientists and their colleagues from academia indicates that some corals from around the world appear to be adapting to moderate increases in global temperature. However, the question remains concerning the ability of the coral to adapt quickly to keep pace with projected increases in temperature due to human activity, especially associated with the burning of fossil fuels. [NOAA News]
• Airborne campaign commences to map Greenland Ice Sheet summer melt -- A 17-day NASA airborne campaign started late last week in Greenland that would make measurements of that island's ice sheet following this past summer's melt. The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) would be flown aboard NASA's new C-130 aircraft to measure changes in the height of the Greenland Ice Sheet and surrounding Arctic sea ice. The goal of this mission is to improve scientists' understanding of seasonal melt and provide baseline measurements for future satellite missions, such as NASA's ICESat-2 mission scheduled for launch in 2016. [NASA]
• Inexpensive new device will watch surface winds from Space Station -- NASA scientists have assembled the ISS-RapidScat instrument (standing for International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer) that will measure ocean surface wind speed and direction from the International Space Station following launch in 2014. This instrument, which is to be installed on the end of the station's Columbus laboratory, is meant to help improve storm and hurricane monitoring over the oceans and, ultimately, weather and marine forecasts. Improvement is anticipated in the understanding of how interactions between Earth's ocean and atmosphere influence global climate. The ISS-RapidScat instrument is a scatterometer similar to those used on NASA's SeaSat satellite in 1978 and its QuikScat satellite in 1999. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
• Increased summer rains across northwestern Europe possibly linked to melting Arctic sea ice -- Scientists at the United Kingdom's University of Exeter scientists document a link between the loss of Arctic Sea Ice and a southward displacement of the Polar Jet Stream in the upper troposphere over northwestern Europe. This southward displacement in the jet stream could result in much wetter summers than typical across the British Islands and northwest Europe, as has been evident in the summers between 2007 and 2012. They based their findings upon computer simulations of melting Arctic sea ice and upper tropospheric atmospheric circulation patterns. [University of Exeter]
• A view of a warming planet as viewed from the deep ocean -- A team of scientists from Columbia University, Rutgers University and Woods Hole Institution of Oceanography have used sediment cores extracted from the bottom sediments in the waters off Indonesia to trace the heat content of the Pacific Ocean over the past 10,000 years by determining water temperature from the chemical composition of the shells of tiny single-celled, bottom-dwelling foraminifera. They determined that the intermediate waters of the Pacific Ocean are absorbing heat 15 times faster over the past 60 years than in the past 10,000 years. This absorption of heat into the ocean may explain the nearly negligible increases in global atmospheric temperature of the last decade. [The Earth Institute at Columbia University] or [Rutgers University Today]
• 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]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Controlling Nutrient Input into Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuary; it is more than 300 km (185 mi) long, 65 km (40 mi) at its broadest, and averages about 20 m (66 ft) deep. The estuary was formed by the post-glacial rise in sea level that flooded the valley of the ancient Susquehanna River. The Bay receives about half its water from the Atlantic Ocean and the other half from the more than 150 rivers and streams draining a 166,000 square kilometer land area encompassing parts of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Major rivers that empty into Chesapeake Bay include the Potomac, Susquehanna, York, and James.

As described in more detail on pages 227-229 of your DataStreme Ocean textbook, an estuary is a complex and highly productive ecosystem where seawater and freshwater runoff meet and mix to some degree. In Chesapeake Bay, more-dense seawater creeps northward along the bottom of the estuary, moving under the less-dense fresh water flowing in the opposite direction. This circulation combined with wind-driven and tidal water motions causes salinity to decrease upstream in the Bay, from values typical of the open ocean at its mouth to freshwater values at its northern margin.

As in all ecosystems, organisms living in estuaries depend on one another and their physical environment for food energy and habitat. Phytoplankton and submerged aquatic vegetation (e.g., marsh grass) are the primary producers (autotrophs) in estuarine food chains. Chesapeake Bay consumers (heterotrophs) include zooplankton, finfish, shellfish, birds, and humans.

Human activity has greatly modified Chesapeake Bay with consequences for the functioning of the ecosystem. Much of the original forests that covered its drainage basin were cleared and converted to farmland, roads, cities, and suburban developments. These modifications accelerated the influx of nutrients (i.e., compounds of phosphorus and nitrogen), sediment, pesticides, and other pollutants into the Bay. More nutrients spur growth of algal populations and when these organisms die (in mid-summer), their remains sink to the bottom. Decomposition of their remains reduces dissolved oxygen levels in the Chesapeake's bottom water. More sediment increases the turbidity of the water, reducing sunlight penetration for photosynthesis. Presently Chesapeake Bay is on the Federal list of "impaired waters" and in need of pollution abatement and remediation. States in the drainage basin have agreed to work together to clean up the Bay but there are significant obstacles including cost.

