13-17 June 2005

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2005 with new Ocean News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2005. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• First tropical storm hits the US Gulf Coast -- The first named tropical cyclone of the 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Arlene, made landfall along the Gulf Coast near Pensacola, FL on Saturday afternoon and quickly weakened. While maximum sustained winds were about 60 mph, the area was recovering from a direct hit last September from Hurricane Ivan. [USA Today]
• Help for red tide response effort provided -- Late last week NOAA officials announced that additional funds were awarded to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to help in its emergency response to the largest red tide episodes in coastal waters off New England in over 30 years. [NOAA News]
• Olympic swimmer warns of dangers of rip currents -- Ian Crocker, a medallist for the US Olympic swim team, assisted NOAA in the kick off of Rip Current Awareness Week by making public service announcements. [NOAA News]
• National Offshore aquaculture legislation proposed -- As part of his US Ocean Action Plan, President Bush sent a proposal to the US Congress that would grant the NOAA Fisheries Service the authority to permit marine aquaculture facilities to be developed and maintained in the open ocean within 200 miles of the US coastline. [NOAA News]
• "Sinkers" are identified as food for deep sea dwellers -- Marine biologists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute found that "sinkers", or the cast-off mucus nets of larvaceans, sink and appear to provide food for animals living on the deep ocean floor off the coast of central California. [Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]
• Education could reduce loss of life in tsunamis -- An expert from Cornell University argues that sustained education of residents and tourists as to how to stay safe in a tsunami is as important a tool for reducing loss of life as the deployment of ocean pressure sensors. [Cornell University]
• More tsunami measurements revealed -- An expert at the University of Southern California used on site measurements along with satellite imagery to determine that the tsunami generated last December by a magnitude 9.3 earthquake off Indonesia had waves that were 49 feet high and flooded 25 square miles on the northwest tip of Sumatra. [EurekAlert!]
• Developed areas were more susceptible to tsunami damage -- A scientist with Arizona State University who was a member of a team of researchers who surveyed the damage caused by the massive Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka reported that increased destruction on this island nation followed the human development along coastal regions. [EurekAlert!]
• Oceans may be slow to absorb excess carbon dioxide -- An international team led by a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz has analyzed marine sediments during an extremely warm episode in earth history at about 55 million years ago called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The researchers conclude that the oceans could absorb the large amounts of carbon dioxide currently pumped into the atmosphere by human activity, the recovery period could be lengthy, taking up to 100,000 years. [EurekAlert!]
• Tracking hurricanes with ozone -- After the analyzing the ozone levels in the air surrounding twelve separate hurricanes, meteorologists at Florida State University have concluded that ozone levels typically decrease when a hurricane intensifies. They also can locate the exact position of the hurricane eye and track its movement using ozone data obtained from the NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer. [NASA Vision]
• Help for dolphins and porpoises sought -- In a report conducted by the World Wildlife Fund, marine scientists have identified nine species of dolphins and porpoises that are endangered by bycatch, the accidental capture of these marine animals by fishing nets. [EurekAlert!]
• Marine conservation initiatives launched -- The organization Conservation International recently announced a list of major initiatives that will identify priorities for conserving marine species, create marine protected areas and stimulate marine research. [EurekAlert!]
• Gas hydrates studied -- Scientists and engineers at Cardiff University are investigating how ancient high-pressure bacteria from deep ocean sediments could produce methane that accumulates as a super concentrated methane ice or "gas hydrates" in the ocean beds. [EurekAlert!]
• Role of satellites in ocean monitoring extolled -- In observance of World Ocean Day (8 June 2005), the European Space Administration enumerated several of the ways that orbiting satellites have been used to monitor the oceans in support of ocean conservation efforts. [ESA]
• Hidden dangers revealed off Antarctica -- A new chart of the ocean waters around Palmer Station in Antarctic prepared by a team of scientists and engineers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Southern Mississippi revealed several submerged rocks and rocky pinnacles that represent potential navigation hazards. These submerged hazards, which were not previously mapped were discovered by the team using a portable depth sounder and an autonomous underwater vehicle. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• Lake levels affected by dry spell -- A hydrologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers recently warned that a recent dry spell across the northern Great Lakes, including northern Lower Michigan and the eastern Upper Peninsula, has slowed the forecasted recovery of the levels of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron from near record low levels. [Soo Evening News]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes-- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 13 June 1415...Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa.
