Weekly Ocean News

WEEK FIVE: 29 September-3 October 2014

Items of Interest

Summit on climate leadership to be held for leaders of higher education institutions -- The three-day 2014 Presidential Summit on Climate Leadership will be held this coming week beginning on Wednesday (1 October) in Boston, MA. College and university presidents and sustainability staff will discuss campus climate action and sustainability initiatives, as well as ways of addressing climate challenges. [NOAA Climate.gov]
Light in the oceans -- If you would like information on the distribution of sunlight in the upper levels of the ocean has an impact upon the distribution of marine life and various processes such as photosynthesis in these layers, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week, tropical cyclone activity continued in Pacific basins of the Northern Hemisphere:

In the eastern North Pacific basin, former Hurricane Storm Polo continued traveling toward the northwest as a minimal tropical storm off the coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula at the start of the week. Eventually, Tropical Storm Polo weakened to a tropical depression and then a remnant low approximately 300 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. Additional information on Hurricane Polo and satellite images are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
During the week, Tropical Storm Rachel formed from a tropical depression approximately 300 miles off of Manzanillo on the coast of Mexico. Slowly strengthening during its general path toward the west-northwest, Rachel became the thirteenth hurricane of the 2014 eastern Pacific hurricane season over this past weekend. Forecasts indicate that Rachel should weaken slowly as it travels first to the northwest and then to the west well off the coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. See the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm or Hurricane Rachel.

In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Fung Wong traveled northward along the eastern coast of Taiwan at the start of week before crossing the East China Sea and brushing the eastern coast of mainland China. By midweek, Fung Wong lost its tropical characteristics and lost its tropical characteristics approximately 350 miles west of Sasebo, Japan. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Fung Wong.
By late last week, Tropical Storm Kammuri formed from a tropical depression approximately 320 miles northeast of Saipan. This tropical storm traveled toward the north-northwest over this past week. At the start of this current week, Tropical Storm Kammuri was beginning to curve toward the northeast. This projected track would take it well off the southeastern coast of Japan. Additional information on Typhoon Kammuri including satellite images is available on the NASA Hurricane Page.

Big increase seen in Bering Sea Pollock survey abundance estimates -- During the last week scientists from NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center announced that preliminary fish survey results indicate a nearly 60-percent increase in walleye pollock survey biomass in the Bering Sea. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Alaska's commercial and subsistence fisheries threatened by increasing ocean acidification -- A study conducted by scientists from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the University of Alaska and Woods Hole Oceanic Institution has found that ocean acidification appears to be responsible for changing ocean waters deemed vital to Alaska's fisheries, an industry that generates more than $5 billion in annual revenue and supports more than 100,000 jobs. The scientists warn that many of the state's marine fisheries are expected to face significant stress as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to climb as projected. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Arctic sea ice reaches its summer minimum extent, at sixth smallest on record -- Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center recently announced that on Wednesday, 17 September 2014, the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean reached its smallest extent of the year, with a size of approximately 1.94 million square miles (5.02 million square kilometers). This size was the sixth smallest extent in the record begun in 1789 with the start of extensive satellite surveillance [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Comparison is also invited between the long-term decline in annual sea ice coverage of the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere and the short-term increases in the sea ice surrounding Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Tree rings used to reconstruct 600-year marine environment of California coast -- An oceanographer at the University of South Carolina and his colleagues used tree rings as a proxy indicator to reconstruct approximately 600 years of history of the marine environment off the California coast. Their focus was on the cold California Current and the effects of upwelling, which helps bring cold, nutrient-rich bottom water to the surface to make the waters off the West Coast a major area for fisheries. They found that slow tree growth from the tree ring analysis corresponded to high fish populations and vice versa. Large, temporary drops in fish populations have occurred naturally in the past, but human activities might be making those events more frequent in the future. [University of South Carolina]
Global sea levels tracked over last five ice ages -- Using sediment cores obtained from the Red Sea, an international team of researchers has reconstructed a 500,000-year long time series of global sea levels that shows the variability of the sea level during the last five major ice age cycles. At the end of these cycles, the decay of ice on land appears to have caused global sea levels to rise at rates approaching 5.5 meters per century. The researchers also found more than 100 smaller events in which sea level rose in between the five major cycles. [University of Southampton News]
An All-Hazards Monitor-- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: The Ocean and the Global Radiation Budget

The ocean is an important player in the radiational heating and cooling of Planet Earth. For one, covering about 71% of Earth's surface, the ocean is a primary control of how much solar radiation is absorbed (converted to heat) at the Earth's surface. Also, the ocean is the main source of the most important greenhouse gas (water vapor) and is a major regulator of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), another greenhouse gas.

On an annual average, the ocean absorbs about 92% of the solar radiation striking its surface; the balance is reflected to space. Most of this absorption takes place within about 200 m (650 ft) of the surface with the depth of penetration of sunlight limited by the amount of suspended particles and discoloration caused by dissolved substances. On the other hand, at high latitudes multi-year pack ice greatly reduces the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the ocean. The snow-covered surface of sea ice absorbs only about 15% of incident solar radiation and reflects away the rest. At present, multi-year pack ice covers about 7% of the ocean surface with greater coverage in the Arctic Ocean than the Southern Ocean (mostly in Antarctica's Weddell Sea).

