Weekly Ocean News

25-29 September 2017

Items of Interest

September is National Preparedness Month -- The month of September has been declared National Preparedness Month (NPM), which aims to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all types of emergencies, including natural disasters. NPM is managed and sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Administration's (FEMA) Ready Campaign in conjunction with the Ad Council, A toolkit of marketing materials is provided to help promote the month and represents the lead on this campaign that was originally launched in 2004. The overarching theme for 2017 NPM is "Disasters Don’t Plan Ahead. You Can.," with an emphasis on preparedness for youth, older adults, and people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs.
Week 4 of the 2017 NPM (24-30 September) the theme is "Get Involved! Be a Part of Something Larger." [FEMA's Ready.gov]
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.

Ocean in the News

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity continued in the Atlantic and Pacific basins of the Northern Hemisphere during the last week:

In the North Atlantic Basin (that also includes the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico), Hurricane Jose, which had become a major category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale over the previous weekend, traveled toward the north approximately 300 miles to the east of Carolinas at the start of last week. Over the next two days, Hurricane Jose had weakened to a tropical storm. By Wednesday, Tropical Storm Jose was approximately 140 miles off the New England coast, before becoming a post tropical cyclone or remnant low by late Thursday night. As of early Friday evening, the remnants of former Hurricane Jose were located approximately 140 miles to the south-southeast of Nantucket, MA. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Jose.
Tropical Depression Lee weakened to become a remnant low early Tuesday morning (local time) approximately 1265 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands. However, this remnant low regenerated into Tropical Depression Lee last Friday evening over the central North Atlantic, approximately 940 miles to the east of Bermuda. By this last Saturday, Lee had strengthened to become a tropical storm once again. As of early Sunday morning, Lee had rapidly strengthened to become a hurricane as it was located approximately 860 miles to the east of Bermuda or 1370 miles to the west of the Azores. As of late Sunday night (local time), Hurricane Lee was heading toward the southeast as it was approximately 890 miles to the east of Bermuda. Lee was expected to begin curving to the southwest and west over the next few days of this week, remaining a hurricane as of Tuesday. See the NASA Hurricane Page for information on Hurricane Lee.
Hurricane Maria, the seventh Atlantic hurricane of 2017, was moving to the west-northwest toward the Leeward Islands at the start of last week. On Monday evening, an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft determined that Maria had become a category 5 hurricane as maximum sustained surface winds had reached 160 mph. At that time, the aircraft estimated the minimum central pressure to be 925 millibars (or 27.32 inches of mercury). Within an hour, the eyewall of Maria moved onshore over Dominica. Continuing toward the west-northwest and then to the northwest, Maria remained a category 5 hurricane through early Wednesday as it passed near St. Croix, before making landfall on the southeast coast of Puerto Rico as a category 4 hurricane by sunrise on Wednesday morning. Maria crossed Puerto Rico, accompanied by torrential rains and strong winds. This category 3 hurricane moved off the northwest coast of Puerto Rico by Wednesday afternoon. This major hurricane brushed by the Dominican Republic on Thursday along with the Turks and Caicos by early Friday. Turning to the north-northwest on Friday, Maria moved away from the Bahamas. On Saturday, Hurricane Maria was headed toward the north-northwest, passing to the east of the Southeastern coast of the US. As of Sunday evening, Maria had weakened to a category 2 hurricane as it moved northward, approximately 410 miles to the south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, NC. Current forecasts would have Hurricane Maria to continue its northward track for the first several days of this week, with a gradual weakening to begin by Tuesday. While this hurricane would remain well off the East Coast of the US, coastal flooding could be expected due to a dangerous storm surge and high astronomical tides due to the recent new moon. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite images of Hurricane Maria.
In the eastern North Pacific basin (to the east of the 140 degrees west meridian of longitude), Tropical Storm Norma, which had been a hurricane over the previous weekend, continued its travels toward the north well offshore of the coast of western Mexico at the start of last week. At that time, Norma was approximately 160 miles to the southwest of Cabo San Lucas, which is located at the southern tip of the Baja. On Monday, Norma weakened as it curved toward the west-northwest. By early Tuesday, Tropical Storm Norma had weakened to a tropical depression and by Tuesday evening, Tropical Depression Norma had weakened to a remnant low pressure area that was located approximately 370 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas. Satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Norma are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Hurricane Otis, which had become a category 3 hurricane at the start of last week, was moving toward the north, approximately 1170 miles to the west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas. On last Monday, Otis weakened rapidly, becoming a tropical storm by sunrise. By Tuesday morning, Tropical Storm Otis had weakened to a remnant low as it was 1235 miles to the west of Cabo San Lucas. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on former Hurricane Otis.
A tropical depression, identified as Tropical Depression 18E, formed this past Saturday afternoon near the coast of southwestern Mexico, approximately 75 miles to the west-southwest of Manzanillo. Moving slowly to the north and north-northwest, this system strengthened to become Tropical Storm Pilar by late Saturday evening. As of Sunday evening, Pilar was moving toward the north, being located approximately 20 miles to the northeast of Las Islas Marias, Mexico, an archipelago of four islands off the western coast of Mexico. Current forecasts indicate that Tropical Storm Pilar should continue to head toward the north-northwest and continue weakening to become a tropical depression on Monday and to a remnant low by Tuesday.
In the western North Pacific basin (to the west of the International Dateline), Typhoon Talim, which had become a major category 4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale during the previous week, had weakened to a tropical storm and then to an extratropical low pressure system as it passed across the main Japanese islands at the start of last week See the NASA Hurricane Page for more information on Typhoon Talim.

