Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK FIVE: 23-27 February 2009

Ocean in the News

Eye on the tropics -- A tropical cyclone, identified as Tropical Cyclone 16 (also known as Hinna), formed in the central South Indian Ocean east of Diego Garcia over the just concluded weekend. This system had tropical storm force winds as it traveled to the southwest.
In the South Pacific, Tropical Storm Innis formed near New Caledonia at mid week and traveled to the southwest, weakening the following day. However, rain associated with the remnants of this system approached New Zealand by the weekend. Several satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Innis can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Features of NASA hurricane website highlighted -- Several features appearing on the NASA's Hurricane/Tropical Cyclone Web page make this a year-round resource. [NASA Hurricane Page]
Fisheries research vessel place on national historic register -- The NOAA Ship John N. Cobb, a former 93-foot long fisheries research vessel currently based in Seattle, WA, has recently been named to National Register of Historic Places, as it provides the public with a legacy of fisheries research for approximately 60 years. [NOAA News]
Decline of a tiny lake species could threaten Lake Michigan fisheries -- A recent research study from A research report published by NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory claims the recent decline of Diporeia, a tiny shrimp-like species, together with the explosive growth of quagga mussels in Lake Michigan has resulted in a decline of many fish and aquatic species in the lake. [NOAA News]
Eastern States loose coastal wetlands -- A report entitled, "Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Coastal Watersheds of the Eastern United States," was recently released by NOAA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service that documents a continued loss of the national coastal watersheds along the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico from 1998 to 2004. [NOAA News]
A review of January 2009 weather and climate patterns across the globe -- Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently reported that based upon preliminary data, the January 2009 combined globally averaged surface temperature that includes land and ocean surface observations was the seventh highest January reading since a sufficiently dense worldwide climate observing network was established in 1880. Although sections of Europe experienced the coldest January in 15 years, the land surface monthly average temperature was the eighth highest January average temperature. The global ocean surface temperature was the seventh highest January on record. The extent of Arctic sea ice was the sixth smallest for January since satellite surveillance began in 1979. [NOAA News]
Sea level rise associated with increased ocean temperatures monitored -- A researcher with the NOAA Ocean Climate Laboratory and the Director of the World Data Center for Oceanography recently reported on the thermosteric changes in global sea level over the last half century associated with thermal expansion accompanying increased ocean temperature. [EurekAlert!] [Note: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has steric sea level data on its GRACE Tellus site. EJH]
Past hurricane trends studied for possible future climate signal -- A researcher at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory who has been analyzing the number of tropical cyclones that developed in the North Atlantic basin during the last 130 years cautions that attempting to conclude that human activity, primarily associated with increased global temperatures due to the release of greenhouse gases, would be premature. He points out that while model simulations suggest increased temperatures could result in greater numbers of intense Atlantic hurricanes, the fewer hurricanes resulted overall. [EurekAlert!]
Report on monitoring climate change by satellite -- The Director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and the head of the new national climate service recently discussed the progress and challenges involved with assessing climate change from the collection and analysis of high quality global data obtained from nearly 50 years of environmental satellite observations. [EurekAlert!]
Melt rates of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets remain uncertain -- A geoscientist from Penn State University cautioned that while the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets are melting, the amounts that will melt and the time for melting to occur are still unknown, requiring improved interactive atmospheric and ocean models that better incorporate ice sheet behavior. [EurekAlert!]
Coastal erosion rates increase in northern Alaska -- A geologist with the US Geological Survey and colleagues have found that coastal erosion along Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast has dramatically increased between 2002 and 2007, threatening coastal towns and destroying native Alaskan cultural relics. The researchers propose that this historic increase in annual erosion rates could be attributed to a variety of conditions associated with declining sea ice extent, increasing summertime sea-surface temperature, rising sea level, and increases in storm intensity and corresponding wave action. [USGS Newsroom]
Florida reef fish decline documented on film -- A scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography has studied archival photographs collected over the last 50 years of "trophy fish" caught in waters off the Florida Keys and has concluded that the current decline in the apparent sizes of the photographed caught fish appear to be due to fishing's impact on marine ecosystems in the regional waters around coral reefs surrounding Key West. [Scripps News]
Waste from fish farms could pose a problem -- Researchers at Stanford University who have used a new computer model to assess how waste from increased numbers of marine fish farms could affect sensitive coastal environments warn that wastes appear to be carried farther and in greater concentrations than previously thought. [EurekAlert!]
Sea coral can change sex -- A researcher from Tel Aviv University has discovered that Japanese sea corals can change sex on the sea floor as a possible survival mechanism under increased stress associated with higher water temperatures due to global climate change. [EurekAlert!]
Arctic and Antarctic marine life have nearly identical species -- Researchers helping to produce the Census of Marine Life have discovered as many as 235 identical species in the Arctic Ocean of the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere, which is surprising as a 13,000 km distance separates both basins. These researchers also noted that some of the species migrated poleward in response to rising ocean temperatures. [EurekAlert!]
Rapid decadal changes in climate before Holocene -- A team of geoscientists from Norway, Germany and Switzerland who studied lake sediments from a lake in Norway have determined that very rapid temperature fluctuations occurred between 12,150 and 11,700 years ago, just prior to the commencement of the Holocene. They suggest that the fluctuations in the meltwater runoff from the glaciers were associated with the intermittent advance of the North Atlantic's Gulf Stream and changes in the extent of the sea ice. [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.

