WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

28 July-1 August 2008

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2008 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2008. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- During the last week:
  • In the North Atlantic Basin, Tropical Storm Dolly developed over the western Caribbean Sea and made an initial landfall. Just before making landfall along the lower Texas Gulf Coast near Brownsville last Wednesday, Hurricane Dolly intensified to become a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale. The hurricane weakened as it moved to the west-northwest across southern Texas and northern Mexico. By the weekend, clouds and rain that represented remnants of Dolly had moved into west Texas and adjacent sections of southern New Mexico. Despite the winds, Hurricane Dolly brought much needed rain to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. [NOAA News] A classic visible image from NOAA0-17 shows the spiral cloud formation surrounding the relatively clear central eye of Hurricane Dolly just before it made landfall in south Texas. [NOAA OSEI] A MODIS image from NASA's Terra satellite was taken just after landfall. [NASA Earth Observatory] Additional information and imagery on Hurricane Dolly appear in NASA Hurricane Page.
    Tropical Storm Cristobal traveled northeastward off the Eastern Seaboard early last week before becoming extra-tropical. See additional information on the NASA Hurricane Page
  • In the eastern North Pacific, Tropical Storm Genevieve, the seventh named tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane season in that basin, formed off the southwestern Mexican coast at the beginning of last week. By midweek, this low-pressure system intensified into the fourth hurricane of the season in the eastern North Pacific last Friday. However, by Saturday, this minimal hurricane began to weaken as it traveled to the west-northwest and it was downgraded to a tropical storm. Additional information concerning Hurricane Genevieve can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
    Hurricane Fausto, which had reached category-2 status during the previous week, dissipated early last week offshore of Mexico's Baja California. Satellite images and additional information concerning Hurricane Fausto appear on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  • In the western North Pacific, Typhoon Fung-Wong developed late last week to the east northeast of Luzon in the Philippines and traveled west, becoming the seventh typhoon (the western North Pacific's equivalent of a hurricane) of 2008 for that basin. On late Sunday (local time) this system had become a category 2 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. As of early Monday (local time) this typhoon was approaching Taiwan.
• A hurricane leaves a telltale trail -- A image of the sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic basin obtained in early July from data collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows a distinguishable trail of cold water following in the wake of Hurricane Bertha as it traveled across the ocean basin. [NASA Earth Observatory] Editor's note: Remnants of Hurricane Bertha finally lost its tropical characteristics and became extra-tropical one week ago and the National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory for this longest-lived July tropical system. [NASA Hurricane Page]
• Typhoons can bury tons of carbon -- An earth science professor at Ohio State University and colleagues claim that their analysis of water and river sediments appears to indicate that a single typhoon (or hurricane) passing across Taiwan may bury as much carbon in the surrounding ocean waters as the additional annual rain from all other storm systems combined. [Ohio State University]
• Hurricane preparedness issues remain -- A new hurricane preparedness survey recently conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security revealed that only one-third of Gulf Coast survivors of Hurricane Katrina claim that they would be adequately prepared for another major hurricane. Major worries voiced by residents of high-risk coastal counties involved availability of drinking water, medical care and gasoline for evacuation. [EurekAlert!]
• A trip to the beach can be deadly -- Ocean currents generated by a storm earlier last week became treacherous last Friday and Saturday as they claimed four lives in the coastal waters of New York State's Long Island. [CNN]
• Responding to an oil spill in the Big Easy -- An oil spill spread downstream along one of the main stems of the lower Mississippi River following last Wednesday's collision of a 200-foot fuel barge and a 600-foot chemical tanker north of the Crescent City Connector Bridge in New Orleans, LA. A multi-agency Unified Command from the state and federal governments, including the NOAA National Weather Service and NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration, responded to this situation by monitoring of environmental conditions, providing trajectory predictions and assessing the environmental impacts. [NOAA News]
• Public comment period extended for sanctuary management plan -- Officials with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries recently announced that they have extended the deadline for public comment on the on the draft management plan and draft environmental assessment for Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the Massachusetts coast until early October 2008. [NOAA News]
• Arctic warming may be suppressed by wildfire smoke -- Researchers from the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) report that temperature increases across the Arctic basin could be halted or even reversed if smoke from wildfires currently burning across the northern forests surrounding the basin continues to spread across the region, reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface. [NOAA News]
• Rich coral reef ecosystem seen from space -- An image obtained from the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus sensor on NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite shows the coral reefs and the shallow lagoons of New Caledonia in the western Pacific that boasts the third-largest coral reef structure in the world with rich biodiversity. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Satellite surveillance of ocean surface helps in extreme event forecasts -- With the recent launch of the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2, NASA and NOAA scientists discuss the role that the altimeters onboard its predecessors (Jason 1 and Topex/Poseidon) have had on monitoring the world's ocean surface, increasing the accuracy and timeliness of hurricane and tsunami forecasts. [NASA]
• New desalination membrane could help provide clean water -- A team of researchers, including a chemical engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin, has developed a chlorine-tolerant membrane that can be used in the desalination of water. The researchers claim that this new membrane would reduce desalination costs, resulting in increased access to fresh water and possibly reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases. [University of Texas at Austin]
• Flow from Amazon helps ocean capture carbon dioxide -- Researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Southern California report that the outflow of water from South America's Amazon River system is providing sufficient nutrients to nourish unexpected plant life for at least 1000 km out into the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a major ocean capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This finding is contrary to the previously held theory that the Amazon was serving as a source of this greenhouse gas. [NSF News]
• Addition of lime to the oceans could reduce carbon dioxide levels --A group of scientists claim that adding lime to seawater could increase the alkalinity of seawater and reduce the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to levels that predated the Industrial Revolution. [EurekAlert!]
• Hydrothermal vent field found north of Arctic Circle -- Using a remotely operated vehicle, scientists from five nations have found a cluster of five hydrothermal vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway. These scientists claim that they found the northernmost active black smoker vents. [EurekAlert!]
• Microbes beneath seafloor are genetically different -- According to researchers who studied sediment samples collected from ocean bottom cores off the coast of Peru, the tiny microbes found beneath the seafloor are genetically and metabolically distinct from those on the earth's surface, in part due to their adaptation to a dark environment. [EurekAlert!]
• Parasites outnumber predators in Pacific Coast estuaries -- Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, the United States Geological Survey and Princeton University have determined that the mass of parasitic species outnumber the predator biomass in three estuaries on the Pacific Coast of southern California and Mexico's Baja California by as much as a factor of 20. [NSF News]
• Air pollution seen to create serious impacts to Northeastern ecosystems -- In a report entitled "Threats From Above: Air Pollution Impacts on Ecosystems and Biological Diversity in the Eastern United States" that was recently released by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and The Nature Conservancy, air pollution was found to be degrading every major ecosystem type in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States, including the major estuaries along the Eastern Seaboard. [EurekAlert!]
• An interesting Earth-Moon portrait --An animation provided by a sequence of images obtained by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft from a distance of 31 million miles during late May shows both the Earth and moon over one rotation of the earth. Planetary scientists associated with this mission are attempting to use a variety of images in the visible and the infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum to recognize those signals that indicate the presence of liquid water, considered to be necessary to support life. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• 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, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
• 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:

• 28 July 1819...A small but intense hurricane passed over Bay Saint Louis, MS. The hurricane was considered the worst in fifty years. Few houses were left standing either at Bay Saint Louis or at Pass Christian and much of the Mississippi coast was desolate following the storm. An U.S. cutter was lost along with its thirty-nine crewmembers. The storm struck the same area that was hit 150 years later by Hurricane Camille. (David Ludlum)
• 31 July 1498...On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, the explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to reach the island of Trinidad. (Wikipedia)
• 31 July 1978...A 50-yard wide waterspout came onshore at Kill Devil Hills, NC and destroyed a small house. One person died and four were hurt. Waterspouts are typically considered relatively benign. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 1 August 1498...Christopher Columbus reached Venezuela, the first known European to visit that country. (Wikipedia)
• 1-3 August 1989...Hurricane Chantal made landfall along the Upper Texas coast about sunrise on the 1^st. Chantal deluged parts of Galveston Island and southeastern Texas with 8 to 12 inches of rain. Unofficial totals ranged up to twenty inches. Winds gusted to 82 mph at Galveston, and reached 76 mph in the Houston area. Tides were 5 to 7 feet high. The hurricane claimed two lives, and caused 100 million dollars damage. The remains of Hurricane Chantal also deluged north central Texas with heavy rain. Up to 6.50 inches drenched Stephens County, and Wichita Falls reported 2.22 inches of rain in just one hour on the 2^nd. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 August 2002...At the Delaware Bay buoy located 26 miles southeast of Cape May, NJ, an ocean water temperature of 83.1 degrees Fahrenheit was measured--marking the highest ocean temperature recorded at that buoy since observations began there in 1984. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2 August 1880...Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted officially by the British Parliament, selected because Greenwich had been the national center for time since 1675. GMT was originally set-up to aid naval navigation, but was not was used on land until transportation improved. GMT was adopted by the U.S. at noon on 18 Nov 1883 when the telegraph lines transmitted time signals to all major cities. Subsequently, GMT was adopted worldwide on 1 Nov 1884 when the International Meridian Conference met in Washington, DC, USA and 24 time zones were created. (Today in Science History)
• 2-3 August 1922...A typhoon hit the China Coast at Swatow on the night of the 2^nd. The wind and the storm surge killed as many as 50,000 of the city's 65,000 residents. Barometric pressure at landfall had dropped to at least 932.3 millibars (27.53 inches). (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 August 1492...The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, in command of three ships, embarked from the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera on a journey westward in search of a sea route to Asia. This expedition, which reached the Bahamas near North America on 12 October, was the first of four expeditions that Columbus made to the "New World". (The History Channel)
• 3 August 1958...At 11:15 EDT, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the first ship to reach the geographic North Pole submerged, traveling at a depth of approximately 500 feet from the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow, AK on 1 August to the Greenland Sea near Spitzbergen on 5 August. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
• 3 August 1970...Hurricane Celia made landfall near Port Aransas on the Texas coast, producing wind gusts to 161 mph at Corpus Christi, and estimated wind gusts of 180 mph at Arkansas Pass. Even at Del Rio, 250 miles inland, Celia produced wind gusts to 89 mph. The hurricane was the most destructive of record along the Texas coast causing 454 million dollars damage as 8950 homes were destroyed on the Coastal Bend. Celia also claimed eleven lives and injured 466 people. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (Intellicast)
• 3-4 August 1978...The remnants of Tropical Storm Amelia produced up to 32 inches of rain on Schackelford County in Texas, an incredible amount of rain for a far-inland and non-mountainous area. A twenty-foot wall of water killed six during the evening of the 4^th in Albany, resulting in 89 percent of the city being covered by water. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2008, The American Meteorological Society.