Weekly Ocean News

WEEK SEVEN: 19-23 October 2015

For Your Information

• Fisheries scientists interviewed on shellfish aquaculture -- As part of this month's celebration of National Seafood Month, two research scientists from NOAA's Fisheries will be interviewed this Monday afternoon (19 October) on the "Ask Me Anything (AMA)-Reddit" website about their work to insure that shellfish aquaculture can contribute to the restoration of the nation's bays and estuaries. The title of this interview is "The Hidden Powers of Shellfish Aquaculture." [NOAA Fisheries Feature Stories]
• GOES series of environmental satellites celebrates 40th anniversary -- Last Friday (16 October) marked the 40th anniversary of the launch of the first in the series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), which was identified as GOES-1. This satellite, the first of 15 satellites to be part of the GOES series, was launched on 16 October 1975 by NASA into geosynchronous orbit around planet Earth and operated by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). Sensors onboard these satellites collect and transmit a nearly continuous stream of environmental data to ground-based receiving stations for use in monitoring weather systems, especially severe weather events, weather forecasting and meteorological research. [NOAA NESDIS News] or [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• Ten-part "When Nature Strikes" video series released for classroom use -- The National Science Foundation has partnered with the Weather Channel and NBC Learn to produce a 10-part video series called "When Nature Strikes: Science of Natural Disasters" that is intended for earth science teachers to use in the classroom. Topics include earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, flash floods, tornadoes, space weather and tsunamis. [National Science Foundation News]
• Oceanographic expeditions that made an impact -- This week's Supplemental Information ... In Greater Depth provides a historical perspective of some of the oceanographic expeditions that made an impact upon science, especially in terms of oceanography.

• Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week tropical cyclone activity continued in the Pacific basin:
• In the eastern North Pacific basin, a tropical depression formed during the middle part of last week that eventually became Tropical Storm Olaf on Friday evening as it traveled westward.
  By early Sunday morning, Olaf became the eleventh hurricane of the 2015 eastern Pacific hurricane season. As of Sunday afternoon, Hurricane Olaf was located more than 1800 miles to the west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula or approximately 1550 miles to the east-southeast of Hawaii's Big Island.
• In the central North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Nora traveled toward the west-northwest through most of last week, weakening to a tropical depression and then dissipating by early Thursday.
• In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Koppu strengthened as it headed for the Philippines last week, becoming a super typhoon by this past weekend as maximum sustained surface winds reached 150 mph, which would be a category 4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Early Sunday morning, Super-typhoon Koppu made landfall on the northern Philippine Island of Luzon, accompanied by heavy rain, strong winds and high seas. [CNN News] At least two people were killed and more than 16,000 people displaced.  After crossing Luzon, Koppu moved out over the South China Sea. As of Monday (local time), Koppu was located approximately 175 miles to the north-northwest of Manila, Philippines. This typhoon was forecast to turn head north along the coast of Luzon early this week. Additional information and satellite imagery on Super-typhoon Koppu is available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Typhoon Champi gained strength as it traveled westward across the western Pacific during this week, becoming a super typhoon on Sunday with maximum surface wind speeds reaching 130 mph (or equivalent to a category 4 typhoon). As of Monday, Super typhoon Champi was located approximately miles to the south-southwest of Iwo To, Japan. Current forecasts indicate that Typhoon Champi would curve and travel toward the north during the early part of this upcoming week. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite imagery and additional information on Super-typhoon Champi.
• In the western South Pacific, Tropical Storm 2P formed later last week to the north-northeast of Fiji. This tropical storm moved to the southwest, but after nearly three days it dissipated. See NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and a satellite image on Tropical Storm 2P.
• Maps provide graphical evidence of ocean acidification -- A team of scientists from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program, the University of Maryland and the University of Washington has produced maps displaying the global distribution of aragonite saturation in surface and surface waters, showing areas that are most vulnerable to ocean acidification. (Aragonite is a calcium carbonate mineral that shellfish use to build their shells.) These maps identify the Arctic and Antarctic oceans, and the upwelling ocean waters off the west coasts of North America, South America and Africa as regions that are especially vulnerable to ocean acidification. [NOAA NCEI News]
• This year's damage by global coral bleaching events revealed by survey photographs - Earlier this month NOAA officials announced that a global coral bleaching event was currently underway, with the bleaching a large percentage of the world's coral reefs due to heat stress caused by higher than normal ocean temperatures. This year's event represents only the third-ever worldwide bleaching event in recorded history, following devastating events in 2010 and 1998. Ocean scientists and community-based monitoring teams at NOAA, the global science and communication project called XL Catlin Seaview Survey, Australia's University of Queensland and the non-profit Reef Check organization have been collecting photographs and videos that are intended to verify that bleaching is occurring around the world. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
• Current El Niño event continues to strengthen -- NOAA and NASA scientists recently confirmed that the current El Niño event continues to strengthen and could become a strong event that would rival the historic 1997-98 event. They base their findings upon a variety of observations of sea surface heights and temperatures, along with atmospheric winds. These observations using the altimeter onboard NASA's Jason-2 satellite show October 2015 sea level height anomalies that are at least as large as those collected by the altimeter on NASA's TOPEX/Poseidon mission in 1997, which would indicate the waters of the eastern Pacific have as much heat content as 18 years ago. In addition, trade winds across the eastern tropical Pacific basin have also weakened. The July–September average of sea surface temperatures was 1.5 Celsius degrees above normal, ranking third behind the 1982 and 1997 El Niño events. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Current year's Antarctic maximum sea ice extent fails to maintain record high string -- A sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recently noted that although the sea ice cover on the Southern Ocean reached its annual maximum extent around Antarctica for the 2015 winter season (Southern Hemisphere) on 6 October, this 7.27-million square mile extent of ice cover was below the record maximum coverage set during each of the previous three winters. Apparently a strong El Niño event that is currently underway has contributed to the smaller extent of sea ice on the Southern Ocean this winter. In addition, this year's maximum extent was late, as the mean date of the Antarctic maximum over the 30-year span of 1981-2010 is 23 September. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Features]
• Watershed for Chesapeake Bay view from space -- A high resolution natural color image of sections of the Middle Atlantic States that include the entire watershed for Chesapeake Bay has been produced from 40 separate images obtained from data collected by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite. The mosaic image with 30-meter resolution should permit researchers to detect and track natural or human-caused changes in the landscape surrounding the nation's largest estuary through time. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Atmospheric features on Jupiter seen to change over time -- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have assembled images of Jupiter obtained from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on an annual basis as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program and have found that the Great Red Spot on Jupiter has been shrinking in size and becoming more circular in shape. In addition, this spinning vortex feature in the Jovian atmosphere likened to a hurricane on Earth, has become more orange in color. An unusual wispy filament has been seen, spanning almost the entire width of the vortex. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 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: Seiche Model

A seiche (pronounced "say-sh") is a rhythmic oscillation of water in an enclosed basin (e.g., bathtub, lake, or reservoir) or a partially enclosed coastal inlet (e.g., bay, harbor, or estuary). With this oscillation, the water level rises at one end of a basin while simultaneously dropping at the other end. A seiche episode may last from a few minutes to a few days. (Refer to pages 156-157 in your textbook for more on seiches.)

With a typical seiche in an enclosed basin, the water level near the center does not change at all but that is where the water exhibits its greatest horizontal movement; this is the location of a node. At either end of an enclosed basin, vertical motion of the water surface is greatest (with minimal horizontal movement of water); these are locations of antinodes. The motion of the water surface during a seiche is somewhat like that of a seesaw: The balance point of the seesaw does not move up or down (analogous to a node) while people seated at either end of the seesaw move up and down (analogous to an antinode).

Go to the University of Delaware's Seiche Calculator at http://www.coastal.udel.edu/faculty/rad/seiche.html. Set the "Modal Number" to 1 and then press "Calculate" for a graphical simulation of a seiche in an enclosed basin.

Partially enclosed basins usually have a node located at the mouth (rather than near the center) and an antinode at the landward end. Go to the Seiche Calculator, set the "Modal Number" to 0.5 and then press "Calculate" for a simulation of a seiche in a basin open to the right. Furthermore, some basins are complex and have multiple nodes and antinodes; these can be simulated on the Seiche Calculator by selecting different values of "Modal Number" greater than one.

