22-26 April 2013

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2013 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 2 September 2013. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

• Celebrate Earth Day --This Monday (22 April 2013) marks the 43rd Earth Day, first proposed by the late Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in 1970 as a teach-in to heighten awareness of the environment. 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. Several governmental websites provides links to various activities and resources planned for this week, including a website maintained by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NOAA has a Earth Day 2013 website that describes how this agency honors Earth through its mission to "observe, predict, protect our changing planet." In addition to information on nearly 100 public events around the nation, this site also has a link where the official 2013 Earth Day poster and computer screen wallpaper can be downloaded.
• National Park Week -- The US Department of the Interior's National Park Service has designated the week commencing this week (20-28 April 2013) as National Park Week. The focus for this year's observance is "Did You Know?" In observance of this event, free entry can be made to any of the 401 national parks in the system beginning on Monday (22 April) and running through Friday (26 April). [National Park Service Fee Free Days]
• National Science Bowl set for next weekend -- The US Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl®, a nationwide academic competition for middle and high school students will be held this coming weekend (25-29 April 2013) in Washington, DC. This event will test students' knowledge in all areas of science and is meant to encourage high school students to excel in science and math and to pursue careers in those fields. [DOE Office of Science]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- The weather across the tropical waters of both the Northern or Southern Hemispheres was relatively tranquil the last week. At the start of the week Tropical Cyclone Imelda weakened as it traveled to the south-southeast across the waters of the central South Indian Ocean, passing nearly 500 miles to the east of La Reunion Island. After briefly becoming a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale near the end of the previous week, Imelda weakened to a tropical storm and then lost its tropical characteristics as it moved south over cooler waters during the first half of this past week. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Cyclone Imelda.
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• Getting the scoop on bivalve mollusks -- Learn about bivalve mollusks such as clams, oysters, mussels and scallops that play important roles in aquatic and marine ecosystems by filtering the water and serving as habitat and prey for a variety of sea life. In addition, they have considerable economic value as seafood NOAA estimated commercial bivalve mollusk harvesting at about $1 billion annually in the United States harvest was estimated at 153.6 million pounds. [NOAA News]
• Report addresses effects of climate change on marine sanctuary in Pacific Northwest -- NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary recently issued a report that details the potential effects of climate change upon this sanctuary that is located along the coastal waters of Washington. The report used observations and scientifically based projection to identify how climate change could affect ecosystems within the sanctuary and adjacent coastal areas along the Olympic Peninsula. New management recommendations for the sanctuary were also made. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries]
• See NOAA science at the new San Francisco Exploratorium -- A set of exhibits has recently opened at the famous San Francisco (CA) Exploratorium that showcases the various areas of atmospheric and oceanic science undertaken by NOAA scientists. An Outdoor Gallery will feature a new rain chamber exhibit called "Remote Rains" and NOAA research vessels will dock alongside the Exploration. The new "Wired Pier" will have instruments that will collect and contribute data to the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). [NOAA Research]
• Global temperatures for March 2013 reviewed -- 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 2013 tied the temperature for March 2006 as the tenth highest for any March since sufficiently detailed global climate records began in 1880. The global temperature for March 2013 was slightly more than one Fahrenheit degree above the 20th century (1901-2000) average. The scientists noted that March 2013 was the 337th consecutive month in which the global temperature was above the 20th century average; the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985. When considered separately, the average land temperature was the 11th highest for any March since 1880, while the temperature over the oceans was the ninth highest for March. Sea-surface temperatures across the eastern half of the equatorial Pacific Ocean were slightly above average in March due to ENSO-neutral conditions (ENSO = El Niño/Southern Oscillation).
  The researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center noted the areal extent of the Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent in mid March. The areal extent of this sea ice for March 2013 was the fifth smallest since satellite surveillance began in 1979. On the other hand, the extent of the Antarctic sea ice was the second largest in the 35-year record. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate] [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory] A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for March 2013 is available from NCDC.
  
• Assessing the tsunami risk along the US East Coast -- A geoscientist from Boston College has been evaluating the possible risk that a tsunami could have on the US East Coast. He warns that the greatest threat of a tsunami would be one generated by an offshore earthquake along the coast from New Jersey south to New Jersey. [ScienceDaily]
• Recent Antarctic climate and glacier changes appear to be near "upper bound" of normal -- An international team of researchers from the US, France and the Netherlands report that the rate of thinning of the glaciers on the edge of the Antarctic continent has accelerated during the last several decades and have contributed significantly to global sea level rise. However, the researchers cannot confidently attribute the rapid and dramatic changes to human-caused global warming from their analysis of ice cores. Some of the largest Antarctic warming has occurred during El Niño events, where anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns result in a warm eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. [University of Washington News]
• Sea level rise could be slowed by reducing certain atmospheric pollutants -- Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) claim that cutting the emissions of four atmospheric pollutants could greatly slow the rise in global sea level by between 25 and 50 percent during the remainder of this century. The four atmospheric pollutants that were considered were methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon. [NSF News]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 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)
• 27 April 1521...The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines after completing nearly three-quarters of a trip around the world. One of his ships, the Victoria, under the command of the Basque navigator Juan Sebastiýn de Elcano, continued west to arrive at Seville, Spain on 9 September 1522, the first ship to circumnavigate the globe. (The History Channel)
• 28 April 1947...Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. The trip took 101 days.
• 29 April 1770...The British explorer, Captain James Cook, arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia. (Wikipedia)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2013, The American Meteorological Society.