The atmosphere is nearly transparent to incoming solar radiation but much less transparent to outgoing infrared (heat) radiation. This differential transparency with wavelength is the basis of the greenhouse effect. Certain trace gases in the atmosphere absorb outgoing infrared and radiate some of this energy to Earth's surface, thereby significantly elevating the planet's surface temperature. Most water vapor, the principal greenhouse gas, enters the atmosphere via evaporation of seawater. Carbon dioxide, a lesser greenhouse gas, cycles into and out of the ocean depending on the sea surface temperature and photosynthesis/respiration by marine organisms in surface waters. Cold water can dissolve more carbon dioxide than warm water so that carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere where surface waters are chilled (at high latitudes and upwelling zones) and released to the atmosphere where surface waters are heated (at low latitudes). Photosynthetic organisms take up carbon dioxide and all organisms release carbon dioxide via cellular respiration.

Concept of the Week: Questions

If the ocean's pack ice cover were to shrink, the ocean would absorb [(more)(less)] solar radiation.
All other factors being equal, if sea surface temperatures were to rise, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolved in surface ocean waters would likely [(increase) (decrease)].

Historical Events

29 September 1959...Hurricane Gracie made landfall near Beaufort, SC with sustained winds of 97 mph and a peak gust of 138 mph. Ten people were killed in South Carolina and Georgia. As the weakening storm moved through Virginia on the 30th, the storm spawned an F3 tornado at Ivy, VA, which killed 11 people. On the same day, a storm produced 28 inches of snow in Colorado Springs, CO. (David Ludlum)
30 September 1932...Tropical cyclone rainfall of 4.38 inches at Tehachapi in southern California over 7 hours caused flash floods on Agua Caliente and Tehachapi Creeks resulting in 15 deaths. (The Weather Doctor)
30 September 1954...The USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, is commissioned by the U.S. Navy. In addition to breaking numerous submarine travel records to that time, the Nautilus made the first voyage under the Arctic sea ice at the geographic North Pole in August 1958, passing from the Pacific to Atlantic Ocean basins. The Nautilus was decommissioned on 3 March 1980 and is currently on display at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, CT. (The History Channel)
30 September 1997...Omega Navigation Station Hawaii ceased operation, coinciding with the end of worldwide Omega transmissions. (USCG Historian's Office)
1 October 1844...U.S. Naval Observatory headed by LT Matthew Fontaine Maury occupied its first permanent quarters. (Naval Historical Center)
1 October 1846...The British naturalist Charles Darwin, ten years after his voyage on the Beagle, began his study of barnacles, which was to appear in four volumes on living and fossil Cirripedes (barnacles). For his observations, he had a single lens microscope made to his own design. (Today in Science History)
1 October 1976...Hurricane Liza brought heavy rains and winds to Brazos Santiago, Mexico, causing a dam to break on the Cajoncito River, which killed 630 people as a wall of water crashed into the town of La Paz. (The Weather Doctor)
1 October 1893...The second great hurricane of the 1893 season hit the Mississippi Delta Region drowning more than 1000 people. (David Ludlum)
2 October 1836...The British naturalist Charles Darwin returned to Falmouth, England, aboard the HMS Beagle, ending a five-year surveying expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, that included visits to Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, and New Zealand. The information and experience obtained from this voyage led Darwin to develop his historic work on the theory of evolution and the 1859 publication entitled, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. (The History Channel)
2 October 1867...A hurricane struck Galveston, TX with a storm tide that caused $1 million damage. (Intellicast)
2 October 1882...A major hurricane struck the Louisiana Delta with 100-mph winds and 12-ft storm tide which inundated the bayous resulting in 1500 deaths. (Intellicast)
2 October 1898...A hurricane struck the Weather Bureau (now National Weather Service) hurricane observation post at Carolina Beach, North Carolina and swept away the office's outhouse. The storm became known as the "Privy Hurricane". (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
3 October 1841...The "October Gale," the worst of record for Nantucket, MA, caught the Cape Cod fishing fleet at sea. Forty ships were driven ashore on Cape Cod, and 57 men perished from the town of Truro alone. Heavy snow fell inland, with 18 inches reported near Middletown, CT and 3 inches at Concord, MA. (David Ludlum)
4 October 1582...The Gregorian Calendar was implemented by Pope Gregory XIII to correct for an increasing discrepancy between the leap year corrections of the Julian Calendar and the actual length of the year marked by the Earth's orbit of the sun. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, 4 October of this year was followed directly by 15 October, skipping over 10 days. (Wikipedia)
4 October 1869...A great storm struck New England. The storm reportedly was predicted twelve months in advance by a British officer named Saxby. Heavy rains and flooding plagued all of New England, with strong winds and high tides along the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. Canton, CT was deluged with 12.35 inches of rain. (David Ludlum)
5 October 1972...Heavy rains, mostly the remnants of Tropical Storm Joanne, fell across much of Arizona. It was believed to be the first time in Arizona weather history that a tropical storm entered the state with its circulation still intact. The center was over Flagstaff early on the 7th. (3rd-7th) (The Weather Channel)
5-7 October 1999...A storm southeast of New Zealand caused surf to reach heights of 12 ft along the south shores of all the Hawaiian Islands, flooding some roads and parking lots. The lobby of the Kihei Beach Resort on Maui and three ground floor units were flooded. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)