Weekly Ocean News

Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK SEVEN: 17-21 March 2014

Items of Interest:

Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2014 Campaign is underway -- The third of a series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2014 will begin this Friday and run for 10 nights (21-30 March). GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Orion or Leo in the northern hemisphere, and Orion and Crux in the southern hemisphere) with seven star charts of progressively fainter stars. In addition to the 21-30 March campaign, the other two remaining GLOBE at Night campaigns during the first five months of 2014 are on 20-29 April and 19-28 May. [GLOBE at Night]
Notice the Equinox -- The vernal equinox, which marks the commencement of astronomical spring, will occur next Sunday (officially at 1657Z on 20 March 2014 or 12:57 PM EDT, 11:57 AM CDT, etc.). If you checked the sunrise and sunset times in your local newspaper or from the climate page at your local National Weather Service Office, you would probably find that by midweek, the sun should have been above the horizon for at least 12 hours at most locations. As discussed previously, the effects of atmospheric refraction (bending of light rays by the varying density of the atmosphere) along with a relatively large diameter of the sun contribute to several additional minutes that the sun appears above the horizon at sunrise and sunset.
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:

"World Meteorology Day" -- A celebration will be held on Sunday, 23 March 2014 for World Meteorology Day. This day is designated to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 23 March 1950. The WMO is an agency within the United Nations. This year's theme for World Meteorological Day 2014 is “Weather and climate: engaging youth."
"World Water Day" -- Saturday, 22 March 2014, has been designated by the United Nations (UN) as the annual World Water Day. The theme for this year's World Water Day is "Water and Energy." [UN-Water]

Oceanographic expeditions that made an impact -- This week's Supplemental Information ... In Greater Depth provides a historical perspective of some of the oceanographic expeditions that made an impact upon science, especially in terms of oceanography.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- As meteorological autumn continued across the Southern Hemisphere last week, tropical cyclone activity was limited to the western South Pacific:
Tropical Storm Gillian traveled southward across the northern Gulf of Carpentaria, just off the coast of Australia's Cape York Peninsula over the previous weekend. By early last week, Gillian made landfall along the coast of Queensland before weakening. Remnants of Gillian then traveled westward across the Gulf of Carpentaria, but failed to intensify sufficiently to become a tropical cyclone between Queensland and Australia's Northern Territory. Additional information and satellite images on Cyclone Gillian can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
A tropical storm identified as Lusi formed over Vanuatu during the previous weekend. During the week, Lusi intensified to become a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it traveled to the south-southeast and then south. Near the end of last week, Tropical Cyclone Lusi slowly weakened south of Fiji and lost its tropical characteristics, becoming an extratropical cyclone or midlatitude storm north of New Zealand. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Cyclone Lusi.
Early last week, Tropical Storm Hadi formed off the coast of Queensland, Australia. This tropical storm traveled toward the south-southeast before weakening to a tropical depression. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Hadi.
Monitoring "bombogenesis" over the North Atlantic in early 2014 -- NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center recently noted that 20 unique wind events that generated hurricane-force winds (maximum sustained wind speeds in excess of 74 mph) occurred across the ocean basins in the Northern Hemisphere during January and February 2014. The North Atlantic basin was especially hard hit with wind speeds that were above the 30-year historical average (1981-2010). The stronger than average winds were due to 14 storms that were considered to have undergone "bombogenesis" a process where an extratropical cyclone (midlatitude low pressure system) experiences rapid intensification in which the storm's minimum central pressure drops by at least 24 millibars (mb) in 24 hours. The number and intensity of these "meteorological bombs" during the first two months of 2014 appears to be greater than normal. At the same time, high pressure across western North America and the eastern North Pacific resulted in lower wind speeds across that basin. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
An El Niño event may be on the horizon -- Forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center recently posted an El Niño watch indicating a 50 percent chance that an El Niño event could develop during the upcoming Northern Hemisphere's summer or fall (beginning in June and running through November) as current forecast models suggest a warming of the equatorial Pacific during the second half of 2014. The forecasters indicate that the current ENSO-neutral conditions should persist through Northern Hemisphere spring. (ENSO represents El Niño/Southern Oscillation). . [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
NOAA's budget request for next fiscal year promotes environmental intelligence -- The Obama Administration recently released its discretionary budget request for the upcoming 2015 Fiscal Year, proposing $5.5 billion to be used for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to enhance public safety and community resiliency to weather and climate disasters. This requested amount represents a $174 million or 3.2 percent increase over NOAA's 2014 enacted budget. The proposed 2015 budget focuses on three areas: investing in mission critical infrastructure; strengthening scientific innovation; and providing services to enhance community resilience. NOAA's five offices include the National Ocean Service (NOS), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). [NOAA News]
Climate and fisheries stories featured -- NOAA's Fisheries has posted several feature stories that describe how climate change is having a profound effect on life in the world's oceans. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Bleeding horseshoe crabs for biomedical purposes could be detrimental to crab population -- Scientists from the University of New Hampshire and Plymouth State University have determined that the widespread collection and bleeding of horseshoe crabs along the US East Coast for the crab's blue blood appears to adversely affect the behavior and physiology of these marine arthropods and could cause a decline in the horseshoe crab population along the Coast. The US biomedical industry uses the blue blood from approximately 500,000 crabs annually for use in pharmaceuticals designed to keep vaccines and medical equipment free of bacterial contamination. [New Hampshire Sea Grant Program News]
New Arctic Campaign commences for NASA's Operation IceBridge -- Early last week, NASA's P-3 research aircraft along with NASA researchers left the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia headed for Greenland's Thule Air Base to start this year's campaign of collecting data on Arctic land and sea ice. This year's campaign is part of a multi-year mission called Operation IceBridge that is designed to collect data on changes to polar ice and maintain continuity of measurements between the first of NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) missions that ended in 2009 and its successor, ICESat-2, which is scheduled for launch in 2017. Three high school science teachers from the United States, Denmark and Greenland will join IceBridge and fly with the research team. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
Stronger trade winds could reduce global temperature rise -- Researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Australia's University of New South Wales have found that the stronger trade winds that have been observed across the tropics since 2001 appear pushed surface waters westward across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, resulting in increased vertical oceanic circulation where additional heat has been sent downward to greater depths in the ocean. Cooler waters from below have also been brought to the surface. Consequently, the global temperature rise has been less due to the increased trade winds. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]
Vastly different ecosystem in Antarctica's Ross Sea envisioned during next century -- A team of researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary and the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography at Old Dominion University predict that rising temperatures and changing surface wind patterns across the Ross Sea along the Antarctic continent would affect predator-prey relationships, which would result in a vastly different ecosystem for this major, biologically productive Antarctic ecosystem within the next century. The researchers using the Regional Ocean Modeling System, a computer model of sea-ice, ocean, atmosphere and ice-shelf interactions, determined that rising temperatures and changing wind patterns would create longer periods of ice-free open water, affecting the life cycles of both predators and prey. [National Science Foundation 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]
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:

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)