20-24 June 2011

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2011 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2011. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Happy Summer Solstice! The summer solstice will occur early this afternoon (officially, 21 June 2011 at 1716Z, or 1:16 PM EDT, 12:16 PM CDT, etc.). At that time, the earth's spin axis is oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest north in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical summer, the British call the day the "Midsummer Day", as the apparent sun will begin its southward descent again. For essentially all locations in the northern hemisphere, daylight today will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Wednesday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 22 December 2011 at 0530 Z. However, because the sun is not as perfect a time-keeper as a clock, the latest sunsets of the year at many mid-latitude locations will continue through about the first week of July -- a consequence of the earth being near aphelion (on 4 July 2011) and the apparent sun moving across the sky well to the north of the celestial equator.
  The National Park Service has designated Tuesday, 21 June 2011 as a fee free day in its National Parks in celebration of the First Day of Summer. For more information see National Park Service Fee Free Days for 2011.
• World Hydrography Day celebration -- The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) will celebrate its annual World Hydrography Day on Tuesday 21 June 2011, the 90th anniversary date on which the IHO was created in 1921. The theme for this year's celebration is Human Resources, which is designed to increase public awareness of the vital role played in hydrography in human life. [International Federation of Hydrographic Societies]
• Space weather forum to be held -- The National Space Weather Program Council in conjunction with NOAA's Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research (OFCM) will sponsor Space Weather Enterprise Forum 2011 on Tuesday, 21 June, at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The theme of this year's forum is Solar Maximum: Can We Weather the Storm? and will address the uncertainties associated with the nation's space weather-affected technologies such as for communications, navigation and security. The forum is designed so the space weather community can share information and ideas among policymakers, senior government leaders, researchers, service provider agencies, private sector service providers, space weather information users, media, and legislators. [The National Space Weather Program]

• Eye on the Tropics -- Tropical cyclone activity was found across the tropical North Pacific this past week:
  In the eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Beatriz formed from a tropical depression on Sunday over the waters off the southwestern Mexican coast. As of early Sunday evening, this second named tropical cyclone of the 2011 eastern Pacific hurricane season, had intensified to a strong tropical storm as it traveled to the northwest. Forecasts indicate that this system could become a hurricane before making a possible landfall along the Mexican coast near Manzanillo early this week.
  In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm 6W formed late last week over the waters of the Philippine Sea east of the Philippines. Moving to the northwest, this tropical storm passed to the east and north of Luzon, the main Philippine island during the weekend. The projected track would take the storm to the southeastern China coast by early in the week. For additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm 6W, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Largest Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" predicted due to major Mississippi River flooding -- A team of NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University and the University of Michigan recently made their annual forecast of the size of this upcoming summer's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone (or "dead zone"), warning that it could be the largest ever recorded since mapping of the Gulf "dead zone" began in 1985. They claim that the record size would be due to this spring's extreme flooding of the Mississippi River. [NOAA News]
• Public comments sought on NOAA's scientific integrity policy -- Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator recently announced that public comment was invited through mid August on her agency's draft of a scientific integrity policy that addresses how NOAA ensures quality science in its practices and policies, along with the promotion of ethical behavior. The proposed policy is based on the principles of scientific integrity contained in guidance from the White House. [NOAA News]
• Review of global weather and climate for May 2011 -- Scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center report that the recently concluded month of May was the tenth warmest May since global climate records began in 1880. They based their report on preliminary calculations of the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for May 2011. The worldwide average May land surface temperature was the seventh highest for May since 1880, while the monthly global ocean surface temperature was the eleventh highest on record. In addition, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the tenth highest for the last three months (March through May), considered meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere (fall in the Southern Hemisphere). The scientists concluded that oceanic and atmospheric conditions associated with the recent La Niña event ended during May 2011.
  Snow cover extent across the Northern Hemisphere during May was the third smallest on record. Arctic sea ice was also the third smallest for any May since satellite records began in 1979. On the other hand, the sea ice around Antarctica was above average, resulting in the fourteenth smallest extent for any May on record. [NOAA News]
• Seeing how barrier islands will fare with changing climate and rising sea level -- A study by scientists from Meredith College and Duke University in North Carolina using satellite images from NASA's Landsat 7 satellite assessed how the thousands of the world's barrier islands would fare as the climate would change and sea level would rise. Interestingly, slow rises in sea level appear to help generate new barrier islands, while rapid sea level rises would inundate islands causing their disappearance. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]
• Small changes in climate may assist in growth of oceanic low-oxygen zones -- Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles, Colorado State University and the University of Washington report that expansion of the size of low-oxygen zones in the oceans is sensitive to small changes in climate. Using computer simulations, they found that increased ocean temperatures would reduce the dissolved oxygen, affecting marine life through the reduction in nutrients. [UCLA Newsroom]
• Wondering if evolution can outpace climate change -- In a study conducted on tiny tide pool copepod at the University of California, Davis, researchers found that various plants and animals may not be able to evolve to increase their heat tolerance sufficiently in the face of projected increases in global temperature during the next century. [UC Davis News]
• Assessment report made on Arctic melt -- A new assessment report was recently released by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) that provides 15 key findings concerning the effects of increased global temperatures have upon the climate of the Arctic basin. Many of these findings have been based upon observations made by NASA satellites. AMAP is a working group of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental organization consisting of eight Arctic nations. [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, 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.

