DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK ELEVEN: 11-15 April 2011

Item of Interest:

• National Park Week --
The US Department of the Interior's National Park Service has designated the week commencing on this coming Saturday (16-24 April 2011) as National Park Week. The focus for this year's observance is "Healthy Parks, Healthy People," highlighting the connection between human and environmental health and the vital role America's national parks play in both. In observance of this event, free entry can be made to any of the 394 national parks in the system. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics ---
During the last week, the following tropical cyclone activity was detected over the world's ocean basins.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Depression 2W formed at midweek formed northeast of Saipan. Information on this system can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Earlier, Tropical Depression 1W weakened and dissipated over the South China Sea at the start of the week. The NASA Hurricane Page provides additional information on this depression.
In South Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Storm 20 traveled southwestward along the northwest coast of Australia during the early part of last week. This system had initially formed in the western South Pacific basin. Additional information and satellite imagery on the tropical storm can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Hurricane forecast update --
Last week, the hurricane forecast team from Colorado State University headed by Phil Klotzbach released its April update of their forecast of the 2011 North Atlantic hurricane season that officially begins on 1 June 2011. The team foresees a more active hurricane season than average due in part to warmer than average surface waters in the equatorial Atlantic. In addition, the current La Niña event should weaken, which would still favor an active Atlantic hurricane season. In this April update to their initial forecast made last December, the forecasters call for 16 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), with nine potentially becoming hurricanes. As many as five hurricanes could become severe, reaching category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. They also anticipate a higher than average probability of a major Atlantic hurricane making landfall somewhere along the coast of the coterminous US. [USA Today] [The Tropical Meteorology Project]
• Large storms in North Pacific seen from Space Station --
Photographs made by astronauts on the International Space Station three weeks ago show cyclonic (counterclockwise in Northern Hemisphere) cloud swirls around two low pressure systems that were located over the eastern North Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of North America. A visible image obtained from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite is provided for a larger perspective. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• [Editor's note: Special thanks goes to Terri Kirby Hathaway, LIT Leader and Marine Education Specialist for the North Carolina Sea Grant Program in Manteo, NC, for forwarding this article. EJH]
• New members of the hydrographic advisory committee announced --
NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, recently appointed nine new members to the Hydrographic Services Review Panel, a federal advisory committee that provides NOAA with independent advice for improving ocean and coastal navigation products, information, data and services. [NOAA News]
• Students nationwide participate in virtual undersea research in Hawaii --
Nearly 500 students from around the nation are participating in "Creep into the Deep: Virtual Research Mission to the Deep-sea" in which they communicate with University of Hawaii and NOAA's Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory scientists aboard the Pisces V submersible. These students are "virtually" participating with the scientists on the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory's 1,000th Pisces submersible dive via email updates, photos and video nationwide. [NOAA News]
• High-tech structure designed to protect nation's largest estuary --
The University of Maryland Solar Decathlon Team recently unveiled its entry called WaterShed into the US Department of Energy' Solar Decathlon 2011 competition. WaterShed is a high-tech structure that integrates a unique array of sustainable features designed to protect Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary. [University of Maryland News Desk]
• NASA's Aquarius readied for flight --
The NASA instrument called Aquarius designed to measure sea surface salinity from the Argentinian Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC)-D spacecraft continues to be tested and readied for the scheduled launch in early June from California's Vandenberg AFB. [NASA GSFC]
• Arctic sea ice mission nears completion for 2011 --
NASA's Operation IceBridge mission for 2011 are nearly complete as eight out of nine planned sea ice flights have been made as late last week from Thule, Greenland, with one additional flight scheduled from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. IceBridge continues to collect sea ice thickness data following the termination of the data stream from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) in 2009. [NASA Earth Science News Team]
• Thirteen-year SeaWiFS mission comes to an end --
NASA scientists and engineers have declared that the SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view-Sensor) mission has ended after a 13-year run following the loss of signals from OrbView-2 spacecraft, which carried the SeaWiFS instrument. The SeaWiFS instrument was the first to provide a measure of the planet's land- and water surface-based biological life based upon land vegetation and ocean color. [NASA's Earth Science News Team] [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Forecasting the drift of debris from Japan's tsunami --
Researchers at the International Pacific Research Center (University of Hawaii at Manoa) have used a model based on the behavior of drifting buoys to show the probable path of the debris across the North Pacific Ocean after the huge tsunami in March that was triggered by the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku Earthquake. The projection shows the debris spreading eastward and then southward over the next four years, being carried by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. [University of Hawaii at Manoa]
• Aquaculture pollution can reach distant shores --
Researchers from Stanford University claim that dissolved pollutants emanating from fish farms could travel as concentrated waste plumes for considerable distances across the oceans before reaching distant coastlines. [EurekAlert!]
• Mangroves can play key role in climate change --
Scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research and the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service warn that mangroves, store exceptionally more carbon than most tropical forests, are being destroyed from coastlines at a rapid rate causing significant emissions of greenhouse gases. They call for protection of mangroves as part of global efforts to combat climate change. [Center for International Forestry Research]
• Cause of long-term sand drift in Norway explained --
Scientists at Norway's University of Stavanger claim that the sand dunes along the southwestern coast of Norway developed because the sand has drifted for more than 9000 calendar years due to sea-level changes and human activities. [University of Stavanger]
• 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:

