Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK SEVEN: 16-20 March 2009

Ocean in the News:

International observances -- Several days during this upcoming week have been designated as special days that are intended to focus public attention on the environment and earth science:
- "International Polar Day" -- Wednesday, 18 March 2009, has been designated as the eighth quarterly "International Polar Day" with the focus upon the Polar Oceans. This observance, with activities continuing through the following week, will include topics on physical oceanography and marine biodiversity. [International Polar Day]
- "Earth-Sun Day"-- Since Friday, 20 March 2009 is the vernal equinox, the day has been declared Earth-Sun Day, which is includes a series of programs and events that occur throughout the year culminating with a celebration on the Spring Equinox. NASA will engage a worldwide audience in the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, with an emphasis on daytime astronomy.
- "World Water Day" -- Sunday, 22 March 2009, has been designated by the United Nations as the annual World Water Day, with this year's theme identified as "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities," which focuses upon transboundary waters and highlights cooperation on water management between countries. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will lead the activities of the World Water Day 2009 with the support of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Observance of World Water Day around the world arose from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. [UN-Water]
Eye on the tropics -- The western South Pacific basin remained active last week, as Tropical Cyclone Joni formed near the Cook Islands and became a strong tropical storm system. However, Joni weakened by the end of the week as it traveled southward. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite images of Joni.
Tropical Cyclone Hamish, which was a major category 4 cyclone on the Saffir Simpson Scale, took a somewhat erratic track to the southeast off the coast of northeastern Australia. Satellite images and additional information concerning Hamish are on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Recommendations made for New England fisheries --The Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General recently reported that NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center provides the best available science as it advises fishery managers with information that sets catch limits in the groundfish fishery, but the report recommends specific steps that NOAA needs to take to improve communication of the research results, as well as strengthening its relationship with the New England commercial fishing industry. [NOAA News]
New public service announcement warns against feeding wild dolphins -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently unveiled a new public service announcement that warns the public feeding wild dolphins is not only illegal, but is harmful to both dolphins and humans. [NOAA News]
Threatened species listing for Pacific smelt is recommended -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently proposed that Pacific smelt should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act as the numbers of this fish have decreased along the coastal waters of the eastern North Pacific from California northward to British Columbia. [NOAA News]
Request made to identify nationalities of vessels that fish illegally -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service will be conducting five public hearings across the nation that will seek public comments on the proposed rule to identify the nationalities of vessels engaged in illegal and unreported fishing or the bycatch of protected species. [NOAA News]
Environmental study of a California reserve fleet is conducted -- NOAA scientists recently completed their environmental study of the contaminant levels in the waters, sediments and shellfish surrounding the National Defense Reserve Fleet in California's Suisun Bay, finding that the levels of PCBs, metals and other compounds were comparable to levels at other locations around the San Francisco Bay Area. [NOAA News]
February 2009 was warm across the globe -- NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported that the preliminary combined global land and ocean surface average temperature for February 2009 was the ninth highest since comprehensive climate records began in 1880. In addition, the three-monthly average (December 2008-February 2009) corresponding to boreal winter was also the eighth highest on a combined global and ocean average temperature. The ocean surface temperature for February 2009 was the eighth highest, while the December-February average was the seventh highest. [NOAA News]
Ice remains on the Great Lakes -- Images obtained from the MODIS sensors onboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites during the first week of March showed large areas of ice on several of the Great Lakes. An image shows an extensive ice cover on Lake Superior, a somewhat rare occurrence for the month of March. [NASA Earth Observatory] Images of Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron along Michigan's Lower Peninsula made over a five-day span show how a wind storm help break up the ice on the Bay and produce dramatic ice shoves that damaged homes near Bay City, MI. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Lessons learned from Rita not practiced during Ike -- A new Rice University report suggests that this past fall when Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Gulf Coast, residents did not practice lessons learned from when Hurricane Rita made landfall in the same region in 2005. One of the reasons given for the fewer evacuations in 2008 was the difference in hurricane intensity, as Ike was a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as compared with the category 4 Hurricane Rita. [EurekAlert!]
New tracking technology may help depressed fisheries -- Researchers from Cornell University and their colleagues from other research institutions have been employing new tracking and observing technologies that can be attached to fish to help provide information as to fish migration. These new technologies could help marine conservationists and the research community with information concerning the reasons for declining fish populations. [Cornell University News]
New tools added to online portal for seamounts -- A partnership between the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts has provided new spatial searching tools that has expanded the usefulness of SeamountsOnline, a portal that provides deep-sea researchers with information on ecosystems that are located on seamounts (undersea mountains). [EurekAlert!]
"Eyes on the Earth 3-D" website is launched -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has added new interactive features to an expanded NASA Global Climate Change Web site, resulting in "Eyes on the Earth 3-D" that displays the location of all of NASA's 15 currently operating Earth-observing missions in real time. This site is devoted to educating the public about Earth's changing climate. [NASA JPL]
Current off South Africa may influence Europe's climate -- A marine scientist at Spain's Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona recently reported that her research indicates that the major Agulhas Current that transports warm water southward from the tropical Indian Ocean along the coast of South Africa contributes to the strength of the circulation in the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf Stream, thereby ultimately affecting the climate of Europe. Her research involved the radiochemical study of sediments under the Agulhas Current over the last 345,000 years. [EurekAlert!]
Shift in the wind could have released more carbon dioxide from Southern Ocean -- A team of scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory claims that an orbital-induced southward displacement in the prevailing westerly wind flow approximately 17,000 years ago could have caused increased upwelling in the waters of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica resulting in an increased release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which would hastened the end of the last Ice Age. [EurekAlert!]
Coral reefs could dissolve with increased carbon dioxide -- Researchers at the Carnegie Institution and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem warn that if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations reach levels double those of the pre-industrial age, coral reefs could begin dissolving in the world's ocean basins due to increased ocean acidification. [EurekAlert!]
A new look at marine phytoplankton -- Marine researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have been studying the biology and ecology of marine phytoplankton in the central North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, hoping to determine how these microscopic organisms contribute to the production of nearly half of the free oxygen on Earth. [EurekAlert!]
Changes detected in phytoplankton off Antarctica -- Marine scientists at Rutgers University and other research institutions who inspected 30 years of data collected from satellites and field studies concluded that amount of phytoplankton in the coastal waters off the northern section of the Antarctic Peninsula has decreased, while increases in phytoplankton have occurred off the southern sections of the Peninsula because of changes in the region's climate. [EurekAlert!]
Dust fall could be toxic to marine algae -- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Cornell University, the US Geological Survey and Israel's Interuniversity Institute of Marine Sciences report that while airborne dust from continents can provide an important source of nutrients for marine phytoplankton when the dust is deposited in the oceans, some of the dust can carry toxic elements that can kill the phytoplankton. [EurekAlert!]
Rise in sea level could have major global impact -- An Australian scientist recently warned that the rise in global sea levels during the 21st century could have a major impact around the world, with the low-lying countries to be hit hardest. [University of Copenhagen]
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: Seiche Model