• 20 June 1597...Willem Barents, the Dutch explorer who tried to search for the Northeast Passage, died in the Arctic off the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya when his ship became trapped in ice. (Wikipedia)
• 20 June 1819...The 320-ton paddle-wheel SS Savannah arrived in Liverpool, England to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, having left the port of Savannah, GA on 22 May. (InfoPlease Daily Almanac)
• 20 June 1940...The first successful west to east navigation of the Northwest Passage began at Vancouver, BC. (Wikipedia)
• 21 June 1791...A hurricane, called El Temporal de Barreto - the storm of Barreto, generated a monster ocean wave that carried off the coffin of a rich, but hated, count as he lay in state in his mansion near Havana, Cuba. (The Weather Doctor)
• 21 June 1886...A destructive hurricane hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida on the summer solstice. Extensive damage was done in Florida and throughout the southeast by this storm, which was the first hurricane of the year. Damage was due mainly to extremely high tides. (Intellicast)
• 21 June 1961...The first practical plant for the conversion of seawater to drinking water at Freeport, TX was dedicated when President John Kennedy pressed a switch installed in his Washington, DC office. The plant was capable of producing about a million gallons of water a day, supplying fresh water to Freeport at a cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons. The large-scale evaporation method used then has now been replaced by reverse osmosis as special polymers are now used as filtering membranes. (Today in Science History)
• 22 June 1675...The Royal Greenwich Observatory was created by Royal Warrant in England by Charles II, with its practical astronomy serving as its primary mission, including navigation, timekeeping and the determination of star positions. In 1767 the observatory began publishing The Nautical Almanac, which established the longitude of Greenwich as a baseline for time calculations. The almanac's popularity among navigators led in part to the adoption (1884) of the Greenwich meridian as the Earth's prime meridian (0° longitude) and the international time zones. (Today in Science History)
• 22 June 1948...Congress enacted Public Law 738, which authorized the operation of floating ocean stations for the purpose of providing search and rescue communication and air-navigation facilities, and meteorological services in such ocean areas as are regularly traversed by aircraft of the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 23 June 1501...The Portuguese navigator, Pedro Alvares Cabral, returned to Portugal after a voyage during which he claimed Brazil for Portugal and then journeyed to India in search of pepper and spices. (Wikipedia)
• 23 June 1611...English navigator Henry Hudson was set adrift along with his son and seven loyal crew members in an open boat in Hudson Bay by mutineers on his ship Discovery; they were never seen again. He was on his fourth voyage and he had become famous for attempting to find a route from Europe to Asia via the Arctic Ocean. (Wikipedia)
• 23 June 1716...The Province of Massachusetts authorized erection of first lighthouse in America on Great Brewster Island, Boston Harbor. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 23 June 1938...The first "oceanarium" opened at Marineland in St. Augustine, FL. (Today in Science History)
• 24 June 1497...The Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni (John) Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland, claiming the continent for England. (Wikipedia)
• 26 June 1954...Eight fishermen were swept off the breakwater of the Montrose Harbor in Chicago, IL by a seiche on Lake Michigan. At the time, this killer wave rose suddenly from a serene Lake Michigan; sunny skies and calm wind conditions were reported. The seiche, produced by an earlier squall on the lake, caused the lake water to rise ten feet. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 26 June 1959...Following an opening ceremony attended by President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II, 28 naval vessels sailed from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, marking the formal opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to seagoing ships. The Seaway consists of a navigational channel system of canals, locks, and dredged waterways, permitting travel from the Gulf of St. Lawrence nearly 2500 miles inland to Duluth, MN on Lake Superior. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
• 26 June 1986...Hurricane Bonnie made landfall on the upper Texas coast. A wind gust to 98 mph occurred at Sea Rim State Park. The town of Ace recorded 13 inches of rain. (Intellicast)
• 26 June-7 July 1989...Tropical Storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico from remnants of Hurricane Cosme in the eastern North Pacific. Periods of heavy rain caused flooding across parts of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Winnfield, LA reported a six-day total of 29.52 inches of rain. This system was responsible for eleven deaths and approximately $500 million in damage. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

Return to DataStreme Ocean website

Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.