WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

14-18 May 2007

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• A joint celebration -- During the celebration of its 200th Anniversary, NOAA has recognized that May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. The NOAA Administrator notes the contributions made by Americans of Asian and Pacific descent to the fields of meteorology and oceanography. [NWSFO Milwaukee/Sullivan]
• First subtropical storm of season -- A vigorous low-pressure system that had properties of both tropical and extratropical systems developed over the western North Atlantic early last week and moved to the west toward the coast of the Southeastern US. Forecasters at NOAA's National Hurricane Center named this low-pressure system Subtropical Storm Andrea. An image from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite shows Andrea when it was first forming. [NASA Earth Observatory] An image from NOAA's GOES-12 satellite with a superimposed plot of wind gusts obtained at the start of last week shows the development of the subtropical cyclone that was named Andrea. [NOAA OSEI]
• Hurricane season begins in the eastern North Pacific -- The 2007 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin begins Tuesday, 15 May 2007. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will begin in two weeks on 1 June. The official hurricane seasons in both basins end on 30 November 2007. NOAA has declared next week (20-26 May 2007) to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
• Evaluating potential damage from hurricane size -- Hurricane researchers with NOAA have been investigating the development of a new Hurricane Destructive Potential classification scheme that would evaluate the destructive potential of a land-falling hurricane due to wind, storm surge and waves from the system's overall size and the area affected by its winds. [NOAA News]
• Puget Sound Steelhead receives protection -- The NOAA Fisheries Service recently announced that it has placed the popular Puget Sound Steelhead game-fish species as "threatened" in Washington State's Puget Sound under the provisions of the Federal Endangered Species Act, as this species could be in danger of extinction. [NOAA News]
• A modern "smart buoy" deployed at a historic site -- NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District deployed the first of three "smart buoys" on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail just off Jamestown, VA prior to last week's America's 400th anniversary weekend. These buoys will be part of the sensor-to-user information delivery system called Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System, which will make chemical, optical and physical observations of the atmosphere and estuarine water that will be transmitted to the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office and then made available online to the public. [NOAA News]
• A new online tool for hazardous materials responders unveiled -- The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration has recently unveiled a website called CAMEO Chemicals that will be a component of NOAA's CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) software suite designed to assist the first responders to accidents involving hazardous chemicals. [NOAA News]
• North American Safe Boating Week -- Commencing this coming Saturday, the week of 19-25 May has been declared 2007 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2007 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
• Offshore seismic instrument to monitor underwater volcano -- Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution recently installed a buoy called the Real-Time Offshore Seismic Station over the active Kick'em Jenny submarine volcano in the southeastern Caribbean Sea underwater volcano near Granada. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
• Ocean circulation found to have a "short-circuit" -- Researchers from the University of East Anglia, the University of Southampton and the University of Bremen tracing the path of helium from underwater volcanoes report finding a "short-circuit" in the large scale circulation of the world ocean, especially in the Southern Ocean. This "short-circuit" process allows cold water that initially sinks to return to the surface more rapidly than previously thought, with the rapid recycling of the water appearing to affect large-scale climate change, including the transport of heat and carbon compounds. [University of East Anglia]
• Increased coral disease attributed to higher ocean temperatures -- Using sea surface temperature data obtained from NOAA and the University of Miami together with coral cover and white syndrome data from the Australian Institute of Marine Science Long-term Monitoring Program, scientists from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill claim that white syndrome, a rapidly spreading disease on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, appears to be associated with anomalously high ocean temperatures in which the coral are found. [EurekAlert!] Several of these researchers also found that the more healthy coral reefs appear to be hit the hardest by the higher water temperatures. [EurekAlert!]
• Ancient deep-sea "burps" and possible impacts on climate -- A team of researchers from Kent State University, Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Colorado-Boulder have identified two occurrences of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide at 18,000 and 13,000 years ago from sediment cores obtained off Baja California. These ancient "burps" near the end of the last Ice Age occurred when large quantities of this dissolved gas were emitted from the deeps of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, triggered in part by abrupt changes in deep ocean circulation. [Kent State University]
• Insights into the global carbon budget -- An expert on the planetary carbon cycle, Dr. R. A. Houghton of the Woods Hole Research Center, has authored a synthesis paper on the global carbon budget and how it and the associated carbon cycle are influenced by, as well as exert an influence upon, the global climate and climatic change. [EurekAlert!]
• Ice cap melt could affect climate change -- Scientists at Spain's Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona who are involved with two research studies of the last Ice Age using deep sea sediments from the North Atlantic Ocean report that melting of the North American and Scandinavian ice sheets near the end of the last glaciation played a significant role in the change in climate by affecting the oceanic circulation patterns. They warn that the melting of the Greenland ice cap could cause major future changes in the ocean circulation and ultimately, the climate of the planet. [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:

• 14 May 1836...U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, the first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN, would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific. (Naval Historical Center)
• 15 May 1934...Lightship No. 117, occupying the Nantucket Shoals Station, in a dense fog, was struck by the RMS Olympic and sank on station with the loss of seven crewmembers. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 15-24 May 1951...Hurricane Able did a "loop-the-loop" north of the Bahamas and reached Category 3 strength off Cape Hatteras, NC. (The Weather Doctor)
• 16 May 1917...Marquette, MI had its latest opening of navigation on Lake Superior in history. (Intellicast)
• 17-21 May 1887...An early season tropical storm raked Cuba and The Bahamas. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 May 1970...The Norwegian ethnologist, Thor Heyerdahl, and a multinational crew set sail on a trans-Atlantic voyage from Morocco on Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after the ancient Egyptian vessels in an effort to prove his theory that Mediterranean sailors reached the Americas in ancient times. After 57 days, the Ra II reached Barbados. (The History Channel)
• 19 May 1535...French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail on his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage). (Wikipedia)
• 19 May 1912...The US Navy established the North Atlantic Ice Patrol following the RMS Titanic disaster. (Naval Historical Center)
• 20 May 1497...John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a 2 May date). (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1498...The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama became the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrived at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut) on the Malabar Coast, after departing Lisbon, Portugal in July 1497. (The History Channel) (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1570...Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas. (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1845...HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sailed from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands were lost. (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1964...The first U.S. atomic-powered lighthouse was put into operation in the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore Harbor, MD. Designed to supply a continuous flow of electricity for ten years without refueling, the 60-watt nuclear generator generated heat from strontium-90 in the form of strontium titinate, a safe radioisotope. The heat was converted to electricity by 120 pairs of lead telluride thermocouples. Complete with shielding, the unit was only 34.5 inches high and 22 inches in diameter. It was designed and produced by the nuclear division of Martin-Marietta Corp. (Today in Science History)
• 20 May 1999...A devastating cyclone, packing winds of up to 170 mph and a high storm surge, struck the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Some 600 villages were devastated and more than 400 people killed. (The Weather Doctor)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.