• 11 April 1803...A twin-screw propeller steamboat was patented by John Stevens of Hoboken, NJ. (Today in Science History)
• 11 April 1900...The U.S. Navy acquired its first submarine, a 53-foot craft designed by Irish immigrant John P. Holland that was propelled by gasoline while on the surface and by electricity when submerged. (Today in Science History)
• 13 April 1960...The Navy's first navigation satellite, Transit-1B, was placed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, FL and demonstrated the ability to launch another satellite. The Transit system was designed to meet Navy's need for accurately locating ballistic missile submarines and other ships. (Naval Historical Center) (Today in Science History)
• 14 April 1543...Bartolomé Ferrelo returned to Spain after assuming command of the ill-fated expedition of the Spanish navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (who died on San Miguel Island in California's Channel Islands). The expedition was the first known entry by Europeans into San Francisco Bay in the New World.
• 14-15 April 1912...The British steamer RMS Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. The collision occurred at about 11:45 PM on 14 April and the ship, which was considered unsinkable, sank in 2.5 hours during the early morning hours of the 15^th. Reports showed 1517 people out of 2207 onboard lost their lives in this accident. Because of this disaster, certification and life saving devices were improved and an International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the iceberg hazards in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct much of the effort. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office) A 21-year old telegraph operator at the Marconi radio station in New York City, David Sarnoff who became a pioneer in radio and television broadcasting, received and transmitted the distress calls from the Titanic. (Today in Science History)
• 16 April 1851...The famous "Lighthouse Storm" (a "nor'easter") raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed the 116-ft Minot Ledge Light at Cohasset, MA with the loss of its two keepers still inside. The lighthouse was the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean. The storm coupled with a spring tide resulted in massive flooding, great shipping losses and coastal erosion. Streets in Boston were flooded to the Custom House. (David Ludlum) (US Coast Guard Historians Office) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 16 April 1854...A furious storm that produced two feet of snow at New Brunswick, NJ also caused approximately 18 shipwrecks along the New Jersey coast. The immigrant ship Powhattan beached 100 yards from the shore. With rescue impossible, 340 people onboard lost their lives. "The shrieks of the drowning creatures were melancholy indeed." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 16 April 1992...The Katina P ran aground off Maputo, Mozambique, causing 60,000 tons of crude oil to spill into the ocean. (Wikipedia)
• 17 April 1492...Spain and the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus signed a contract for him to sail to Asia to obtain spices. (Wikipedia)
• 17 April 1524...Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, onboard the frigate La Dauphine "discovered" New York Bay. (Wikipedia)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.