DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK ELEVEN: 19-23 April 2010

Note: The U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office recently changed its website at which its Gulf Stream products can be retrieved. Refer in the AMS Ocean Studies Investigations Manual's Investigation 11A on page 7 to the paragraph following Item 22. Follow instructions until you have clicked through the Navy encryption acceptance process to the new product website. Midway down the white center section of the page that appears, click on Map Search. Then, proceed with the printed instructions as they are given in the Investigations Manual to find the appropriate near real-time Gulf Stream maps.

Item of Interest:

• Celebrate Earth Day --
This Thursday (22 April 2010) is the 40th Earth Day, first proposed by the late Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in 1970 as a teach-in to heighten awareness of the environment. In observance of the 40th anniversary, the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has posted a website called "Gaylord Nelson and Earth Day: The Making of the Modern Environmental Movement" that highlights Senator Nelson and his idea became Earth Day. A government website provides links to various activities and resources.
US Department of Commerce and NOAA officials will celebrate this upcoming week as Earth Week at eight of the 50 coastal and Great Lakes habitat restoration projects that have been funded through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and that are designed to create and support green jobs. [NOAA News] Several of the NASA centers have special Earth Day observances [NASA]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics ---
During the last week, no tropical cyclones were detected over the world's ocean basins.
• GOES-13 positioned to be monitor Atlantic hurricanes --
In anticipation of the upcoming 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, engineers repositioned NOAA's GOES-13 spacecraft (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) last week to a position over the equator where it will be able to monitor weather systems, such as tropical storms or hurricanes, over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, along with other weather systems over the eastern half of the United States. [NOAA News]
• European "ice satellite" sends first data --
Early last week, the ground controllers with the European Space Agency successfully received the first data obtained from the radar instrument onboard the Agency's CryoSat-2, which had been launched the previous week. This new polar-orbiting satellite is designed to monitor variations in the planet's ice cover. [ESA]
• Record high global temperatures for March 2010 --
Using preliminary data collected from the global network of surface weather stations, scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center report that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for March 2010 was the highest for any March since global climate records began in 1880. They also reported that the average ocean temperatures were also the highest for any March, while the global land surface temperatures for March 2010 was the fourth highest on record. Furthermore, the first three months of 2010 was the fourth warmest three-month start to a year (January through March). El Niño conditions contributed significantly to the warmth in the tropical belt and the overall ocean temperature. [NOAA News]
• Wandering manatee survives Florida's cold winter --
Biologists with the US Geological Survey recently confirmed that Ilya, a manatee that received the public's attention last summer, has been recently sighted off Miami’s Biscayne Bay. His identity was confirmed through the MIPS (Manatee Individual Photo-identification System) database. Some people were concerned as several hundred manatees died in Florida waters during this past harsh winter in the Sunshine State. After being rescued last summer from New Jersey waters, Iyla was seen off the Massachusetts coast near Cape Cod. He may have taken advantage of the warm Gulf Stream waters off southeast Florida during the winter. [USGS Newsroom]
• Oceanic data reveal an intensified water cycle --
Scientists at Australia's CSIRO/University of Tasmania, Quantitative Marine Science program report that their research of more than 50 years of oceanic data and of more recent data from the world-wide network of Argo ocean profilers indicates the world's water cycle has intensified as global air temperatures increased. They base their conclusions on changes in salinity patterns not only in near surface waters but in the deep ocean. [CSIRO]
• A case of "missing heat" could affect future climate outlooks --
Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) warn that current earth observation tools, such as satellite sensors and ocean floats, may be incapable of accounting for approximately half of the heat that the researchers believe to have accumulated in the Earth system during recent years. These researchers warn that this "missing heat", which may be building in the deep oceans, may adversely affect their ability to accurately predict future climates. [UCAR/NCAR]
• Exxon Valdez
oil spill continues to affect wildlife after two decades -- An international team of scientists recently reported that their analysis of various biomarkers obtained from wildlife populations along Alaska's Prince William Sound indicates that these populations continued to be exposed to oil spilled when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in March 2009. [Wiley-Blackwell]
• Oceanic "superhighway" for marine life discovered --
Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory have discovered what appears to be an undersea "superhighway" where tiny marine life forms are carried rapidly more than 300 km to new submarine vent homes along the East Pacific Rise. [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, drought, floods, 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, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek --
Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Living Coral and El Niño

El Niño episodes of 1982-83 and 1997-1998, the most intense of the 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 El 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/.

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. Most hermatypic corals thrive at an ocean water temperature of [(10) (27)] °C.
2. Corals [(can) (cannot)] recover from bleaching if high ocean water temperatures are not long lasting.

Historical Events:

• 19 April 1770...Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia. Cook originally named the land Point Hicks.
• 20 April 1534...Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, set sail from St. Malo, France with two ships to explore the North American coastline in an attempt to find a passage to China. In this first voyage, he explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
• 20 April 1952...The tankers Esso Suez and Esso Greensboro collided in thick fog off the coast of Morgan City, LA. Only five of the Greensboro's crew survived after the ship burst into flame. (David Ludlum)
• 21 April 1910...The U.S. Government took over sealing operation of Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea from private lessees. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 21 April 1906...Commander Robert Peary, USN, discovered that the supposed Arctic Continent did not exist. (Naval Historical Center)
• 22 April 1500...Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral became the first known European to sight Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. (Wikipedia)
• 23 April 1924...A tube transmitter for radio fog-signal stations, developed to take the place of the spark transmitters in use, was placed in service on the Ambrose Channel Lightship and proved successful. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 24 April 1884...USS Thetis, Bear, and Alert sailed from New York to search for Greeley expedition lost in the Arctic. (Naval Historical Center)
• 24 April 1928...The fathometer was patented by Herbert Grove Dorsey (No. 1,667,540). The invention measured underwater depths by using a series of electrical sounds and light signals. (Today in Science History)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.