WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

6-10 January 2014

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 20 January 2014. 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 -- The Indian Ocean was the only ocean basin to experience tropical cyclone activity during the last week.
In the South Indian Ocean Basin, Tropical Cyclone Christine made landfall at the start of last week along the northern coast of Western Australia slightly more than 100 miles to the west-southwest of Port Hedland, Australia. Earlier, Christine had become a major category 3 tropical cyclone. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Cyclone Christine.
The second tropical cyclone to develop in the South Indian basin during the last week was Tropical Cyclone Bejisa. This system intensified quickly from a tropical storm that had formed early last week approximately 700 miles to the north-northwest of La Reunion Island. By New Year's Eve, Tropical Cyclone Bejisa had become a major category 3 tropical cyclone as it traveled southward, passing off the eastern coast of Madagascar. Maximum sustained surface winds had reached 125 mph, with wind-driven sea waves reaching 35 feet in height. The strong winds, high seas and torrential rain associated with this system resulted in widespread power outages, uprooted trees and damaged homes on La Reunion Island. By late in the week, Tropical Cyclone Bejisa dissipated to the south of La Reunion and Mauritius. Additional information and satellite images on Tropical Cyclone Bejisa can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the North Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Storm 1B formed this past weekend to the east-northeast of Sri Lanka. As of late Sunday (local time), Tropical Storm 1B was traveling toward the west-southwest and could pass across northern sections of Sri Lanka as a tropical storm on Monday. (Note: The designation 1B means that this system is the first tropical cyclone of 2014 in the Bay of Bengal sector of the North Indian Ocean.)
An optical phenomenon captured by satellite imagery -- A natural-color image obtained by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite on 21 December 2013, the Southern Hemisphere's summer solstice catches an optical phenomenon called a "glory" in the deck of marine stratocumulus clouds over the coastal waters of the South Pacific Ocean off Peru. A glory, which is the result of a diffraction and reflection of light from tiny liquid cloud droplets, can be seen as a set of concentric rings of colors around the subsolar point. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Melting of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier tied to El Niño event -- Researchers from the University of Washington and the British Antarctic Survey along with colleagues from Korea and Germany claim that the melting of the ice sheet along the coast of Antarctica that includes the much studied Pine Island Glacier depends upon the local wind direction, which is tied to changes in weather patterns across the tropics associated with El Niño events. The researchers used data on winds and topography from the Antarctic coast and from observations and numerical simulations of climate conditions across the tropical Pacific Ocean basin. While observations show that the Pine Island ice shelf has been thinning nearly continuously for the last 40 years, the melting rate has changed, with the summer of 2013 having the lowest melt rate. This reduced melt rate was due to less warm, deep water flowing across an underwater ridge that separates Pine Island Glacier from the Southern Ocean, which was linked to changes in prevailing wind direction related to changes in the tropical Pacific associated with El Niño events. [University of Washington]
Dramatic spikes in coastal ocean acidity caused by local factors -- Scientists at Duke University report dramatic natural short-term increases in acidity that have been observed in a North Carolina estuary have been greater than the projected 100-year increases in the global ocean acidity. The shorter spikes in acidity in coastal or estuarine waters were on the time-span of one year and were driven by changes in temperature, water flow, biological activity and other natural factors. They are occurring in addition to the long-term acidification taking place in Earth's oceans as a result of human-caused climate change. [Duke University Environment]
Outgassing of methane hydrate deposits not caused by global warming -- An international team of scientists including those from Germany's GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel explain that that the observed outgassing of methane from gas hydrate deposits off the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean is most likely caused by natural processes and cannot be attributed primarily to global warming. [GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research]
Changing climate could cause major reductions in seafloor marine life during 21st century -- An international team of scientists lead by the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre predicts a major decline in seafloor dwelling marine life by 2100, driven by changing climate that would reduce near-surface food supplies. The researchers used a suite of recently developed climate models to predict the changes in food supply in the world's ocean basins, finding that species in the North Atlantic could decline by up to 38 percent and by over five per cent globally throughout this coming century. These changes will be driven by a reduction in the plants and animals that live at the surface of the oceans that feed deep-sea communities. As a result, ecosystem services such as fishing will be threatened. [National Oceanography Centre]
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.

Historical Events:

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)
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 one 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)