Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK THREE: 9-13 February 2009

Ocean in the News

Eye on the tropics -- As austral summer continues, tropical cyclones (low pressure systems originating in the tropics) remained active across the South Indian Ocean and western South Pacific basins:
In South Indian basin, Tropical Cyclone Gael formed at the start of last week near Reunion Island and traveled west toward Madagascar. This system became a major tropical cyclone as it reached category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. As of Sunday, Gael had turned to the south and would appear to spare Madagascar. Additional information and satellite images on Gael are found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Late in the week, Tropical Cyclone Freddy (also known as Tropical Storm 14S) formed over the eastern Indian Ocean, less than 400 miles off Learmonth along the coast of Australia. This cyclone, with tropical storm force winds (with speeds between 39 and 74 mph), was moving westward away from the coast. Additional information on this tropical cyclone can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the South Pacific basin, Tropical Cyclone Ellie made landfall along the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia at the start of last week. Remnants of this tropical storm crossed northern Queensland and into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Locally heavy rains accompanying Ellie were reported across northern Australia. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite imagery and more information on Tropical Cyclone Ellie.
A new La Niña/El Niño alert system unveiled -- Late last week, forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center released a La Niña advisory under the new El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Alert System as part of their monthly ENSO Diagnostic Discussion. A La Niña event is associated with anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns that result in significantly below average sea surface temperatures the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, as well as other anomalous weather patterns elsewhere around the globe. The La Niña advisory indicates that La Niña conditions were expected to continue through April, with anticipated warm and dry conditions across southwestern and southeastern sections of the US, along with cooler than average weather across the Pacific Northwest and wetter conditions across the Ohio Valley. [NOAA News]
NOAA ship returns to homeport after servicing buoy network -- The NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown recently returned to Charleston, SC, its homeport, after a four-month mission in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that involved servicing the 70 instrumented moored buoys that form part of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array and provide meteorological and oceanographic data for climate studies. [NOAA News]
New polar orbiting satellite is launched for environmental surveillance -- At the end of last week, NASA launched a new polar-orbiting environmental satellite identified as NOAA-N Prime from Vandenberg AFB, CA into a 102-minute polar orbit around the earth. By late February, operational control of this newly-designated NOAA-19 satellite will be switched to NOAA as the satellite will collect weather and oceanic data to support NOAA's weather and climate monitoring and forecasting missions. [NASA Earth Observatory] [NOAA News]
How satellites monitor global sea surface heights -- A background article prepared by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center describes some of the features used by NASA's Jason-1, Topex/Poseidon, and OSTM/Jason-2 satellites to collect sea surface heights from all the global oceans. [NASA GSFC]
Online earth exploration tool dives into the ocean -- The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research has supplied oceanic information, data and images to Google Earth to create a new version of its popular online exploration tool called to "Ocean in Google Earth" [NOAA News] [BBC News]
Annual humpback whale count commences in Hawaii --Volunteers gathered along the coasts of four of the Hawaiian Islands one week ago last Saturday to count humpback whales as part of the annual Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Ocean Count. Two additional Sanctuary Ocean Counts will be conducted on the last Saturdays of February and March. [NOAA News]
New simulation model helps in California coastal emergency management -- Scientists at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science have created a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) for the area of southwestern California around Santa Barbara and Ventura including the sea floor of the neighboring eastern Pacific Ocean that is designed simulate the effects of tsunamis waves and coastal floods, which can then be used by local emergency managers to warn area residents of impending disasters. [NOAA News]
Investigation completed in the demise of sea lions in Washington State -- An investigation conducted by NOAA’s Fisheries Service into the deaths of six sea lions below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon last May indicates that the animals died from either heat stress or physical exertion, not from human intervention. [NOAA News]
A new equation of state of seawater proposed -- An international team of scientists from United States, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, Australia and China has proposed a new set of highly accurate formulae collectively called the "Thermodynamic Equation Of Seawater – 2010" that describes seawater thermodynamics. This proposed set would replace the International Equation of State of Seawater developed 30 years ago. [EurekAlert!]
Ancient mass extinction still felt in modern organism census -- Paleontologists at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkley, who examined the lineage of living marine bivalves as part of an international biological census claim that the evolutionary pattern of these organisms is still influenced by the mass extinction caused by an asteroid at approximately 65 million years ago, which marked the demise of the dinosaurs and signaled the end of the Cretaceous Period. [EurekAlert!]
Earliest evidence of animal life is found -- An international team of scientists including those from the University of California, Riverside and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims that finding the oldest evidence for multi-cellular animals in sedimentary rock strata in Oman dating back to 635 million years ago, or approximately 100 million years prior to the Cambrian explosion when animal life rapidly diversified. One of the researchers claims that climatic conditions concurrent with extensive glacial episodes between 1000 and 542 million years ago could have been responsible for causing a major altering of marine ecosystems. [EurekAlert!]
Antarctic sea life appears threatened by higher global temperatures -- A biology professor at Florida Institute of Technology warns that increased global temperatures could warm the shallow waters surrounding Antarctica, resulting in a major disruption in the primeval marine ecosystem communities. [EurekAlert!]
Amplified sea-level rise could follow West Antarctica Ice Sheet collapse -- Geophysicists from the University of Toronto and Oregon State University warn that projected increases in global temperature could cause the collapse and melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, resulting in an amplification of the rise in sea level across the Northern Hemisphere to levels not previously anticipated. [University of Toronto] [EurekAlert!]
Economies dependent upon fisheries could suffer from climate change -- A team of scientists at the WorldFish Center, the University of East Anglia, Simon Fraser University, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, the University of Bremen, and the Mekong River Commission has identified those nations in primarily in Asia, Africa and South America that are extremely vulnerable to projected changes in global climate as their fishery-dependent economies could suffer greatly due to adverse environmental impacts place upon their fisheries by the environmental changes. [EurekAlert!]
An All-Hazards Monitor --This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods, and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Report From the Field:

