Weekly Ocean News

WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK SIX: 3-7 March 2014

For Your Information

New climate change report released -- Last week, the US National Academy of Science and the United Kingdom's Royal Society released a new report entitled "Climate Change: Evidence and Causes" written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others. This 36-page pdf publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. In addition to this, a webinar was presented on the scientists' findings. [US National Academy of Science]
Biomixing in ocean motion -- If you would like information on recent findings that indicate marine organisms contribute to motion in the ocean, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.
Becoming AWARE -- NOAA's National Weather Service and its partner, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be observing "National Severe Weather Preparedness Week" that from Sunday 2 March through Saturday 8 March 2014. The theme for this year's National Severe Weather Preparedness Week is "Be a Force of Nature: Take the Next Step."
[NOAA News] The NOAA "Weather-Ready Nation" website
(http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/), contains links that allow the public to "Be a Force of Nature" in their communities through Tweet, a blog post, or a presentation. In addition a dozen states will also observe Severe Weather Awareness Weeks during this week. Other states throughout the nation have either conducted or will conduct their Severe Weather Awareness Weeks in the next several months as the spring season for severe thunderstorms unfolds.

Ocean in the News

Eye on the tropics --- As meteorological summer in the Southern Hemisphere (December, January and February) ended over the past weekend, tropical cyclone activity was reported during the last week in the following basins:
- In the western South Pacific basin, Tropical Cyclone 16P or Tropical Cyclone Kofi formed near Fiji late last week. This system traveled toward the southeast over this past weekend. As of late Sunday (local time) Kofi was approximately 600 miles to the southeast of Suva, Fiji. This tropical cyclone was expected to lose its tropical characteristics by late Monday. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and a satellite image for Tropical Cyclone Kofi (16P).
- In the western North Pacific basin, a tropical depression formed southeast of Guam late last week. Over the weekend, the third named tropical cyclone of 2014 in the basin formed and was identified as Tropical Storm 3W or Tropical Faxai. This system moved slowly eastward and then northward over the weekend. Additional information along with satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Faxai can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
"Beach Watch" marks a milestone -- During the last month, the award-winning volunteer program operated by NOAA's National Ocean Service called "Beach Watch" celebrated its 20th anniversary at the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary located along the central California coast. This volunteer program 300 "citizen scientists" playing an active role in protecting the 150 miles of beaches in the sanctuary through the donation of 1.3 million hours of volunteer time. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Six US fisheries to be recipients of fishery disaster relief funds -- During the last week NOAA Fisheries officials announced that six of the nation's fisheries that had been declared fishery disasters in 2012 and 2013 would receive disaster relief funds from the $75 million appropriated by Congress as part of the Fiscal Year 2014 federal budget. These fisheries include commercial fisheries in American Samoa, Alaska, Mississippi, Florida, New England and the Middle Atlantic States. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Six decades of ocean intensity data reveals strong links to multi-decadal cycles -- Scientists from the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the US Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center created a dataset from historical wind data from ship, aircraft and satellite modeled by NOAA to calculate wave power across the North Pacific at six-hour intervals from 1948-2008, extending from California westward to Japan. Their analysis of these data revealed wave power varies with multi-decade climate cycles known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) as well as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Research on the historical context of wave power is needed for anticipating coastal impacts especially as global sea level rises. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]
New satellite to measure global precipitation launched into orbit -- At the end of last week (early Friday morning Japan Time), a rocket was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan that contained the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory spacecraft. This spacecraft represents a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to conduct high-resolution observations of planetary precipitation from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle, which should result in improved weather and climate forecasts and assist in better management of water resources. Within minutes of launch, the GPM spacecraft had reached an altitude of 247 miles above Earth and its solar arrays had been deployed to power the spacecraft. The GPM Core Observatory carries the GPM Microwave Imager and the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar that are two instruments to measure rain and snowfall. [NASA Headquarters] Note: Status updates on the GPM mission are available.
