WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

28 December 2015-1 January 2016

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2016 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 18 January 2016. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sincerely,

Ed Hopkins and the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff

Items of Interest:

• "Marine snow" is described -- Scientists with NOAA's National Ocean Service have produced a 21-second video along with accompanying description of "marine snow," which is white fluffy bits of decaying organic material that falls through ocean water from near the surface to the ocean depths. These marine "snowflakes" can provide food for many deep-sea creatures. [NOAA National Ocean Service]
• It's Sure Dark in the morning! -- Have you noticed that if you are an early riser, that mornings remain dark and somewhat dreary although local sunsets are becoming noticeably later during the last week? During the last week of December and the first week of January, many locations throughout the country will experience their latest sunrise times of the year, even though the winter solstice occurred one week ago on Monday, 21 December 2015. The exact day for the latest sunrise depends upon the latitude, so you may want to check the date in your locale from the sunrise tables appearing in an on-line, interactive service available for the entire year at most cities in the United States. The reason for the late sunrise now rather than on the winter solstice is because the sun is not as precise a timekeeper as our watches. Because of a combination of factors involved with Earth's elliptical orbit about the sun and the tilt of Earth's spin axis with respect to the plane of the ecliptic, the sun appeared to "run fast" by as much as 15 minutes as compared with clock time in November. In early December, most locations experienced their earliest sunsets. However, with the approach of the winter solstice and perihelion (the smallest earth-sun distance during the late afternoon of 2 January 2016), the apparent sun slows during December and finally lags the clock by 12 minutes in February. Consequently, a noticeable and welcome trend toward later sunsets can be detected by the end of December, especially by those residents in the northern part of the country. However, the latest sunrises occur at most locales in early January, meaning a continuation of the dark and dreary mornings for another week or two.
• No additional "leap second" will lengthen 2015 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2015. Since 1972, "leap seconds" have been inserted on the last day of December 15 times, with the most recent occurrence on 31 December 2008 when the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. At the time, tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. In addition, a "leap second" has been inserted eleven times at the end of June, with the most recent one added on 30 June 2015. [US Naval Observatory]
• In close -- Earth reaches perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the sun (147.1 million kilometers or 91.2 million miles), on Saturday, 2 January 2016 at 2249Z (5:49 PM EST, 4:49 PM CST, etc.).

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- The weather across the tropical ocean basins in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere was relatively quiet during the last week as no organized tropical cyclones were reported.
• 'Tis the time for coastal flooding in California -- The state of California has been experiencing more than its usual frequency of minor nuisance flooding along its coast in December because of several factors described in a feature produced by NOAA's National Ocean Service. The current strong El Niño event has combined with the King Tides, or perigean spring tides that typically occur during December during the occurrence of new and full moons close to the lunar perigee (Moon closest to Earth) and to the winter solstice. Storm surges from recent storms along with higher global sea levels associated with changing climate also contributed to the flooding. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
• Aerial technology employed to help Beluga whales stranded in Alaska's Cook Inlet -- Biologists from NOAA Fisheries have been using a drone or unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with high-definition video capabilities to monitor the waters of Alaska's Cook Inlet, including Turnagain Arm, for possible live strandings of beluga whales, a not too uncommon occurrence. During the last decade, two to three mass strandings involving two or more of these endangered whales have occurred on average per year, especially during low tide along the estuaries to the south of Anchorage. [NOAA Fisheries Feature Stories]
• Shell Ocean Discovery competition launched to advance ocean technologies -- Recently, officials from NOAA and Shell Oil Company announced the launch of the $7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, involving a global, three-year competition that challenges teams to advance ocean technologies and create solutions that advance the autonomy, scale, speed, depths, and resolution of ocean exploration. [NOAA Ocean Explorer]
• NOAA Fisheries' "Top 5 of 2015" stories reviewed -- Scientists and officials with NOAA Fisheries recently posted the most popular top five stories and videos that had appeared on their website during the 2015 calendar year. This assortment of features included the status of US fisheries and of protected marine species such as sea turtles and killer whales. [NOAA Fisheries]
• New satellite to be launched soon to track global sea-level rise and improve hurricane-intensity forecasts -- NOAA officials recently announced that Jason-3, the agency's newest satellite designed to maintain long-term satellite altimetry observations of global sea surface height, is scheduled to be launched on the morning of 17 January 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This polar-orbiting satellite will continue maintaining observations of global sea surface height that began in 1992, permitting policy makers and regional planners to help coastal communities remain resilient to increases in global sea-level rise. Critical ocean data collected by the satellite should also help forecasters predict devastating hurricanes and severe weather before they arrive onshore. [NOAA NESDIS News]
• Erosion of salt water marshes can occur with moderate-sized storms -- Researchers with the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Boston University claim that their analysis of eight salt marsh locations in the US, Italy and Australia indicates that erosion of coastal wetlands can occur from waves accompanying moderately sized storm systems, and not just occasional major weather systems such as Hurricane Sandy. The team showed that tropical cyclones (including hurricanes) and other major extratropical cyclones (including powerful nor'easters along the US Atlantic Coast) contribute less than one percent of salt marsh deterioration in the studied marshes. The USGS has developed a numerical model called COAWST (Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport), which combines models of ocean, atmosphere, waves and sediment transport for analysis of coastal change. [USGS Newsroom]
• Impacts of Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Atlantic sea turtles assessed -- Scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science claim that the impact from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico extended beyond the Gulf and across the Atlantic Ocean. The researchers found that more than 320,000 juvenile sea turtles from populations throughout the Atlantic Ocean were likely present in the northern Gulf of Mexico during the 87-day oil spill and that negative impacts are possible on these populations. . Using the Global Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model, the researchers mapped the tracks of "virtual" particles back to the spill site to determine the probability of young sea turtles arriving to this area from across the Atlantic. The abundance of turtles in the vicinity of the oil spill was derived by forward-tracking particles from 35 major nesting beaches using knowledge of their population sizes, oceanic-stage durations, and survival rates.[University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science News]
• Salty sea spray appears to affect cloud lifetimes -- Scientists at Colorado State University reported recently that salt particles from sea spray play an important role in the formation of ice in the atmosphere, which ultimately affect the composition and duration of clouds. The presence of these ice-nucleating particles from sea spray is important for the planetary climate as they can affect precipitation along with the radiative properties of clouds. [Colorado State University Source]
• World's large lakes are warming due to changing climate -- An international team of scientists recently reported that the temperatures in 235 monitored lakes around the world have been increasing at an average rate of 0.61 Fahrenheit degrees per decade, which represents a warming rate that is greater than that observed in the atmosphere or the oceans. Some of the most rapid warming rates are occurring in North America's Great Lakes. The monitored lakes together hold more than half the planet's fresh surface water. Concern has been raised that this warming could affect aquatic ecosystems and water quality. [Washington State University 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]

