WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

19-23 November 2018

This week is Thanksgiving Break for the Fall 2018 offering of this course. This Weekly Ocean News contains new information items and historical data, but the Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 11.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Week from the AMS Ocean Central Staff and Ed Hopkins!

Items of Interest

First images of Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific made by GOES-17 -- NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-17 satellite reached its intended operational position in a geosynchronous orbit of Earth above the Equator at 137.2 degrees west longitude last week. At that time, the GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) sent its first images from this location that will be the satellite's new vantage point as GOES-West beginning on 10 December 2018. In addition to a spectacular full disk image of the Pacific basin in natural color, some of these first images included close-ups of the Hawaiian Islands, a storm over the Gulf of Alaska and the smoke plume from the Woolsey Fire in southern California. [NOAA NESDIS News]
High tides expected along the West Coast this weekend -- The "High Tide Bulletin for the Fall of 2018" from NOAA's National Ocean Service has an outlook for higher than normal ocean tides between 23 and 25 November along the US Pacific Coast extending from California northward to Washington State and along the coasts of Alaska. These higher than normal tides are due to a combination of factors. A high astronomical tide called a perigean spring tide will occur at because of a full moon late Thursday night (22 November) followed three days later by lunar perigee next Monday morning (26 November), when the moon is close to Earth in its elliptical orbit. In addition, the anticipated development and strengthening of El Niño conditions tends to elevate sea levels in the Eastern Pacific. Higher than normal tides are not anticipated along the nation's Atlantic and Gulf Coasts or around the Pacific Islands at this time. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Species dominance and ocean properties -- Discover how variations in both the physical and chemical properties of ocean waters can be accompanied by changes in the dominance of the various species of marine life in this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Several tropical cyclones were reported over the tropical waters of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during the last week:
- In the North Indian Ocean basin:
  Tropical Cyclone Gaja was heading to the west-southwest across the waters of the Bay of Bengal toward the southeastern coast of India at the start of last week. Gaja made landfall early Friday morning as a high-end tropical storm near Vedaranyam, a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. As many as 45 people were killed by the strong winds, torrential rains and landslides that accompanied Gaja. This cyclone crossed southern India and then exited the Indian state of Kerala, moving out over the waters of the Arabian Sea on Saturday. As of Monday morning (local time), Gaja was a tropical depression that was heading toward the west-northwest approximately 910 miles to the southeast of Masirah Island, Oman. Current forecasts indicate that Gaja could continue heading generally toward the west on Monday as it weakens and then dissipates. Satellite imagery and additional information on Cyclone Gaja can be found on the NASA Hurricane Blog.
- In the South Indian Ocean basin:
  - Tropical Cyclone Alcide, which had been a high-end category 2 tropical cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) was becoming a post-tropical cyclone at the start of last week as it headed northward. By early Monday, Alcide had dissipated approximately 530 miles to the north-northwest of St. Denis on La Réunion Island. Consult the NASA Hurricane Blog for additional information and satellite images associated with Cyclone Alcide.
  - Tropical Storm Bouchra was drifting toward the east-southeast at the start of last week approximately 1150 miles to the east of Diego Garcia. Over the next several days, Bouchra slowly made a loop across open South Indian Ocean, well away from any populated land mass. By late Wednesday, Bouchra weakening to a post-tropical cyclone that was located about 570 miles to the northwest of Cocos Island, Australia. The NASA Hurricane Blog has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Cyclone Bouchra.
- In the western North Pacific basin:
  - A tropical depression that was locally named Toraji formed over the waters of the South China Sea late Saturday (local time). At that time, Toraji was traveling toward the west-northwest as it was approximately 300 miles to the east of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Toraji strengthened to a tropical storm, which was relatively short-lived as it made landfall along the central coast of Vietnam near Phan Rang City. After landfall, Toraji weakened. Remnants of Toraji were forecast to travel to the west-southwest across interior sections of southern Vietnam during the first several days of this week.
  - Another tropical depression, identified as Tropical Depression 33W (TD-33W) formed late Sunday (local time) over the waters of the Philippine Sea approximately 600 miles to the east of Davao City, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. By early Monday, TD-33W was 900 miles to the east-southeast of Manila, Philippines. Traveling toward the west-northwest, TD-33W was expected to strengthen to become a tropical storm as it heads toward the southern Philippine Islands.