Assessing impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill a quarter of a century later -- Nearly 25 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, scientists claim that small pockets of relatively unchanged oil remain hidden along the coast of the Alaska Peninsula several hundred miles to the southwest of the original incident. Chemists from NOAA and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found that the oil collected along the coastlines in the Shelikof Strait had hardly weathered where it was hidden by boulders. [American Geophysical Union Newsroom]
In report issued by the US Geological Survey (USGS), researchers reported that sea otters appear to have returned to pre-spill numbers within the most heavily oiled areas of Prince William Sound following the crude oil spill in Prince William Sound in March 1989. However, the researchers noted that the recovery was slow because of long-term exposure to the oil and to the persistence of the oil in the sea otter's intertidal feeding habitats. [USGS Newsroom]
Delisting of humpback whales from endangered species list requested by Alaska -- During the last week the Alaska Department of Fish and Game submitted a petition to the NOAA requesting that humpback whales in the North Pacific be removed or delisted from the Endangered Species Act list, arguing that the current North Pacific humpback population is approximately 21,800 whales, which is up from only 1000 in 1966 when commercial whaling was stopped. [Alaska Dispatch]
Protecting Lake Erie from massive "dead zone" requires major pollution control efforts -- A recently released study by the multi-institution EcoFore-Lake Erie project on the current trends in the health of Lake Erie calls for the reduction in the nutrient pollutants entering the Lake by nearly half in the next several decades in order to reduce the size of the Central Basin hypoxic zone, or "dead zone" with minimal dissolved oxygen, to acceptable levels. In addition, reduction in the size of toxic algae blooms is also needed. The influence of future changes of climate upon the Lake's ecosystem needs to be considered. [University of Michigan News]
"Big thaw" projected for Antarctic sea ice -- A scientist at Virginia Institute of Marine Science and colleagues at Old Dominion University recently reported that a modeling study they conducted indicated the recent observed increase in summer sea ice cover on Antarctica's Ross Sea should end soon and that the areal summer ice coverage could decrease by more than half by 2050 and by three quarters by 2100. They warned that these changes would significantly impact marine life in one of the world's most productive and unspoiled marine ecosystems. [Virginia Institute of Marine Science]
Offshore wind farms could tame hurricanes before landfall -- Researchers from Stanford University and the University of Delaware report that their computer simulations of three recent land falling hurricanes (Katrina in 2005 and Isaac and Sandy in 2012) indicate offshore wind farms with large arrays of thousands of wind turbines could significantly reduce wind speed and the storm surge from major hurricanes. These turbines would slow the winds in the outer bands of the approaching hurricane, which could decrease wave height and affect the inflow of near surface winds into the center of the hurricane, causing a slowing of the entire circulation regime. [Stanford University News Service]
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]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Abyssal Storms

Until recently, ocean scientists thought of the deep ocean abyss as a dark and cold, but serene place where small particles rained gently onto the ocean floor. However, instruments lowered to the sea floor to measure ocean motion or currents and resulting mobilization of bottom sediments detected a much more active environment. Scientists found that bottom currents and abyssal storms occasionally scour the ocean bottom, generating moving clouds of suspended sediment. A surface current of 5 knots (250 cm/sec) is considered relatively strong. A bottom current of 1 knot (50 cm/sec) is ripping. Although this may be called an abyssal storm, the water motion pales by comparison to wind speeds in atmospheric storms.

Abyssal currents and storms apparently derive their energy from surface ocean currents. Wind-driven surface ocean currents flow about the margins of the ocean basins as gyres centered near 30 degrees latitude. (Refer to Figure 6.6, page 152, in your textbook.) Viewed from above, these subtropical gyres rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. For reasons given in Chapter 6 of your textbook and this week's Supplemental Information, surface currents flow faster, are narrower, and extend to greater depths on the western arm of the gyres. These are known as western boundary currents and include, for example, the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic basin. Abyssal currents are also most vigorous on the western side of the ocean basins, moving along the base of the continental rise, which is on the order of several kilometers deep.