Historical Events:

• 28 December 1857...The light was first illuminated in the Cape Flattery Lighthouse, located on Washington State's Tatoosh Island at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. "Because of Indian trouble it was necessary to build a blockhouse on Tatoosh Island before even commencing the construction of the lighthouse. Twenty muskets were stored in the blockhouse, and then the lighthouse work began." (USCG Historian's Office)
• 28 December 1903...An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the non-contiguous territory of the Hawaiian Islands. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 28 December 1908...An early morning earthquake under the Straits of Messina leveled cities in Sicily and southern mainland Italy, as well as producing a tsunami with 40-foot waves that inundated coastal communities. This earthquake, estimated to by a magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, and the resulting tsunami killed an estimated 100,000 people. Long stretches of coastline sunk into the Messina Straits and disappeared from view. A steady rain also added to the woes of the survivors. (The History Channel)
• 29 December 1897...Congress prohibited the killing of fur seals in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 1 January 1850...The lamp was lit at the first iron pile lighthouse in the U.S. built on Minot's Ledge, just outside the Boston (MA) Harbor. The Minot's Ledge Light, the first lighthouse in the U.S. to be exposed to the ocean's full fury, was swept away in a great gale on 16 April 1851. (Today in Science History)
• 1 January 1903...The first message telegraphed on the transpacific cable was sent from Honolulu, Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC. The Cable Ship Silvertown began laying the 2620-mile long cable on 14 December 1902 when it left San Francisco, CA and it completed the project following its arrival at Oahu's Waikiki on 26 December. The cable now lies abandoned on the bottom of the Pacific after being abandoned in November 1951. (Today in Science History)
• 1 January 1954...The "Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1948" commonly known as the "Revised International Rules of the Road" became law. These were a result of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1958...The U.S. Coast Guard ceased listening continuously for distress calls on 2670 kilohertz. Although the countries of the world had agreed at the Atlantic City Convention of the International Telecommunication Union in 1947 to use 2182 kilohertz for international maritime mobile radiotelephone calling and distress, the U.S. Coast Guard had continued listening on the old frequency until the public had had sufficient time to change to the new one. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1959...The U.S. Naval Observatory introduced the system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures. (Naval Historical Center)
• 1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1993...Cyclone Kina battered Fiji with wind gusts to 130 mph and heavy rain. Up to 21.65 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, resulting in the worst flooding in 60 years. Twenty-three people were killed and damage was estimated to be in excess of 547 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2 January 1998...Tropical Cyclone Ron (the Southwest Pacific's counterpart of a hurricane) destroyed most of the structures on Swains Island in American Samoa. The island's 49 residents sought safety in a concrete structure, which withstood the cyclone's 90-mph sustained winds. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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