A seiche (pronounced "say-sh") is a rhythmic oscillation of water in an enclosed basin (e.g., bathtub, lake, or reservoir) or a partially enclosed coastal inlet (e.g., bay, harbor, or estuary). With this oscillation, the water level rises at one end of a basin while simultaneously dropping at the other end. A seiche episode may last from a few minutes to a few days. (Refer to pages 156-157 in your textbook for more on seiches.)

With a typical seiche in an enclosed basin, the water level near the center does not change at all but that is where the water exhibits its greatest horizontal movement; this is the location of a node. At either end of an enclosed basin, vertical motion of the water surface is greatest (with minimal horizontal movement of water); these are locations of antinodes. The motion of the water surface during a seiche is somewhat like that of a seesaw: The balance point of the seesaw does not move up or down (analogous to a node) while people seated at either end of the seesaw move up and down (analogous to an antinode).

Go to the University of Delaware's Seiche Calculator at http://www.coastal.udel.edu/faculty/rad/seiche.html. Set the "Modal Number" to 1 and then press "Calculate" for a graphical simulation of a seiche in an enclosed basin.

Partially enclosed basins usually have a node located at the mouth (rather than near the center) and an antinode at the landward end. Go to the Seiche Calculator, set the "Modal Number" to 0.5 and then press "Calculate" for a simulation of a seiche in a basin open to the right. Furthermore, some basins are complex and have multiple nodes and antinodes; these can be simulated on the Seiche Calculator by selecting different values of "Modal Number" greater than one.

The natural period of a seiche depends on the length and depth of the basin and generally ranges from minutes to hours. The period is directly proportional to basin length. For example, the natural period of a seiche in a small pond is considerably less than its period in a large coastal inlet. Also, for the same basin, the natural period is inversely proportional to water depth; that is, the period shortens as water deepens. Using the Seiche Calculator, you may wish to experiment with different basin lengths and depths. Conversely, one can determine the average depth of a lake by determining the period of the seiche and the length of the lake.

Concept of the Week: Questions

In an enclosed basin the node of a seiche is located [(at either end) (near the center)] of the basin.
The natural period of a seiche [(depends on) (is independent of)] the size of an enclosed basin.

Historical Events:

16 March 1521...Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines. He was killed the next month by natives.
16 March 1834...The HMS Beagle anchored at Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands.
16 March 1889...A war between the U.S. and Germany was likely averted as a hurricane sank all three U.S. and three German warships in the harbor at Apia, Samoa. Joint U.S., German and Samoan rescue cooperation led to the Treaty of Berlin (1889) that later settled the dispute. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
17 March 1891...The British steamer SS Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar, killing 574 people. (Wikipedia)
17 March 1898...The USS Holland, the first practical submarine, was demonstrated by John Holland as it made its first dive in the waters off Staten Island, New York for one hour and 40 minutes. (Naval Historical Center)
17 March 1941...USCGC Cayuga left Boston with the South Greenland Survey Expedition onboard to locate airfields, seaplane bases, radio and meteorological stations, and aids to navigation in Greenland. (USCG Historian's Office)
17 March 1959...The submarine USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaced at the North Pole. (Naval Historical Center)
20 March 1866...The immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas left Liverpool, England, but was never seen again. The ship with 738 people was officially declared "lost" after 130 days. A message in a bottle was found at Plymouth, supposedly sent by a passenger. In July, wreckage was found around the Dingle coast in Southern Ireland.
20 March 2000...A large iceberg measuring approximately 170 mi by 25 mi calved off Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf near Roosevelt Island. The iceberg was approximately 2.5 times the size of New York's Long Island. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
22 March 1778...Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy sighted Cape Flattery, in present day Washington State.
22 March 1999...Tropical Cyclone Vance produced Australia's highest measured wind speed of 166 mph at Learmonth, West Australia. Gusts reaching 185 mph were estimated in the eyewall in the Exmouth Gulf. All homes in the village of Exmouth were either damaged or destroyed. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)