11-15 July 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.

• Hurricane updates -- Hurricane Dennis, one of the most powerful hurricanes to develop in the tropical North Atlantic during the month of July, was made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Sunday near Pensacola FL as a Category 3 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson scale). [USA Today] This hurricane followed Tropical Storm Cindy, which developed and moved across the Southeast earlier last week. Some of the news items from these systems include:
• Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall on Wednesday along the Mississippi Gulf Coast resulting in heavy rain and a storm surge that caused some flooding [USA Today]. Remnants of this storm moved across Georgia spawning tornadoes and producing heavy rain. At least two fatalities in Georgia were attributed to the remnants of Cindy [USA Today].
• Hurricane Dennis intensified to a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained surface winds of 150 mph in the Caribbean before crossing Cuba on Friday. As many as 10 people were killed by Dennis in Haiti, with another 10 fatalities in Cuba [USA Today]. After weakening as it passed across Cuba, Hurricane Dennis showed some strengthening as it brushed by the Florida Keys and the west coast of the Florida Peninsula, accompanied by heavy rain, strong winds and tornadoes [USA Today].
• A 3-D view at inside of a hurricane is now available -- NASA scientists are developing a method that can process rainfall intensity data from the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite and display it as three-dimensional images showing the structure of tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes) in near real-time. [NASA]
• Congress to be briefed on hurricane hazards -- Members of the Congressional Hazards Caucus Coalition, including NOAA forecasters, will be briefing members of the US Congress this Monday on what scientists, engineers and first responders have learned from tracking storm movements, responding to emergencies, and surveying coastal and infrastructure damage. The title of the briefing is "Hurricanes: Lessons Learned to Reduce Future Risk". [EurekAlert!]
• A second fisheries survey vessel launched -- The NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow, the second in a series of four planned NOAA fisheries survey vessels, was launched last week in Mississippi. This 208-ft long ship, complete with advanced technology, should be placed in operation late next year. [NOAA News]
• An East Coast city is now TsunamiReady -- The National Weather Service recently announced that Indian Harbour Beach on central Florida's Atlantic coast has completed a set of criteria needed to become designated as a TsunamiReady community, the first community not along the US West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii to be certified. [NOAA News]
• Historic observatory honored -- Last weekend NOAA's National Geodetic Survey dedicated several geodetic commemorative markers, one which celebrates the establishment of the observatory in Calais, Maine in 1857, which was used to help establish the meridian through Greenwich, England as the prime meridian, the zero-point for world-wide longitude values. This observatory was established by a predecessor of NOAA, the Survey of the Coast, which was part of the United States Telegraphic Longitude Observatory Network. [NOAA News]
• Warm Great Lakes leads to algae and weed growth -- Unseasonably warm weather across the Great Lakes has caused surface water temperatures to rise to the highest in five years, resulting in enhanced weed and algae growth, which also cause low oxygen levels in several lakes. [USA Today]
• Breakthroughs in sea level change research noted -- NASA scientists along with their colleagues at NOAA and several universities with National Science Foundation sponsored grants have been using a variety of techniques and instruments to study changes in sea level. Some of these instruments include those on satellites and floats. [NASA] A related article describes how NASA satellites measure and monitor sea level. [NASA]
• Ancient avalanches could have caused changes in Gulf's water level -- A team of researchers have found that sediment cores obtained from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico offshore of Galveston, TX, reveal evidence that rapid sea level changes in the Gulf have been associated with catastrophic sand avalanches on the floor of the Gulf. [EurekAlert!]
• Preservation of the USS Monitor probed -- The Academy of Natural Sciences has been studying how to combat the deterioration of the sunken USS Monitor in an attempt to preserve this historic Civil War ironclad located offshore of Cape Hatteras, NC. [EurekAlert!]
• Red glow from deep-sea jelly lures fish -- A scientist from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and colleagues have discovered that a new species of a deep sea gelatinous invertebrate, the siphonophore, uses a bioluminescent lure to catch fish. [Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]
• 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.

• 11 July 1576...The British seaman Martin Frobisher sighted Greenland during one of his attempts to find the Northwest Passage. (Wikipedia)
• 11 July 1776...The English explorer Captain James Cook began his third and final voyage, exploring the North Pacific, western North America to as far north as the Bering Strait and the Sandwich Islands (later renamed the Hawaiian Islands), where he was killed in February 1779. (Wikipedia)
• 12 July 1844...Captain J.N. Taylor of the Royal Navy first demonstrated the fog horn. At the time, it was called a telephone - to mean far-signaling, thus an instrument like a fog-horn, used on ships, railway trains, etc., for signaling by loud sounds or notes. The 19 July 1844 Times (London) reported, "Yesterday week was a levee day at the Admiralty, and amongst the numerous models...was Captain J. N. Tayler's telephone instrument... The chief object of this powerful wind instrument is to convey signals during foggy weather. Also the Illustrated London News on 24 Aug. 1844 referred to "The Telephone; a Telegraphic Alarum. Amongst the many valuable inventions...that of the 'Telephone, or Marine Alarum and Signal Trumpet', by Captain J. N. Taylor." (Today in Science History)
• 12 July 1920...The Panama Canal was formally dedicated, having taken more than 30 years to overcome the enormous engineering challenges and complete at a cost of $347 million. The first ship had traveled through six years earlier when the Panama Canal opened to shipping on 15 Aug 1914. At that time, the world scarcely noticed the event since German troops were driving across Belgium toward Paris and the newspapers relegated the Panama story to their back pages; the greatest engineering project in the history of the world had been dwarfed by the totality of World War I. (Today in Science History)
• 12 July 1993...A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that was situated offshore of Hokkaido, Japan produced a tsunami that killed 202 people on the island of Okushiri. (Wikipedia)
• 15-16 July 1916...A dying South Atlantic Coast storm produced torrential rains in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Altapass, NC was drenched with 22.22 inches of rain, a 24-hour rainfall record for the Tarheel State, and at the time, a 24-hour record for the U.S. (The current 24-hour rainfall record for the US is 43 inches set 25-25 July 1979 at Alvin, TX). Flooding resulted in considerable damage, particularly to railroads. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (NCDC)
• 17 July 1858...The U.S. sloop Niagara departed Queenstown, Ireland to assist in laying the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. (Naval Historical Center)
• 17 July 1994...The Polar Sea departed from Victoria, BC on operation Arctic Ocean Section 1994 and became the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole. She then transited the Arctic Ocean back to her homeport in Seattle, WA. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 17 July 1998...A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroyed 10 villages in Papua, New Guinea killing an estimated 1500 people, leaving 2000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless. (Wikipedia)

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URL: DS-Ocean/news.html

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