27 June-1 July 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.

• Welcome to the weather, climate and ocean educators attending the 2011 DataStreme LIT Leader Workshop that is being held at Green Bay, WI from 26 to 29 June 2011.
• Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun on Monday morning (officially at 15Z on 4 July 2011, which is equivalent to 11 AM EDT or 10 AM CDT). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year on the early evening of 3 January 2011.

• Eye on the Tropics -- During last week, tropical cyclone activity continued across the tropical North Pacific Ocean.
  In the eastern section of the basin, Tropical Storm Beatriz intensified to a category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) early in the week as it traveled to the north-northwest toward the Mexican coast. Beatriz was the second hurricane of the 2011 hurricane season in the eastern Pacific. After brushing the Mexican coast and turning toward the west, Beatriz weakened and dissipated by midweek. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Beatriz.
  In the Western North Pacific Ocean, Tropical Storm Haima passed to the north of Luzon Island in the Philippines and traveled westward across the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin to make land fall on northern Vietnam. For additional information on Tropical Storm Haima, along with satellite imagery, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Another tropical storm, which was identified as Meari, developed early in the week over the waters the western Pacific near Yap and Palua. This tropical storm traveled generally northward over the East China Sea through the week and into the Yellow Sea off the western coast of the Korean Peninsula over this past weekend. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Tropical Storm Meari.
• Public input requested in efforts to address sea turtle mortality --NOAA officials recently announced that the agency was stepping-up efforts to address the increases in sea turtle mortality that were occurring along the nation's Gulf Coast. As part of this effort, NOAA is seeking public opinion, scheduling a series of public meetings in mid-July in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and North Carolina designed to obtain public comments for a draft Environmental Impact Statement. [NOAA News]
• Keel laid for new NOAA fisheries survey vessel -- Early last week, a keel-laying ceremony was held in Marinette, WI for a new NOAA fisheries survey vessel Reuben Lasker. This 208-foot long vessel will have state of the art equipment in order to conduct surveys for fish, marine mammals and turtles off the US West Coast and in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. [NOAA News]
• NOAA Administrator addresses the Arctic Symposium -- Early last week, Jane Lubchenco, PhD, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of NOAA addressed the 4th Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations in Washington, DC. She identified six guiding principles that she felt useful in framing decisions needed to help achieve success in dealing with growing issues in the Arctic, where ice has been diminishing. [NOAA News]
• Comments on creation of a NOAA Climate Service -- Last week, Jane Lubchenco, PhD, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of NOAA addressed the Committee On Science, Space and Technology of the US House Of Representatives concerning the proposed reorganization designed to create a Climate Service line office in NOAA as presented in President Obama's budget for Fiscal Year 2012. [NOAA News]
• Managing funds to protect the nation's domestic fishing industry -- Early last week, Eric Schwaab, NOAA's Assistant Administrator for Fisheries and Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service testified before the US Senate's Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. His testimony involved the actions taken by NOAA to improve its enforcement program and how the agency is managing funds to support the domestic fishing industry. [NOAA News]
• Second season of ICESCAPE sets sail -- Over this past weekend, the second year of a NASA-funded field campaign called ICESCAPE mission, ("Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment") began as research teams departed Dutch Harbor in Alaska on board the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy. This five-week field campaign will be deploying instruments and making measurements in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in an effort to see how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]
• California Current found to be a major corridor of life in the Pacific -- Scientists from Stanford University, University of California-Santa Cruz and the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center who have been participating in the Census of Marine Life Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) project have found that the California Current that flows southward along the West Coast of North America is a major location for large marine predators and is part of the trans-oceanic migration highway called the North Pacific Transition Zone. [EurekAlert!]
• Rise in sea level is fastest in two millennia -- A team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation reports that their reconstruction of a sea level record since 200 BC from sediment cores in coastal salt marshes of North Carolina indicates the current rise of sea level along the Atlantic Coast of the US is the greatest in the last 2000 years. The results also show a consistent link between global surface temperature and sea level. [NSF]
• 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.