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

23 February 1802...A great snowstorm raged along the New England coast producing 48 inches of snow north of Boston and 54 inches of snow at Epping, NH. Three large (indiamen) ships from Salem were wrecked along Cape Cod by strong winds. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
24 February 1881...De Lesseps' Company began work on the Panamá Canal
25 February 1977...An oil tanker explosion west of Honolulu spilled 31 million gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean.
26 February 1935...Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) for the first time, using the BBC shortwave radio transmitter to successfully detect the distance and direction of a flying bomber during the so-called Daventry Experiment.
26 February 1938...The first passenger ship was equipped with radar.
27 February 1949...Aerial ice observation flights by long-range aircraft operated from Argentia, Newfoundland. An International Ice Patrol by vessels was neither required nor established during the 1949 season, and it was the first time that aircraft alone conducted the ice observation service. (USCG Historian's Office)
27 February 1988...A major rain event occurred across Saudi Arabia's Foroson Islands in the Red Sea and on the adjacent mainland around Jizon when 1.15 in. fell. The monthly average rainfall is only 0.02 in. On the following day, flash flooding south of Riyadh killed three children. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
28 February 1849...Regular steamboat service to California from the East Coast via Cape Horn arrived in San Francisco for the first time. The SS California had left New York Harbor on 6 October 1848 on a trip that took 4 months and 21 days. (Wikipedia)
28 February 1964...A world 12-hour rainfall record was set at Belouve, La Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean when 52.76 inches of rain fell. World records for 9 hours and 18.5 hours were also set with 42.79 and 66.49 inches, respectively. (Accord's Weather Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)
29 February 1504...Christopher Columbus used his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies. (Wikipedia)
1 March 1498...The Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama, landed at what is now Mozambique on his way to India.
1 March 1854...The SS City of Glasgow left Liverpool harbor for Philadelphia and was never seen again with 480 people on board.
1 March 1902...The first regular light stations in Alaska were established at Southeast Five Finger Island and at Sentinel Island--both on the main Inside Passage between Wrangell Strait and Skagway. (USCG Historian's Office)
1 March 1905...The first regular light stations in Alaska were established. (USCG Historian's Office)
1 March 1927...A system of broadcasting weather reports by radio on four lightships on the Pacific Coast was put into effect. (USCG Historian's Office)
1 March 1970...US commercial whale hunting was ended.
1 March 1977...The United States extended its territorial waters to 200 miles.
1 March 1983...A ferocious storm battered the Pacific coast. The storm produced heavy rain and gale force winds resulting in flooding and beach erosion and in the mountains produced up to seven feet of snow in five days. An F2 tornado hit Los Angeles. Thirty people were injured and 100 homes were damaged. (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)