One casualty of human modification of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem was marsh grass-reduced by 90% from historical levels. Marsh grass anchors sediment and dampens wave action thereby controlling shoreline erosion and turbidity. Marsh grass is a food source for many organisms including waterfowl and small mammals and serves as a primary nursery for crabs and many species of fish. Reduction of this habitat along with over-fishing has been implicated in the decline of populations of blue crabs, a mainstay of the Bay fishery for more than a century. Over the past decade, the number of adult female blue crabs plunged by 80%. Without adequate protection by marsh grass, blue crabs are more vulnerable to predation by striped bass (i.e., rockfish). Striped bass turned to blue crabs as a food source when fishing reduced the numbers of menhaden, their preferred food. Menhaden is a marine fish in the herring family and the Bay's top fishery by weight.

Human modification of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin converted it from an essentially closed system to an open system. In the original climax forests, nutrients primarily cycled within the system with relatively little input to the Bay. Modification of the land for agriculture increased the area of the soil exposed to the elements and runoff from rain and snowmelt accelerated nutrient input into the Bay. In addition to such non-point (area) sources of nutrients are point sources including the effluent of wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated water into rivers and streams that drain into the Bay.

For decades, agriculture has successfully employed various cultivation practices that limit the runoff from cropland (e.g., contour plowing, strip cropping, and retention ponds.) However, less than one-third of the 300-wastewater treatment facilities located in the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin have the technology to remove high levels of nutrients from their effluent. Under current environmental regulations, states are not required to regulate the nutrient content of this discharge. But in late October 2003, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a private, not-for-profit environmental advocacy organization called on Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia to specify nutrient limits on permits they grant to all wastewater treatment facilities. In support of their recommendations, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation cited the many water quality problems stemming from excessive nutrient load in the Bay waters (e.g., algal blooms, spread of "dead zones.") According to the U. S. EPA, under the federal Clean Water Act, a state can control nitrogen pollution if it determines that environmental harm is taking place. However, the EPA estimates that as much as $4.4 billion would be required to install state-of-the-art nutrient removal technologies at all major plants (those treating more than 500,000 gallons of wastewater per day).

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. In terms of nutrient cycling, the climax forest that originally occupied the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin was a(n) [(open)(closed)] system.
2. Excessive input of nutrients into Chesapeake Bay [(spurs the growth of)(has little impact on)] algal populations and [(increases)(reduces)] the concentration of dissolved oxygen in bottom waters.

Historical Events:

• 6 November 1528...Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas soil, near present-day Galveston Island. (Wikipedia)
• 9 November 1913...The "Freshwater Fury," a rapidly deepening extratropical cyclone, caused unpredicted gales on the Great Lakes. Seventeen ships, including eight large ore carriers on Lake Erie sank drowning 270 sailors. Cleveland, OH reported 17.4 in. of snow in 24 hrs, and a storm total of 22.2 in., both all-time records for that location. During the storm, winds at Cleveland averaged 50 mph, with gusts to 79 mph. The storm produced sustained winds of 62 mph at Port Huron, MI, wind gusts to 80 mph at Buffalo, NY. (9^th-11^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 9 November 1932...An unnamed hurricane struck Cuba, with winds reaching approximately 210 mph at Nuvitas. However, a storm surge was the main killer of 2500 of the 4000 residents of Santa Cruiz del Sur. Essentially no storm records exist, as the observer drowned, with records and instruments washed away. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 10 November 1835...A severe storm crossed the Great Lakes and "swept the lakes clear of sail" as 19 ships were lost and 254 sailors killed on Lakes Erie, Ontario and Michigan. (Intellicast)
• 10 November 1975...Another "freshwater fury" hit the Great Lakes. A large ore carrier on Lake Superior, the Edmund Fitzgerald, sank near Crisp Point with the loss of its crew of 29 men. Eastern Upper Michigan and coastal Lower Michigan were hardest hit by the storm, which produced wind gusts to 71 mph at Sault Ste Marie, MI and gusts to 78 mph at Grand Rapids, MI. Severe land and road erosion occurred along the Lake Michigan shoreline. A popular song by Gordon Lightfoot was inspired by the storm. (David Ludlum) (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
  Editors note: In 2000, the NOAA National Weather Service Forecast Office at Marquette, MI created a web page commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the sinking and describing the advances in marine weather forecasting over the last quarter century. EJH
• 10 November 1993...Violent storm over the Black Sea closed the Russian oil terminal port of Novorossisk for 20 days. "Bora" winds reported as high as 112 mph sank at least seven ships. (The Weather Doctor)

Return to DataStreme Ocean Website

Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2013, The American Meteorological Society.