Abyssal storms may be linked to or may actually be eddies (rings) that occasionally break off from the main current of the Gulf Stream (and other western boundary currents). During an abyssal storm, the eddy or ring may actually reach to the bottom of the ocean where the velocity of a bottom current increases ten-fold to about 1.5 km (1 mi) per hr. While that is an unimpressive wind speed, water is much denser than air so that its erosive and sediment-transport capacity is significant even at 1.5 km per hr. At this higher speed, the suspended sediment load in the bottom current increases by a factor of ten. Abyssal storms scour the sea floor leaving behind long furrows in the sediment. After a few days to a few weeks, the current weakens or the eddy (ring) is reabsorbed into the main surface circulation and the suspended load settles to the ocean floor. In this way, abyssal storms can transport tons of sediment long distances, disrupting the orderly sequence of layers of deep-sea sediments. Scientists must take this disruption into account when interpreting the environmental significance of deep-sea sediment cores.

Concept of the Week: Questions

In the subtropical ocean gyres, boundary currents flow faster on the [(western)(eastern)] side of an ocean basin.
Currents in an abyssal storm erode, transport, and redeposit sediments that have accumulated on the [(continental shelf)(deep ocean bottom)].

Historical Events

3 March 1873...US Army Signal Corps established storm signal service for benefit of seafaring men, at several life-saving stations and constructed telegraph lines as original means of communication. (USCG Historian's Office)
3 March 1960...The submarine USS Sargo returned to Hawaii from an Arctic cruise of 11,000 miles, of which 6,003 miles were under the polar ice, reaching the North Pole on 9 February. This cruise marked the first time that a submarine explored the Arctic in winter. (Naval Historical Center)
4-5 March 1899...Tropical Cyclone Mahina (the Bathurst Bay Hurricane) crossed the Great Barrier Reef and generated a 48-ft storm surge across Barrow Point, Queensland, Australia. The Australian pearling fleet was destroyed, over 100 shipwrecks reported and 307 people killed. Barometric pressure fell to an unofficial reading of 915 millibars (27 inches of mercury). (Accord's Weather Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)
5 March 1914...The Spanish ship the Principe de Asturias enroute from Barcelona to Buenos Aires sank with the loss of 445 of the 588 passengers and crew members when it struck the jagged reefs along the Brazilian coast at Ponta Boi in dense fog.
5-6 March 1962...The Great Atlantic Coast Storm of 1962 caused more than $200 million in property damage from Florida to New England. Winds along the Middle Atlantic Coast reached 70 mph raising 40-ft waves, and 42 inches of snow fell at Big Meadows, in the mountains of Virginia--a state record. The storm caused greater alteration of the coastline from Cape Hatteras, NC to Long Island than any previous storm, including hurricanes. A new inlet was cut through Hatteras Island and more than 10 miles of Outer Banks barrier dunes were obliterated. The Virginia shoreline was rearranged by historic tidal flooding caused by the combination of the long stretch of strong onshore winds and the spring tides. A 3-mile long boardwalk in Ocean City, MD was wiped out. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
6 March 1521...The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached Guam in his around the world voyage. (Wikipedia)
6 March 1987...The British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in the English Channel off the coast of Belgium with the loss of 189 people.
7 March 1778...Captain James Cook first sighted the Oregon coast, at Yaquina Bay near present day Newport.
7 March 1932...A severe coastal storm set barometric pressure records from Virginia to New England. Block Island, RI reported a barometric pressure reading of 955.0 millibars (28.20 inches of mercury). (David Ludlum)
9 March 1454...Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian navigator, was born in Florence, Italy. The North and South American continents were named in his honor by Matthias Ringmann, a German mapmaker.
9 March 1995...The Canadian Navy arrested a Spanish trawler for illegally fishing off Newfoundland.