WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

5-9 June 2006

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2006 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 28 August 2006. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• "Break the Grip of the Rip™" -- NOAA officials have designated this upcoming week of 4-10 June 2006 as national Rip Current Awareness Week. Using the theme, Break The Grip of the Rip™, efforts are meant to heighten public awareness of rip currents at surf beaches that claim the lives of as many as 100 people in the United States annually. [NWS Rip Current Safety] [NOAA News]
• World Ocean Day to be celebrated -- World Ocean Day or a "Celebration of the Sea" will be celebrated on Thursday, 8 June 2006 in an effort to increase public awareness and to foster public involvement in the management of the ocean and its resources. Although this date was created at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it has not been officially recognized by the United Nations. A partial listing is provided for events across the US and other nations that will celebrate World Ocean Day. [The Ocean Project]
• Offshore weather monitoring made by buoys off the coast of the Carolinas -- The Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction System has deployed several instrumented buoys that observe and relay real-time wind speed, barometric pressure and wave height data. The hope is that these data could be used to help in improved storm surge predictions in the event of the approach of a hurricane. [USA Today]
• Sound in the Sea -- The Office of Marine Programs at the University of Rhode Island, in partnership with a company in Newport, RI have developed a website called "the Discovery of Sound in the Sea " http://www.dosits.org/ that introduces the public to the science and uses of sound in the ocean. A special section is provided for teachers with resources and classroom activities. [Editor's note: Special thanks is extended to Ron Ferenczi for his providing information about this site. EJH]
• Monitoring the subsidence in New Orleans from space -- Using data collected from 2002 to 2005 by Canada’s RADARSAT satellite, an international team of scientists reported that much of New Orleans sank (or subsided) by approximately 8 mm per year relative to global mean sea level during that three-year span just prior to Hurricane Katrina. [NASA Earth Observatory] [EurekAlert!]
• Atlantic basin is "hurricane friendly" as 2006 hurricane season starts -- A NASA scientist notes that while sea surface temperatures were above average during late May across the North Atlantic and winds were light, which would indicate favorable conditions for hurricane formation, he foresees a 2006 hurricane season that would not be as extreme as at the start of the record 2005 season. Images of sea surface temperatures obtained by a radiometer onboard NASA's Aqua satellite taken one year apart demonstrate differences in the sea surface temperature between the opening of the two hurricane seasons. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Equatorial Pacific returns to "normal" -- Sea surface height data obtained from a dual-frequency radar altimeter onboard the NASA/French Jason satellite indicates that the height of the equatorial Pacific has returned to near normal conditions, resulting in an end of the recent La Niña event.[NASA Earth Observatory]
• Sun glint helps view wave and tidal current patterns -- A photograph made by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station utilizes sun glint to depict the complex pattern of surface waves on the surface of the Gulf of California and the tidal currents in an estuary near Punta Perihuete, Mexico. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Causes for a Late Cretaceous "greenhouse Earth" involve the ocean -- Using marine geological records and global paleoclimate simulations, scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom claim that enhanced burial of organic carbon in the deep ocean occurred at periodic intervals of roughly 5000-year length between 90 and 75 million years ago as changes in the extra-atmospheric irradiance due to changes in the earth's orbital elements influenced the tropical water cycle in Africa. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean cores provide a history of Arctic climate -- A report was issued last week by a group of scientists who have analyzed ocean cores obtained from the Arctic Ocean floor near the North Pole as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's Arctic Coring Expedition. The cores indicate that sea surface temperatures in the Arctic may have reached subtropical levels during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (about 55 million years ago) followed by the formation of ice at about 45 million years ago. [EurekAlert!] [EurekAlert!]
• Human-induced climatic change blamed for increased hurricane activity -- Researchers at Penn State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claim that the warming of the sea surface associated with human activity appears to be a more significant contributing factor to the recent increased number and strength of Atlantic basin hurricanes than the changes attributed by other researchers to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean temperatures may influence increased biodiversity -- Researchers from the University of Florida, Harvard University, the University of New Mexico and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis suggest that higher temperatures in tropical regions, especially across the equatorial oceans have fostered a wide variety of new living species of plants and animals as metabolic activity of the region's inhabitants is increased due to the heat, leading to increased genetic change. [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 6 June 1882...More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay, India were killed as a tropical cyclone that developed over the Arabian Sea pushed huge waves into the harbor. (Wikipedia)
• 7 June 1914...The first vessel, the Alliance, passed through the Panama Canal. The 51-mile long canal, which links the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans across the isthmus of Panama, was officially opened on 15 August 1914. (Today in Science History) (Wikipedia)
• 7 June 1924...The Oil Pollution Act was passed. It was enforced by the Coast Guard.
  Protection of halibut in the North Pacific Ocean was placed under Bureau of Fisheries (Coast Guard- enforced since 1926). (USCG Historian's Office)
• 7 June 1972...Richmond, VA experienced its worst flood of record as rains from Hurricane Agnes pushed the water level at the city locks to a height of 36.5 feet, easily topping the previous record of thirty feet set in 1771. (The Weather Channel)
• 7-10 June 2001...Tropical Storm Allison made landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston early on the 6^th and drifted northward before becoming stationary as a depression later in the day near Lufkin. Later, it began to drift back southward, moving offshore over the Gulf late on the 9^th at nearly the same place as it had made landfall. Allison caused disastrous flooding across the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, especially in the Houston where a storm total of 36.99 inches fell at Port Houston. Twenty-three people lost their lives in Texas. Damage in the region amounted to $5 billion, which included 45,000 homes, 70,000 vehicles and 2000 businesses. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 8 June 1937...Observation of the total eclipse of the sun was made by a U.S. Navy detachment commanded by Captain J. F. Hellweg, USN, which was participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expedition. (Naval Historical Center)
• 8-9 June 1990...The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX, the result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Two crewmembers were killed. Coast Guard units fought the resulting fires and recovered spilled oil. (Information Please) (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8 June 1992...The first World Ocean Day was celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikipedia)
• 9 June 1534...The French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the river that he named the St. Lawrence in present-day Quebec, Canada. (The History Channel)
• 9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle near Alligator Point during the evening-- the earliest land-falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. Peak sustained winds were near 90 mph. Highest winds reached 125 mph and lowest pressure 970.2 millibars (28.65 inches) were reported at the Dry Tortugas on the 8^th. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 inches of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 inches established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
• 10 June 1909...The International Distress Call (SOS distress signal) was used for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue.
• 11 June 1644...The Florentine scientist, Evangelista Torricelli described in a letter the invention of a barometer, or "torricellian tube." (Today in Science History)
• 11 June 1764...The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 11 June 1770...The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia when he ran aground. (Information Please)
• 11 June 1847...The English naval officer and an Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to locate the Northwest Passage.

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.