WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

4-8 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.

Items of Interest:

• Tracking orbiting environmental satellites -- NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) posted a website that provides information that helps locate those orbiting satellites used to monitor the weather and other aspects of the Earth's environment. [NOAA NESDIS News]
• Top 15 images of Earth obtained from the Space Station in 2015 are selected -- A gallery of 15 digital photographs of Earth made by astronauts onboard the International Space Station during 2015 has been selected by NASA Johnson Space Center's Earth Observations team and posted. These images show a variety of interesting features of the planet's atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. [NASA Features]
• Finding the "ABCs" images of Earth from orbit-- The "NASA Earth Observatory" writer and social media manager has produced a gallery of 26 images obtained from NASA spacecraft during the that contain features in the Earth's atmosphere, oceans and on the land surface resembling each of the letters in the Latin alphabet. [NASA Earth Observatory]

• Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity was relatively limited to the Pacific basins in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during the last week:
  
  • In the North Pacific basin, a tropical depression formed last Wednesday approximately 1100 miles to the south-southwest of Johnston Island or approximately 1850 miles to the southwest of Honolulu. This system was identified as Tropical Depression 9C, as it was the ninth tropical depression to have formed in the Central North Pacific basin (located between 140 degrees West longitude and the International Dateline) during the calendar year of 2015. Surprisingly, this tropical depression formed at 2.5 degrees North latitude, which is unusually close to the Equator for most tropical cyclones. Tropical Depression 9-C failed strengthen as it traveled to the west toward the International Dateline before dissipating on New Year's Eve. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Tropical Depression 9-C.
    
  • In the South Pacific basin, a tropical storm formed last Wednesday east of American Samoa and the International Dateline. This tropical storm, identified as Ula, intensified to become a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it traveled toward the west-southwest and southwest late last week and into this past weekend. On Sunday (local time), Tropical Cyclone Ula was traveling to the southwest away from Fiji. Additional information and satellite images on Tropical Cyclone Ula can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Satellites detect a still-growing El Niño event aimed on US -- Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently reported that the latest image of sea surface heights across the Pacific Ocean basin obtained from the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 mission spacecraft bears a striking resemblance to one from December 1997 obtained by the NASA/Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Topex/Poseidon mission, Jason-2's predecessor, during the last large El Niño event. Both images reflect the classic pattern of a fully developed El Niño. The researchers foresee that the United States would continue to experience the impacts of this current El Niño event of the next several months. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
• Sea-level projection planning tool for "Lower 48" states completed with coastal Louisiana section -- NOAA's Office for Coastal Management recently announced that their "Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer" has been updated to include the Louisiana Gulf Coast, which expands coverage of this viewer tool coverage to include all coastal U.S. states and territories, except for Alaska where gaps in the underlying geospatial and mapping data remain. This Sea Level Rise Viewer, found on NOAA's Digital Coast, permits users the opportunity to assess their risks for coastal flooding under a variety of different scenarios.[NOAA News]
• Funding given to support Louisiana wetlands restoration -- NOAA officials recently announced that $23.7 million was being awarded for funding the Oyster Bayou Marsh restoration project along the Louisiana coast. This project, which is funded under the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act Program, is for restoration of 600 acres of marsh habitat that had been destroyed by Hurricanes Rita and Ike. [NOAA Fisheries Habitat Conservation Highlights]
• Economic impact of recreation in national marine sanctuaries along north central California coast highlighted -- The NOAA National Ocean Service's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries recently released a report that identified the economic impact provided by the various types of recreational activities available in four national marine sanctuaries located along California's northern and central coasts: Cordell Bank, Greater Farallones, Monterey Bay and Channel Island National Marine Sanctuaries. The report noted that $127 million was spent by visitors in Greater Farallones and the northern portion of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries for non-consumptive recreation activities and supported nearly 1700 jobs in 2011. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries News]
• Exploring ice and sea level change through time with a new app -- The education coordinator at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and her colleagues have designed and made available a new free mobile application (or app) for the iPad called "Polar Explorer: Sea Level" that allows the user to learn about sea level and the various processes that control the location of the shoreline. (A version of the app for iphones will be available shortly.) A series of maps of the planet are available on this app, ranging from the deepest ocean trenches to the ice at the poles. Users, ranging from students to interested adults, can see how ice, the oceans, precipitation and temperatures have changed over time and listen as scientists explain the reasons for these variations. A browser version of the Polar Explorer App is available from a companion web page for use in class rooms and seminars:[Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory News]
• Satellites measuring sea surface height help determine Earth's gravity field and seafloor features -- Scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography have been using data collected from orbiting satellites to not only determine the shape and gravity field of Earth, but also the depths of the planet's ocean basins. These scientists have generated maps of gravity anomaly for each of the ocean basins, which then can be used to produce bathymetry maps showing underwater ridges, seamounts, and the edges of Earth's tectonic plates where seafloor gravity anomalies are positive (gravity is stronger than average) and deep troughs on the ocean floor where negative anomalies are detected. Satellite altimetry data were obtained from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 and from the NASA/Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Jason-1 satellites. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• 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:

• 4 January 1493...The explorer, Christopher Columbus, began his return to Spain and completed his first journey to the New World. (Wikipedia)
• 5 January 1841...The British explorer, James Clark Ross, was the first to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica.
• 5 January 1875...CDR Edward Lull, USN, began an expedition to locate the best ship canal route across Panama. This route was followed 30 years later. (Naval Historical Center)
• 5 January 1903...The general public could use the San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable across the Pacific cable for the very first time.
• 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)
• 6 January 2006...Tropical Storm Zeta dissipated after having formed on 29 December, marking an end to the 2005 hurricane season. It was the 30th storm of the record-breaking season, and one of only two tropical storms on record to span two calendar years (with Hurricane Alice in 1954-55) (National Weather Service files).
• 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 1966...The greatest 24-hour rainfall associated with a tropical cyclone occurred at La Reunion Island when Tropical Cyclone Denise produced 72.0 inches of rain. The storm also set the world's 12-hour rainfall record with an even 45 inches. (National Weather Service files)
  
• 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)
• 9 January 1963...Huge swells broke on a bar near Lagoa do Santos Andres, Portugal. An enormous wave surged into the lagoon carrying 80 people into the ocean drowning 17. (National Weather Service files)

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Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@aos.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2016, The American Meteorological Society.