Terri Kirby-Hathaway, an AMS LIT leader and a marine education specialist with the North Carolina Sea Grant Program in Manteo, NC, reported that a right whale had been stranded along the North Carolina beaches at the start of February. Additional information can be obtained from a local television station at http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/Another_right_whale_stranded_. She also mentioned that several young harbor seals had also come up onto the Outer Banks beaches on the weekend and that she watched one for an hour on Sunday.

Concept of the Week: Sea Water Salinity and Carbon Dioxide

In view of the contemporary concern regarding global climate change, scientists are studying the various factors that govern the ocean's ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are on the rise primarily because of the burning of fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil, natural gas). Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas (an atmospheric gas that absorbs and radiates infrared radiation) so that higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be contributing to global warming. The ocean's role in regulating the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide depends on the temperature, salinity, and biological components of surface waters.

As noted in Chapter 3 of your textbook, gases are more soluble in cold seawater than warm seawater. Hence, changes in sea surface temperature affect the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide. As noted in Chapter 1 of your textbook, photosynthetic organisms take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen. And through cellular respiration, all organisms release carbon dioxide. What about the effects of changes in salinity on the ocean's uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide? Research from the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii provides some insight on this question.

Since the late 1980s, scientists have been recording ocean conditions at a site (dubbed ALOHA) about 100 km (62 mi) north of Oahu. In 2003, David M. Karl, a biogeochemist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, reported a decline in the rate at which surface ocean waters were absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In fact, in 2001, the rate of CO₂ uptake was only about 15% of what it was in 1989. Why the change in CO₂ uptake? In this region of the Pacific north of Hawaii, sea surface temperatures showed no significant change during the period of observation but precipitation decreased and evaporation increased. Less precipitation coupled with higher rates of evaporation caused the surface water salinity at ALOHA to increase by about 1%. Increasing salinity inhibits water's ability to absorb gases including carbon dioxide. Karl and his colleagues attribute 40% of the decline in the ocean's CO₂ uptake to the saltier waters. The balance of the decline may be due to changes in biological productivity or ocean mixing

Concept of the Week: Questions

With rising sea surface temperatures, the rate of evaporation of sea water [(increases)(decreases)].
With increasing salinity and constant temperature, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide that is taken up by ocean water [(increases)(decreases)].