More about NOAA's ENSO Outlook and the El Niño Watch -- An ENSO blog written by a contractor at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) for the ClimateWatch Magazine provides a non-technical description of why the CPC forecasters maintain that El Niño conditions have not arrived as of the end of the first week of November. Although the four areas of the equatorial Pacific used as ENSO monitoring regions had above average sea surfaces temperatures that would warrant a possible El Niño, several other atmospheric features have not changed as of early November to an El Niño. These atmospheric conditions not showing the official onset of El Niño conditions include the "Southern Oscillation Index" that is based upon the difference in sea level air pressure between Darwin, Australia and Tahiti, along with the "Equatorial Southern Oscillation Index" that measures the pressure differences between the western and eastern equatorial Pacific. Additionally, cloud observations based upon satellite measurements of the Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) do not show that El Niño were present in early November. However, she feels that the atmospheric indicators will show a change soon, reflecting the guidance provided by most of the numerical climate outlook models used by CPC forecasters to issue their El Niño Watch over a week ago. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
A California elementary school helps protect marine sanctuary's resources -- Students and their teachers from Gault Elementary School in Santa Cruz, CA have been removing invasive ice plant and replacing it with native dune plants from the nearby Seabright State Beach for the last five years. This school is part of the NOAA Ocean Guardian School program, in which K-12 schools from around the nation implement stewardship projects focused on watersheds, the ocean, and special areas like national marine sanctuaries. During the 2016-17 school year, 35 K-12 schools participated in the program, involving nearly 6700 students and 250 teachers. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries News]
Unprecedented number of right whale deaths mandates more caution when boating -- NOAA Fisheries and its partners are cautioning the public when boating on the waters of the North Atlantic off the U.S. East Coast to avoid collision with the endangered North Atlantic right whales. NOAA has counted an unprecedented number of right whale deaths in 2017 and 2018, when 20 right whale deaths were documented. North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate that just over 400 of these whales remain, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. [NOAA Fisheries News]
A changing climate could lead to an earlier Alaska pollock spawning season -- Researchers with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center of NOAA Fisheries recently reported that the spawning time of Alaska walleye pollock has varied by as much as three weeks over the past three decades in the Gulf of Alaska. Alaska pollock is the world's second most important fish species in terms of total catch. This study, which is based upon a 32-year data series, provides clear evidence that these changes in spawning time were driven by both climate and fishing. Increased temperatures mean earlier and longer spawning, although, above a certain threshold temperature, increased warming had no additional effect on spawn timing. [NOAA Fisheries Feature Story]
NOAA's 2018 Pacific expeditions are reviewed -- During 2018, NOAA scientists and partners conducted two lengthy expeditions across the Pacific Ocean. On the first mission, researchers onboard the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai surveyed coral reef ecosystems in American Samoa and the Pacific Remote Islands, taking a snapshot of the health and abundance of corals and reef fishes. The second expedition focused on cleaning up marine debris from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands was onboard NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette. During this voyage, more than 160,000 pounds of lost or abandoned fishing nets and plastics were removed from this ecologically and culturally significant area that is part of Papahanaumokuaea Marine National Monument. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Special Observing Period in the Antarctic is launched -- During this past week, a three-month Special Observing Period in the Antarctic was launched as a contribution to the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) to boost weather, ice and atmospheric observations in a remote area on Earth. YOPP involves the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and 20 other nations. It is taking place from mid-2017 to mid-2019 in order to cover an entire year in both the Arctic and Antarctic a wide array of partners around the globe. The current Special Observing Period has started near the beginning of meteorological summer in the Southern Hemisphere and involves atmospheric and sea-ice observations from different Antarctic land stations during terrestrial field expeditions and aboard research vessels in the Southern Ocean. More than 2000 extra radiosondes will be released from numerous meteorological stations to sample atmospheric conditions with altitude. [WMO 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]

