WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

9-13 January 2017

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 23 January 2017. 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:

Perigean spring tide to occur early next week with full moon -- The moon will reach its full moon phase Thursday morning at 6:34 AM EST, 5:34 AM CST (or officially 1134Z on 12 January 2017). This full moon will occur slightly more than 2 days after perigee, when the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. [Fourmilab Switzerland] The closeness of the moon and increased gravitational pull will cause an increase in the height of ocean tides, resulting in what is called a "perigean spring tide" during this week (10-13 January). [NOAA National Ocean Service High Tide Bulletin]
Historic view of Earth and Moon from Mars -- A composite image was made of planet Earth and its natural satellite, the Moon, in late November from two images produced from data collected by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as this spacecraft was orbiting planet Mars. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- The weather across the tropical and subtropical ocean basins in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere was relatively quiet during the last week. However, the first tropical depression of 2017 in the western North Pacific basin formed over this past weekend approximately 600 miles to the southeast of Manila in the Philippines. Identified as Tropical Depression 1W (TD 1W), this low pressure system tracked to the northwest and then to the west-northwest reaching the eastern coast of the Philippine island of Mindanao as of late Sunday (local time). At that time, TD 1W was located approximately 470 miles east of Puerto Princesa on Palawan Island in the western Philippines. Current forecasts indicate that TD 1W would not strengthen into a tropical storm as it would continue traveling westward and pass near Puerto Princesa late Tuesday before dissipating over the South China Sea by midweek.
Hurricanes making US landfalls are weaker during active Atlantic hurricane periods -- A scientist with NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has found that a protective barrier of vertical wind shear and lower ocean temperatures forms along the US East Coast during periods of greater Atlantic hurricane activity, which serves to weaken the tropical cyclones as they approach land. Conversely, during periods of low hurricane activity, sea surface temperatures are lower and wind shear is stronger, tending to lead to hurricane intensification. [NOAA NCEI News]
Hurricanes making US landfalls are weaker during active Atlantic hurricane periods -- A scientist with NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has found that a protective barrier of vertical wind shear and lower ocean temperatures forms along the US East Coast during periods of greater Atlantic hurricane activity, which serves to weaken the tropical cyclones as they approach land. Conversely, during periods of low hurricane activity, sea surface temperatures are lower and wind shear is stronger, tending to lead to hurricane intensification. [NOAA NCEI News]
Atmospheric rivers cross central Pacific heading for North American West Coast -- An image was made of the "total precipitable water," or the vertical depth of liquid water that would be condensed out of a column of water vapor in the atmosphere with a unit cross-sectional area, found across the central North Pacific Ocean early last week. This image, obtained from satellite observations, shows several bands containing large quantities of water vapor as indicated by high precipitable water levels running generally from west to east just north of the equator. These long plumes of high atmospheric humidity originating over tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific Ocean are called "atmospheric rivers" and are associated with the abundant amounts of precipitation that can fall along the West Coast of North America and the west-facing slopes of the Western Cordillera. The rain and snow from this atmospheric river could help reduce the long standing drought conditions across California and adjacent states. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Satellite altimeters show sea surface height changes as strong El Niño becomes a subdued La Niña -- Two images of the sea surface height anomaly (differences between observed and long-term average sea surface altitudes) across the Pacific Ocean basin were generated from data collected from altimeter sensors onboard NASA's Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites in January 2016 and in November 2016. The image from last January reflects the strong El Niño event that had developed by that time, featuring above average sea surface heights in the eastern and central Pacific due to warmer than average ocean temperatures and weaker trade winds, while below average sea surface heights were found in the western tropical Pacific. On the other hand, the image from this past November shows a muted La Niña as sea surface heights along the equatorial Pacific were slightly above average. Two additional sea surface height anomaly maps were also presented, with one from late December 1998 and the other from nearly two weeks ago. The image for 1998, obtained from data collected by NASA's TOPEX/Poseidon mission, shows an example of one of the strongest La Niña events on record, featuring well above average sea surface height anomalies across a broad region of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific. In contrast, the recent image (from the Jason-3 satellites) shows a mottled pattern of positive and negative height anomalies, suggestive of a weak La Nina event that was transitioning into an ENSO-neutral event (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) where neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions were present. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Future of Caribbean coral restoration science and practice addressed in meeting -- A three-day meeting of coral restoration scientists, resource managers and other practitioners was held last month in Ft. Lauderdale, FL month to address the rapidly expanding and evolving role of active coral restoration in the management of coral reef ecosystems. This meeting, called the "Workshop to Advance the Science and Practice of Caribbean Coral Restoration," was hosted by multiple NOAA program offices and consisted of approximately 100 people in attendance, along with another 100 people online through remote access. Seven key points of agreement were reached during the workshop. [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
Huge iceberg on verge of breaking off Antarctic ice shelf -- BBC News recently learned that a rift has rapidly developed on the Larson Ice Shelf C in West Antarctica during the summer month of December in the Southern Hemisphere. Currently, the ice shelf is barely being held to the Antarctic continent. Once broken off, the resulting iceberg would be about a quarter of the size of Wales and one of the ten largest ever. [BBC News]
Beluga whale migration impacted by Arctic sea ice loss -- A recent study by researchers from the University of Washington and colleagues from Alaska and Canada reveals that the annual migration of some beluga whale populations in the waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas north of Alaska is being altered by sea ice changes in Arctic due to changing climate. The changes in Arctic sea ice are manifest by later freeze dates in fall. However, the researchers found that other beluga whale populations do not appear to be affected. [University of Washington News]
"Global warming hiatus" is disproved for another time -- Researchers from the University of California Berkeley and the non-profit research institute Berkeley Earth have used independent data to confirm an earlier claim that no detectable slowdown in ocean warming had occurred in the previous 15 years, during a time span that has been called the "global warming hiatus" – a slowdown in the rate of the increase in global ocean temperature. A recent analysis indicates that modern buoys that are now used to measure ocean temperatures tend to report slightly lower temperatures than older ship-based sensors, leading to the "hiding" of the ocean warming. NOAA researchers correcting this "cold bias" concluded that the oceans had warmed by 0.12 Celsius degrees per decade since 2000, as compared with the earlier estimates of 0.00 Celsius per decade, bringing the rate of ocean temperature rise in line with estimates for the previous 30 years (1970-1999). The newer NOAA estimates are confirmed by the California researchers. [University of California Berkley News] Scientists from the United Kingdom's University of York also confirm this new assessment. [University of York News]
Working under the ice -- Two widely flung scientific missions are collecting data on conditions under ice:

Scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have deployed a high-tech mooring beneath the seasonally ice-covered waters around Antarctica to better understand ocean acidification in polar regions, particularly during the winter months. Autonomous sensors mounted on the mooring sensors measure concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide, pH, temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. The mooring is located in the waters off the West Antarctic Peninsula, within the study area of the Palmer Antarctic Long-Term Ecological Research program. [Virginia Institute of Marine Science News]
Scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have developed an improved technique that allows airborne ice-penetrating radar to reveal meltwater's life under the ice throughout the year. They have been studying the meltwater under the Greenland Ice Sheet. [Earth Institute/Columbia University State of the Planet]

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:

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)
12 January 1836...Charles Darwin onboard the HMS Beagle reached Sydney, Australia.
12 January 1937...A plow for laying submarine cable was issued an U.S. patent. Designed to feed a cable at the same time that it would dig a trench in the ocean bed, the device could be used at depths up to one half mile. The first transatlantic cable of high-speed permalloy was buried on 14 June 1938. The inventors were Chester S. Lawton of Ridgewood, NJ and Capt. Melville H. Bloomer of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Today in Science History).
12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
13 January 1840...The 207-ft long side-wheel steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound four miles off the northern coast of New York State's Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. Only four people survived. (Wikipedia)
14 January 2016...Hurricane Alex became the earliest recorded Atlantic hurricane to have formed in any calendar year on record. (National Weather Service files)
15 January 1833...HMS Beagle anchored at Goeree Tierra del Fuego.
15 January 1961...A powerful storm passed directly over one of the manned radar platforms in the western Atlantic that the U.S. Air Force had built throwing it into the sea and killing all 28 men on board. These platforms, built approximately 85 miles offshore, resembled oil rigs found in the Gulf of Mexico. (National Weather Service).