Historical Events

9 February 1942...The French Liner Normandie, a 79,280-ton luxury ocean liner, burned and capsized in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship. (The History Channel)
10 February 1807...With the backing of President Thomas Jefferson, the US Coast Survey was authorized by Congress "to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States." The Coast Survey represents the oldest U.S. scientific organization to encourage commerce and to support a growing economy in a safe and efficient manner. (NOAA History)
10 February 1940...USCGC Bibb and Duane made the first transmissions as weather stations as part of the Atlantic Weather Patrol. (USCG Historian's Office)
11 February 1809...The American inventor, Robert Fulton patented his steamboat, the Clermont, for the first time, although he had made the first successful steamboat trip up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany, NY in 1807. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science)
11 February 1862...The Secretary of the Navy directed the formation of an organization to evaluate new inventions and technical development, which eventually led to the National Academy of Science. (Naval Historical Center)
11 February 1971...The US and the USSR, along with other nations, signed the multilateral Seabed Treaty outlawing the emplacement of nuclear weapons (or "weapons of mass destruction") on the ocean floor in international waters, or beyond a 12-mile coastal zone. (Wikipedia)
12 February 1907...A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a large schooner, the Harris Knowlton, during a blizzard resulted in the deaths of 332 people. Only nine survivors were rescued. The incident occurred off Rhode Island's Block Island and was the worst disaster in New England maritime history. (RMS Titanic History)
12 February 1997...A combination of heavy surf and high winds contributed to the overturning of a U.S. Coast Guard motor life boat (MLB 44363) on a search and rescue mission when responding to a distress call from the sailing vessel Gale Runner in the stormy North Pacific Ocean off Washington State's Quillayute River Bar. Three of four crewmembers lost their lives in the first fatal sinking of this type of ship in its 35-year history. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (USCG Historian's Office)
13 February 1784...Ice floes blocked the Mississippi River at New Orleans, then passed into the Gulf of Mexico. The only other time this occurred was during the "Great Arctic Outbreak" of 1899. (David Ludlum)
13 February 1969...The National Transportation Safety Board issued its "Study of Recreational Boat Accidents, Boating Safety Programs, and Preventive Recommendations". (USCG Historian's Office)
13 February 1997...Ocean swells generated by a storm well to the northwest of the Hawaiian Islands generated surf with heights to 20 feet and some sets to 25 feet along the northern shores of the islands. A professional surfer was killed by 25-foot surf at Alligator Rock on Oahu's North Shore. Lifeguards aided more than thirty people. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
14 February 1779...The famous British scientific navigator, Captain James Cook, Royal Navy, was killed by natives of the Sandwich Islands on the Kona coast of what is now the state of Hawaii's Big Island. His geographic discoveries and three scientific expeditions of the Pacific made him the most famous navigator since Magellan. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
14 February 1840...Officers from the USS Vincennes made the first landing in Antarctica on floating ice. (Naval Historical Center)
14 February 1903...An Act of Congress (31 Stat. L., 826, 827) that created the Department of Commerce and Labor provided for the transfer of the Lighthouse Service from the Treasury Department. This allowed the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to succeed to the authority vested in the Secretary of the Treasury under the existing legislation. (USCG Historian's Office)
14 February 1912...The first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned in Groton, CT. (Wikipedia)
14 February 1954...A waterspout was observed two miles east of Baranof, AK, an unusual occurrence for Alaska, particularly in winter. Just prior to the formation of the waterspout, a "terrific wind from the south out of a bay inside Warm Springs Bay" lifted water 20 feet and looked "as if it were boiling". (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)