This Concept of the Week is repeated from last week.

Concept of the Week: Living Coral and El Niño

El Niño episodes of 1982-83 and 1997-1998, the most intense of the 20th century, confirmed the connection between higher than average ocean temperatures and bleaching of hermatypic corals. (Hermatypic corals live in warm shallow water and build large reefs.) Water temperatures higher than 29°C (the normal maximum sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific) can trigger expulsion of zooxanthellae, microscopic dinoflagellates whose symbiotic relationship with coral polyps is essential for the long-term survival of coral. Without zooxanthellae, coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral's white skeleton, a condition known as coral bleaching. If maximum temperatures are not too high for too long, corals can recover, but prolonged warming associated with an intense El Niño (that may persist for 12 to 18 months) can be lethal to coral. Most hermatypic corals thrive when the water temperature is 27°C, but do not grow when the water becomes too cold. Although the ideal temperature varies with species and from one location to another, the temperature range for optimal growth is quite narrow--only a few Celsius degrees. This sensitivity to relatively small changes in water temperature is an important source of information on past climates as fossil coral is a significant component of many limestones. Evidence of bleaching episodes in fossil corals may yield important clues to past changes in the world's tropical ocean.

Coral, sometimes referred to as "the rainforests of the ocean," provides a base for local ecosystems and have many benefits (e.g., fisheries, tourism) that are important in many parts of the globe. Hence, vulnerability to El Niño-associated warming is an object of considerable scientific interest. During the 1997-98 Niño, NOAA charted significant coral bleaching from portions of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia, French Polynesia in the south Pacific, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, and around the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Closer to home, coral bleaching was reported in the Florida Keys, the Cayman Islands, and off the Pacific coast of Panama and Baja California. Fortunately, damage from the 1997-98 El Niño warming was less drastic than the 1983-84 El Niño when up to 95% of the corals in some locations died. Many of the corals damaged in the late 1990s have at least partially recovered including important reefs in the Florida Keys. For additional information on coral status, go to the NOAA website http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/.

Historical Events:

19 November 1493...The explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on modern day Puerto Rico one day after seeing it for the first time. At the time, he named the island San Juan Bautista. (Wikipedia)
19 November 1978...A waterspout came onshore to become a tornado near Muhio Wharf in Hilo Harbor on Hawaii's Big Island. Some industrial buildings lost their roofs. The proximity of the waterspout-tornado caused an airliner to change its landing approach to Hilo's airport. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
19 November 1996...The last component of the Confederation Bridge was placed that crosses the Northumberland Strait between Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island and Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick. This two-lane eight-mile long bridge, which was opened in May 1997, is the longest bridge over ice covered salt waters in the world. Ice covers the strait for five months per year. (Today in Science History)
20 November 1820...The 238-ton American whaler Essex from Nantucket, MA was attacked by an 80-ton bull sperm whale approximately 2000 miles off the western coast of South America. Of the 20 crew members that escaped in three open boats, only five survived the 83-day journey to the coastal waters of South America. The classic novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851) was inspired in part by the story of the Essex. (The History Channel)
20 November 1985...Kate intensified to a major Category 3 Hurricane and as she moved west of Key West, Florida with top winds of 115 mph and a minimum central pressure of 954 millibars or 28.17 inches of mercury. The next day Kate made landfall between Panama City and Apalachicola, Florida. Tides ran 8 to 10 feet above normal. Many houses were damaged by fallen trees. Many power poles and lines were downed. Several roads were washed out. (National Weather Service files)
21 November 1987...Truk Island (Federated States of Micronesia at 7.4 degrees N, 151.7 degrees E) was struck by the rapidly intensifying Tropical Storm Nina, as winds gusted to 95 mph. Five died, and most buildings were destroyed. A storm of such intensity so close to the equator is somewhat unusual. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
21 November 1994...Hurricane Gordon caused 1122 deaths in Haiti, mostly in mudslides. Eight died when Gordon came ashore in Florida as a category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph. Over 14 inches of rain fell at Fort Lauderdale. The storm caused an estimated damage of $400 million in the US alone. (National Weather Service files)
22 November 1992...Supertyphoon Gay generated gusts up to 120 mph on Guam in the western Pacific. Only one injury was sustained. Earlier, when at its peak approximately 1000 miles southeast of Guam, Super typhoon Gay had sustained surface winds estimated to 185 mph with gusts to 225 mph. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
23 November 1869...The clipper ship, the Cutty Sark, was launched at Dumbarton, Scotland. This three-masted and 212-foot long ship was one of the last clipper ships to be built and is the only one surviving to the present day, residing in a dry dock at Greenwich, England. (Wikipedia)
23 November 1912...The Rouse Simmons (also known as "The Christmas Tree Ship") was a three-masted schooner famous for sinking during a violent storm on Lake Michigan on this day. The ship was bound for Chicago with a cargo of Christmas trees when it foundered off the coast of Two Rivers, WI, killing all on board. (National Weather Service files)
23-24 November 1981...Typhoon Irma, the worst in 10 years, struck north central Philippines (mostly Luzon) with winds to 139 mph and a storm surge of 16 feet. More than 236 people died, while 600,000 were made homeless. Entire provinces were left without power or communication. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
24 November 1982...Hurricane Iwa lashed the Hawaiian Islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu with high winds and surf. Winds gusting to 120 mph caused extensive shoreline damage. Winds at Honolulu gusted to 81 mph. Damage totaled 150 million dollars on Kauai, and fifty million dollars on Oahu. The peak storm surge on the south shore was six to eight feet. It marked the first time in 25 years that Hawaii had been affected by a hurricane. (The Weather Channel)