The natural period of a seiche depends on the length and depth of the basin and generally ranges from minutes to hours. The period is directly proportional to basin length. For example, the natural period of a seiche in a small pond is considerably less than its period in a large coastal inlet. Also, for the same basin, the natural period is inversely proportional to water depth; that is, the period shortens as water deepens. Using the Seiche Calculator, you may wish to experiment with different basin lengths and depths. Conversely, one can determine the average depth of a lake by determining the period of the seiche and the length of the lake.

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. In an enclosed basin the node of a seiche is located [(at either end) (near the center)] of the basin.
2. The natural period of a seiche [(depends on) (is independent of)] the size of an enclosed basin.

Historical Events:

• 19 October 1843...Captain Robert Stockton of the Princeton, the first screw propelled naval steamer, challenged the British merchant ship Great Western to a race off New York, which Princeton won easily. (Naval Historical Center)
• 20 October 1892...After ten years of difficult and costly construction, the St. George Reef Lighthouse, built on a rock lying six miles off the northern coast of California, midway between Capes Mendocino and Blanco, was first lighted. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 20 October 1956...A German physician, Dr. Hannes Lindemann, began a voyage on which he would become the first person to cross the Atlantic in the smallest craft. Using a double-seat folding kayak that was 17 feet in length and outfitted with an outrigger and sail, he made the trip from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands in 72 days. He had made a prior crossing in a 23-foot African dugout canoe. He later wrote a book, Alone at Sea, describing his experiences. (Today in Science History)
• 20 October 1984...The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened on Cannery Row in Monterey, CA as the largest artificial environment for marine life, housing 500 marine animals from at least 525 species. The aquarium also supports active research and conservation programs. (Today in Science History)
• 21 October 1797...The USS Constitution was launched at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, MA. The ship, nicknamed "Old Ironsides," is now the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy. (Naval Historical Center)
• 21 October 1580...Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan on his famous circumnavigation voyage of the globe reached Cape Virgenes and the strait at the tip of South America that now bears his name. Only three ships entered the 373-mile long passage separating Tierra del Fuego (land of fire) and the continental mainland. Navigating the treacherous strait in 38 days, the expedition entered the South Pacific Ocean, which Magellan named "Mar Pacifico" for the relatively tranquil seas that he found. However, one ship had been wrecked and another deserted. (The History Channel)
• 21-26 October 1998...Hurricane Mitch, a category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale), developed as a tropical depression over the southwestern Caribbean Sea about 360 mi south of Kingston, Jamaica on the 21^st. It would intensify over the next few days to become the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, on the 24^th. By the 26^th, Mitch finally dissipated after remaining a category 5 hurricane for 33 hours. Estimated rainfall totals of up to 75 in. caused devastating flooding and mudslides in Honduras and Nicaragua for days. Estimated death toll from this hurricane was more than 11,000, the worst since 1780. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord Weather Calendar)
• 22 October 1988...A "nor'easter" swept across the coast of New England. Winds gusted to 75 mph, and large waves and high tides caused extensive shoreline flooding. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 23-24 October 1918...The Canadian steamship Princess Sophia carrying miners from the Yukon and Alaska became stranded on Vanderbilt Reef along coastal British Columbia. A strong northerly gale hampered rescue attempts, and the next day, the ship sank with the loss of the 268 passengers and 75 crewmen onboard. (The Weather Doctor)
• 25 October 1859...The Royal Charter Storm, named after the loss of the fully rigged ship Royal Charter off the coast of Anglesey, England, drowned about 500 people, along with the loss of gold bullion. The ship was one of over 200 vessels wrecked between 21 October and 2 November, with the loss of around 800 lives. This tragedy led to the introduction of gale warnings in June 1860. (The Weather Doctor)
• 25 October 1941...South Greenland Patrol expanded to include three cutters of the Northeast Greenland Patrol and form the Greenland Patrol. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 25-26 October 1980...The combination of unusually high tides and southeasterly winds gusting to 75 mph generated waves with heights to 25 ft, resulting in serious flooding, beach erosion and sea wall damage along the Maine coast. Wind damage was considerable and as many as 100,000 homes were without power for up to 40 hrs. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)

Return to DataStreme Ocean RealTime Ocean Portal

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