Monitoring torrential rainfall across Puerto Rico from space -- As Hurricane Maria traveled across Puerto Rico last week, NASA scientists were analyzing data collected by instruments onboard NASA's GPM (Global Precipitation Mission) satellite. Between Monday (18 September) evening and Wednesday (20 September) evening, as much as 20 inches of rain were recorded by the satellite, which were similar to amounts recorded by surface rain gauges. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Taking another look at Hurricane Harvey's record rains and catastrophic flooding -- A meteorologist with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center made an analysis of the impacts that Hurricane Harvey had on the upper Texas Gulf Coast, especially the Houston metropolitan area. In addition to describing the record rainfall that resulted in catastrophic flooding, he considered the probability of occurrence of such an extreme event. He also discussed some of the societal impacts. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Review of August 2017 (and seasonal) weather and climate for the globe -- Preliminary data analyzed by scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) indicated:

The global combined land and ocean average surface temperature for August 2017 was 1.49 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average (1901-2000) for the month, which makes last month the third warmest August since a sufficiently dense network of global temperature records began in 1880. When considered separately, the land surface temperature for this recently concluded month was the second highest August temperature in the 138-year record, with a monthly temperature that was approximately 2.11 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average. The monthly temperature departure of the ocean surface was 1.28 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average, which was the fourth highest August temperature on record. ENSO neutral conditions prevailed during August 2017, with near to slightly below-average sea surface temperatures found across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

NOTE:

NOAA Climate.gov News

A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for August 2016 is available from NCEI.
During the last three months, which constitutes meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere and meteorological winter in the Southern Hemisphere, the combined global land and ocean average temperature for 2017 was 1.46 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average, which also was the third highest for this three-month period since 1880. The June-August 2016 temperature for the global land surface was the second highest for any boreal summer in the last 138 years, while the ocean temperature was the fourth highest.
According to data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the average August Arctic sea ice extent in the Northern Hemisphere was approximately 24 percent below the 1981–2010 average, making it the third smallest August Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979. In the Southern Hemisphere, the August 2017 Antarctic sea ice extent was the second smallest August extent in the 39-year period of record.
[NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]

Sea ice on Arctic Ocean reaches its smallest seasonal extent -- During the last week scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the sea ice cover on the Arctic Ocean appeared to have shrunk to its smallest annual extent on 13 September 2017. Based on preliminary analysis of data collected by satellite sensors, the Arctic sea ice coverage on that date was determined to be only 1.79 million square miles, which would represent an area that would be the eighth smallest seasonal extent since satellite-based observations began in 1978. The lowest measured Arctic sea ice extent remains on 17 September 2012, when 1.31 million square miles of ice covered the Arctic Ocean. [NASA Earth Science News Team], [NOAA Climate.gov News] or [National Snow & Ice Data Center News]
Investigating the effects that El Niño and La Niña events play on winter jet stream and US climate -- A contractor with NOAA's Climate Program Office wrote a feature for ClimateWatch Magazine in which she describes with a pair of maps how the onset of an El Niño or La Niña event in the equatorial Pacific can impact the United States as a consequence of a marked shift in the path of the mid-latitude jet streams. These events that generate anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation regimes often have a greater impact upon the winter position of the upper tropospheric jet and hence, the weather and climate of the US during winter. [NOAA Climate.gov 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

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

25 September 1513...Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish conquistador-explorer, crossed the isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean, which he christened Mar del Sur (South Sea), claiming the ocean and all adjacent lands for Spain. (Wikipedia)
25 September 1939...A West Coast hurricane moved onshore south of Los Angeles bringing unprecedented rains along the southern coast of California. Nearly 5.5 in. of rain drenched Los Angeles during a 24-hr period. The hurricane caused $2 million in damage, mostly to structures along the coast and to crops, and claimed 45 lives at sea. "El Cordonazo" ("the lash" or "whip") produced 5.66 in. of rain at Los Angeles and 11.6 in. of rain at Mount Wilson, both records for the month of September. It was the only time in the 20th Century that the center of a tropical storm made landfall still at tropical storm strength on the California coast. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (National Weather Service files)
25 September 1956...The world's first transatlantic telephone cable system began operating (Clarenville, Newfoundland to Oban, Scotland). Previous cables had been limited to telegraph transmissions. (Today in Science History)
26 September 1580...English seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to circumnavigate the globe. He had commenced his voyage around the world on 13 December 1577 with five ships, but returned with only one ship. During his voyage in the Pacific Ocean, he paused near San Francisco Bay and then traveled as far north as present-day Washington State. He brought back valuable information about the world's ocean to Queen Elizabeth I. (The History Channel)
26-27 September 1959...Typhoon Vera ravaged Honshu, Japan, the nation's largest island, leaving over 5000 dead, more than 40,000 injured, 1.5 million homeless and 40,000 homes destroyed. It was Japan's greatest storm disaster to that date. (The Weather Doctor)
27 September 1854...After colliding with the French ship SS Vesta in dense fog, the American Collins Line steamship Arctic sank with more than 300 people on board near Cape Race, Newfoundland, marking the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean. (Wikipedia)
27 September 1922...Report on observations of experiments with short wave radio at the Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory in Anacostia, DC started US Navy development of radar. (Navy Historical Center)
27 September 1958...A typhoon caused the death of nearly 5000 people on Honshu, the main Japanese island. (Wikipedia)
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)
28 September 1994...The auto ferry Estonia capsized and sank quickly in rough waters in the Baltic Sea. It was reported that there were at least 6-foot waves in the area. About 900 people lost their lives, while there were 141 survivors.
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)