WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

26-30 July 2010

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2010 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 30 August 2010. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- The tropical Atlantic and western North Pacific basins experienced tropical cyclone activity during the past week:
• The second named tropical cyclone of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season formed over the waters of the western North Atlantic near the Bahamas late last week, becoming Tropical Storm Bonnie. Moving to the northwest, this minimal tropical storm made landfall in South Florida near Miami last Friday and weakened to a tropical depression. This tropical depression continued traveling to the northwest across the Gulf of Mexico toward the Louisiana Gulf Coast over the weekend. For more information on Tropical Storm Bonnie, including satellite images, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
• In western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Chanthu formed at the start of last week from a tropical depression that was traveling across Luzon in the Philippines. This system intensified as it moved westward across the South China Sea, becoming a minimal category 1 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson scale) before making landfall along the southeastern Chinese coast late last week. Torrential rains that produced flooding along with strong winds resulted in at least two deaths in China. [USA Today] Additional information, along with satellite images are featured in the NASA Hurricane page.
• Model on supercomputer simulates tropical cyclone's birth --A research scientist at the University of Maryland-College Park has run a numerical model on NASA's Pleiades supercomputer with appropriate atmospheric data to simulate the formation of tropical cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar in 2008. This simulation represents the first replication of the formation of a tropical cyclone five days in advanced. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]
• Gulf oil spill updates --During the last two weeks, capping of the Deepwater Horizon BP well appeared to reduce the quantity of oil spilling into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, however, the approach of Tropical Depression Bonnie this past weekend caused a halt to the cleanup efforts:
• Further analysis of the location and movement of subsurface oil is made --A second peer-reviwed summary report on the subsurface oil monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico was recently released by NOAA, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). This report was based upon data collected from more than 200 sampling stations in the Gulf within 50 km of the the Deepwater Horizon/BP wellhead. [NOAA News]
• Report made on air quality near the spill area --Early last week, NOAA scientists released a report on air quality measurements taken from a highly instrumented aircraft last month near the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill, as well as along the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to Florida. The atmospheric concentrations of nearly 100 air pollutants were included in the report. [NOAA News]
• Ship with international scientists study coral and water quality in Gulf --Two weeks ago, a science team from NOAA, several US research institutions and Brazil departed from the Florida Panhandle on the HARBOR BRANCH-owned Research Vessel Seward Johnson to gather scientific data on the corals and the quality of the water column in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the Deepwater Horizon spill area. [NOAA News]
• Some closed fishing areas have been reopened --After expanding the areas of the Gulf closed to fishing during the previous week, NOAA reopened one-third of the closed Gulf fishing area last week as no oil had been observed in this region for 30 days. [NOAA News]
• Closure of fishing area is enforced --In the wake of the oil spill, NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) and the US Coast Guard continue their active enforcement of the law that closed designated federal waters to fishing in order to maintain public health needs. This active enforcement has continued since areas of the Gulf were closed in early May. [NOAA News]
• Satellites see oil slick near Mississippi Delta-- During the last two weeks, images made from data collected from the MODIS sensors on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites show the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill approaching the Louisiana coast near the mouth of the Mississippi River. [NASA Earth Observatory] [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Research for invasive species on Great Lakes is funded --At the end of last week, NOAA officials announced that the University of Notre Dame and its partners were awarded $2.5 million to predict the occurrence of the next wave of invasive species that could enter the Great Lakes, as well as to identify those cost-effective countermeasures designed to control these species. [NOAA News]
• Members appointed to the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee --Following consultation with the Department of the Interior, the US Department of Commerce appointed a diverse group of 11 new members to the 30-member Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee, which advises the two departments on the development and implementation of the national system of marine protected areas. [NOAA News]
• Marine-oriented scholarships awarded to students --Officials in NOAA's Office of Education recently selected seven graduate-level college students as recipients of the 2010 Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarships. These students are in fields including marine biology, coastal resource management and maritime archeology and are receiving the scholarships named in the honor of Dr. Nancy Foster, a former NOAA assistant administrator for oceanic sciences and coastal zone management and director of NOAA's National Ocean Service. [NOAA News]
• NOAA ship uses high-tech sounding technology to map Arctic waterways -- The NOAA Ship Fairweather is currently deployed to the waters of the Arctic Ocean to chart the waters off the Bering Straits around Alaska's Cape Prince of Wales and detect potential navigational hazards at the request of the US Navy, the US Coast Guard and the Alaska Maritime Pilots. This ship has a variety of state-of-the-art equipment, including echo sounders, that permit the development of the first navigation charts in more than 50 years. [NOAA News]
• Identifying the aquatic dead zones from space --A global map was recently produced by NASA's Earth Observatory mission that displays the size and number of marine dead zones where the deep water is sufficiently depleted of dissolved oxygen to limit marine life. The map also shows the particulate organic matter in the water as determined from satellites such as NASA's Aqua satellite and the population density along coastal regions, which indicates the amount of fertilizer-laden runoff. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• "Footloose" glaciers behave erratically --A glaciologist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and his colleagues who studied several glaciers in Alaska report that those "footloose" glaciers that become detached from the seafloor appear to be more erratic in behavior, with bigger icebergs than those that remain grounded and attached. [USGS Newsroom]
• Coastal areas threatened by rising Indian Ocean level --Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have found that the sea level of the Indian Ocean has been rising at an uneven rate and that the rise could be partially due to changes in climate. The largest sea level rise has been along the coasts of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, which could threaten residents of some of the densely populated regions. [UCAR/NCAR]
• Antenna system for geosynchronous satellites --NOAA officials recently announced that Harris Corporation has been selected to develop a ground-based antenna system including components and infrastructure designed to provide support for the agency's next generation series of geosynchronous satellites, commencing with GOES-R that is scheduled for launch in 2015. The new antenna system should increase the temporal resolution of viewing storm systems, including tornadic thunderstorm cells and hurricanes from 7.5 minutes to 30 seconds, resulting in faster forecasts of these systems. [NOAA News]
• 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, drought, floods, 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, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 25 July 1956...The Italian ship Andrea Doria sank in dense fog near Nantucket Lightship, MA. Ten hours earlier, the ship was rammed by the Swedish-American liner, Stockholm, forty-five miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Fifty-two persons drowned, or were killed by the impact. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 25 July 1994...Hurricane Gilma, like Emilia a week earlier, reached Category 5 strength in the Central Pacific. (Intellicast)
• 27 July 1866...The 1686-mile long Atlantic Cable was successfully completed between Newfoundland and Ireland by the American businessman Cyrus W. Field, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time. Two previous attempts at laying a cable ended in failure. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
• 27 July 1926...A hurricane came inland near Daytona Beach, FL. The hurricane caused 2.5 million dollars damage in eastern Florida, including the Jacksonville area. (David Ludlum)
• 27 July 1943...On a whim, and flying a single engine AT-6, Lieutenant Ralph O' Hair and Colonel Duckworth were the first to fly into a hurricane. It started regular Air Force flights into hurricanes. (The Weather Channel)
• 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)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.