• 13 June 1881...The steamer USS Jeannette was crushed in Arctic ice pack north of Siberia as the 1879-1881 Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong, USN, attempted to reach the North Pole by ship. (Naval Historical Center)
• 13 June 1977...A tropical cyclone crossed the Arabian Sea from near the Laccadive Islands off southwest India and slammed into the island of Masirah, sultanate of Oman. Winds reached at least 104 mph and the 24-hour rainfall total was 16.95 inches. About 99% of buildings were damaged. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14 June 1834...The first US patent for a practical underwater diving suit was issued to Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, ME. One month earlier, he tested his suit, an airtight leather outfit with a brass helmet connected via a rubber hose to an air bellows pump on a boat, in the Webb River. (Today in Science History)
• 15 June 1744...British Admiral George Anson returned to England after circumnavigating the globe in an expedition that lasted nearly four years.
• 15 June 1990...The first use of bioremediation in open waters was to treat an oil slick from the supertanker Mega Borg following an explosion and fire on 8 Jun 1990 approximately 70 miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX. The 3-day bioremediation tests were conducted using oil-metabolizing bacteria and nutrients. The results of the tests were inconclusive. (Today in Science History)
• 16 June 1903...The famous Norwegian explorer, Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, began the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by leaving Oslo, Norway on the ship Gjøa. Amundsen and six others spend tow winters exploring over land and ice from the place currently called Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada. (Wikipedia)
• 17 June 1579...During his "Famous Voyage," Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, claimed San Francisco Bay for England, calling the region along the northern California coast "Nova Albion" (meaning, New England). (Wikipedia)
• 16-18 June 1972...The greatest three-day rainfall in Hong Kong since 1889 produced 25.68 inches and resulted in disastrous landslides and building collapses. More than 100 people died, while thousands were made homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 18 June 1903...Alaska's first coastal lighthouse, Scotch Cap Lighthouse, was lit. This light, which was also the first major lighthouse built by the U.S. outside the 48 coterminous states, was located near the west end of Unimak Island on the Pacific side of Unimak Pass, the main passage through the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Sea. This light in an octagonal wooden tower was replaced by a concrete lighthouse in 1940, which was destroyed by a tsunami in 1946, with the loss of the five crewmen stationed there. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 18 June 1875...A severe coastal storm (or possible hurricane) struck the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. Eastport, ME reported wind gusts to 57 mph. (David Ludlum)
• 19 June 240 BC...On the summer solstice, Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
• 19-26 June 1972...Hurricane Agnes (a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) moved onshore along the Florida Panhandle near Cape San Blas and Apalachicola with wind gusts to 80 mph, and eventually exited Maine on the 26^th. This hurricane moved northeast and joined with an upper level disturbance, producing from 10 to 20 inches of rain along its path along the Eastern Seaboard. In the Middle Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, 24 hour rainfall amounts were generally 8 to 12 inches, with up to 19 inches in extreme southwestern Schuylkill County. At Wilkes-Barre, PA the dike was breached destroying much of the town. Agnes was responsible for 125 deaths, mainly due to flooding from North Carolina to New York State, and total damage was estimated at more than $3 billion. Torrential rains from Hurricane Agnes resulted in one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history. Agnes caused more damage than all other tropical cyclones in the previous six years combined (which included Celia and Camille). (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• Month of June...According to a 1969 US Army technical report, the average dewpoint temperature at Ras Andahglie and Assab, Eritrea (Ethiopia) average slightly more than 84ºF. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DSOcean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.