Weekly Ocean News

WEEK FIVE: 28 September-2 October 2015

Items of Interest

• String of cays in the Bahamas are recognized by astronauts -- A digital photograph made by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station in July shows a string of cays, or keys that are small, low-elevation sandy islands on the surface of a coral reef, in the Bahamas. The 9-mile stretch of cays in the photograph extends westward from Great Exuma Island are a recognizable point on Earth for orbiting astronauts. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• 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.

• Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week tropical cyclone activity continued in the Atlantic and Pacific basins of the Northern Hemisphere:
• In the North Atlantic basin, Tropical Storm Ida, the ninth named tropical cyclone of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, continued to travel toward northwest during the early part of last week before reversing course and taking a somewhat erratic course toward the southeast then the north and then northwest during the second part of the week, along with weakening to a tropical depression. As of this past Sunday, the raveled toward the west-northwest across the central tropical Atlantic over the past weekend. By Sunday afternoon, Tropical Depression Ida became a post-tropical cyclone or remnant low approximately 1020 miles to the east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands. This remnant low should become dissipate early this week. Satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Ida are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• In the eastern North Pacific basin, a tropical depression formed over the waters south of Mexico this past Saturday afternoon and quickly Tropical Storm Marty by late evening. On Sunday, this thirteenth named tropical cyclone of the 2015 eastern Pacific hurricane season traveled to the north and north-northeast toward the western coast of Mexico. As of Sunday afternoon, Tropical Storm Marty was located approximately 235 miles to the west-southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. Current forecasts indicate Tropical Storm Marty approaching the Mexican coast and stalling before weakening during the first half of this week. Locally heavy rain was expected along the coast.
• In the central North Pacific basin, Tropical Depression 5-C intensified, becoming Tropical Storm Malia last Monday near the French Frigate Shoals to the west of the main Hawaiian Islands and northwest before weakening to a tropical depression and then a remnant low.
  The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Malia.
  A tropical depression formed to southeast of the Hawaiian Islands late last week. By early Friday (Hawaiian time), Tropical Storm Niala formed approximately 460 mils to the southeast of Hilo on Hawaii's Big Island. Initially, Niala traveled toward the northwest before abruptly making a turn to the west-southwest on Saturday. As of midday on Sunday, Tropical Storm Niala was traveling toward the west-southwest as it was passing 260 miles to the south of Hilo. Forecasts indicate that Niala should continue to travel toward the west-southwest during the early week and gradually weaken. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Niala.
• In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Dujuan formed last week from a tropical depression that had intensified into a tropical storm nearly 1000 miles to the southeast of Iwo To, Japan. Traveling to the west-northwest Dujuan became a Super-typhoon on this past Sunday (local time) as maximum sustained surface winds reached at least 145 mph (or a category 4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) as it was 250 miles tot he southeast of Taipei, Taiwan. Current forecasts indicate that Dujuan should pass over Taiwan early this week. Additional information and satellite images for Typhoon Dujuan are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• New sensors on Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain to provide better storm surge data for better evacuation planning -- A new water level monitoring station was recently installed by NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services together with NOAA's National Weather Service on Lake Pontchartrain just outside of New Orleans, LA. This new station employs two real-time microwave water level sensors to provide real-time water level data on western sections of the lake for improved storm surge forecasting. An existing weather station has been renovated with a modern meteorological sensor system designed to measure air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed/direction and precipitation. [NOAA News]
• Oceanic phytoplankton seen to be declining in Northern Hemisphere -- Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Universities Space Research Association have found that declines in certain types of microscopic phytoplankton algae such as diatoms have shown significant declines since the late 1990s. Significant losses were found in the North Pacific, North Indian and Equatorial Indian oceans. These long-term declines were found from the results of a model run using NASA satellite data and indicate changing ocean conditions, due to natural variation or changing climate. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• Harmful algal blooms tracked in Lake Erie -- NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory (GLERL) has posted its HAB Tracker, a new experimental forecasting tool designed to aid local water managers in decision-making on harmful algal blooms (HAB) in the Great Lakes basin. Updated 5-day forecasts of potential bloom distribution and movement are produced daily from real-time data. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
• Humpback whales unexpectedly seen in the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River -- Humpback whales have been seen recently in the lower Columbia River to as far upstream as Astoria, OR. According to a NOAA Fisheries biologist, as many as several dozen whales were in search of food and the this summer's reduced river flow along with above average warm ocean waters in the eastern North Pacific have caused their food supply in fish to move farther upstream. [KGW.com News]
• Doubling of frequency in future extreme Pacific sea-level events anticipated -- Recent analysis of tide-gauge data and simulations using computer modeling experiments have led scientists at the University of Hawaii and Manoa and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to warn that more frequent extreme interannual swings in the levels of the Pacific Ocean. They claim that in addition to the gradual sea level rise stemming from warming oceans and melting ice caps, enhanced El Niño and La Niña events in the future could result in more extreme sea level occurrences could occur, especially in the tropical southwestern Pacific. These extreme sea level events could impact vulnerable coastal communities. [University of Hawaii News]
  In another study, a team of scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and several academic research institutions in Australia project that an upsurge of severe El Niño and La Niña events will cause an increase in storm events leading to extreme coastal flooding and erosion in populated regions across the Pacific Ocean. [USGS Newsroom]
• Parallel science campaigns to be flown over both polar regions -- NASA is conducting overlapping science campaigns called Operation IceBridge in both Antarctica and the Arctic that are designed as part of its airborne survey of changes in Earth's polar ice. Beginning in 2009, IceBridge has studied Antarctic ice conditions in September through November, but this year a new field campaign has been added to collect measurements of sea and land ice in the Arctic to provide insight into the impact of the summer melt season. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• Model used to estimate Antarctic ice sheet melting -- Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and colleagues in Germany have developed the "Parallel Ice Sheet Model" run on the University of Alaska's high performance computers that simulates the movement and melting of ice in the Antarctic ice sheet. The researchers report that human emissions could raise the global temperature by 20 Fahrenheit degrees, sufficient to melt the ice sheet and rending an ice-free Earth. [University of Alaska Fairbanks 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]

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

1. If the ocean's pack ice cover were to shrink, the ocean would absorb [(more)(less)] solar radiation.
2. 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

• 28 September 1542...Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into present-day San Diego (CA) Bay during the course of his explorations of the northwest shores of Mexico on behalf of Spain. His landing at Point Loma Head apparently was the first known European encounter with California. Before dying on the Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara coast in January 1543, he had explored much of the California coast. (The History Channel)
• 28 September 1850...An Act of Congress (9 Stat. L., 500, 504) provided for the systematic coloring and numbering of all buoys for, prior to this time, they had been painted red, white, or black, without any special system. The act "prescribed that buoys should be colored and numbered so that in entering from seaward red buoys with even numbers should be on the starboard or right hand side; black buoys with odd numbers on the port or left hand side; buoys with red and black horizontal stripes should indicate shoals with channel on either side; and buoys in channel ways should be colored with black and white perpendicular stripes." (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
• 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)

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Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.,
email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2015, The American Meteorological Society.