• 27 June 1898...The first solo circumnavigation of the globe was completed in slightly more than three years by the Canadian seaman and adventurer Joshua Slocum of Briar Island, NS when he returned to Newport, RI after sailing the 37-foot Spray a distance of 46,000 miles. After completing this voyage Slocum wrote the classic book, Sailing Alone Around the World describing his adventure. (Wikipedia)
• 27-29 June 1954...Excessive rains from remnants of Hurricane Alice led to the Rio Grande River's worst flood. Up to 27.1 inches of rain fell at Pandale, TX. As many as 55 people died from the flooding. The river crest at Laredo, TX broke the previous highest record by 12.6 feet. The roadway on the US. 90 bridge over the Pecos River was covered by 30 feet of water on the 27^th. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (David Ludlum)
• 27 June 1957...Hurricane Audrey smashed ashore at Cameron, LA drowning 381 persons in the storm tide, and causing 150 million dollars damage in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Audrey left only a brick courthouse and a cement-block icehouse standing at Cameron, and when the waters settled in the town of Crede, only four buildings remained. The powerful winds of Audrey tossed a fishing trawler weighing 78 tons onto an offshore drilling platform. Winds along the coast gusted to 105 mph, and oilrigs off the Louisiana coast reported wind gusts to 180 mph. A storm surge greater than twelve feet inundated the Louisiana coast as much as 25 miles inland. It was the deadliest June hurricane of record for the U.S. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 27 June 1978...SEASAT, an experimental U.S. ocean surveillance satellite was launched. Each day, SEASAT made 14 orbits of the Earth, and in a period of 36 hours was able to monitor nearly 96% of the oceanic surface. The measurement equipment on board was able to penetrate cloud cover and report measurements such as wave height, water temperature, currents, winds, icebergs, and coastal characteristics. Although it operated for only 99 days before a power failure, it had already shown the viability of the use of a satellite for collecting oceanic data. The information collected was shared with scientists and was used to aid transoceanic travel by ships and aircraft. (Today in Science History)
• 27-29 June 1997...Although thousands of miles away, a strong low pressure system southeast of New Zealand produced surf up to seven feet, with occasional sets to ten feet, along Hawaii's south-facing coasts. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 28 June 1983...A waterspout was sighted over Hazin Bay on the Yukon-Kuskokwim coast of Alaska. Satellites detected thunderstorms in the area. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 28 June 1992...A slow moving tropical depression produced excessive rains across southwest Florida. Four-day totals ending on the 28^th, ranged up to 25 inches in the Venice area, with a general 8 to 14 inches over Sarasota and Manatee counties. Two deaths resulted from the flooding. (Intellicast)
• 29 June 1860...The replacement to the first iron-pile lighthouse in the U.S. was completed at Minot's Ledge, near Scituate, Massachusetts, replacing the one at the same site that was built between 1847 and 1850, lighted 1 Jan 1850 but destroyed in a storm in April 1851. In 1860, the last stone was laid for the new Minot's Ledge lighthouse, five years minus one day after workmen first landed at the ledge. The final cost of about $300,000 made it one of the most expensive lighthouses in U.S. history. It stood off Boston's south shore, just outside Boston Harbor to warn ships of rocks that had claimed many vessels. The first granite block was laid for the new lighthouse on 9 Jul 1857. The lantern room and second order Fresnel lens were put into place and illuminated on 22 Aug 1860. This structure has withstood all storms since, and stands to this day. (Today in Science History)
• 29 June 1982...The Soviet Union launched COSPAS I, the first search and rescue satellite ever launched. In combination with later SARSAT satellites, a new multi-agency, international, search and rescue service was made operational. On 11 September 1982, it was credited with helping to save the crew of Cessna 172, a Canadian airplane. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 30 June 1886...The second destructive hurricane in nine days hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida. (David Ludlum)
• 30 June 1972...The entire state of Pennsylvania was declared a disaster area because of the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes, which claimed 48 lives, and caused 2.1 billion dollars damage. (The Weather Channel)
• 30 June 1989...The remains of tropical storm Allison dropped copious amounts of rain on Louisiana. Winnfield, LA reported 22.52 inches of rain in three days, and more than thirty inches for the month, a record for June. Shreveport received a record 17.11 inches in June, with a total for the first six months of the year of 45.55 inches. Thunderstorms also helped produce record rainfall totals for the month of June of 13.12 inches at Birmingham, AL, 14.66 inches at Oklahoma City, OK, 17.41 inches at Tallahassee, FL, 9.97 inches at Lynchburg, VA, and more than 10.25 inches at Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh had also experienced a record wet month of May. (The National Weather Summary) (Intellicast)
• 1 July 1792...A tremendous storm (a tornado or hurricane) hit Philadelphia and New York City. Many young people were drowned while out boating on that Sunday. (David Ludlum)
• 1 July 1885...The United States terminated reciprocity and a fishery agreement with Canada. (Wikipedia)
• 2 July 1578...The British seaman and explorer, Martin Frobisher sighted Baffin Island, one of Canada's Arctic islands. (Wikipedia)
• 2-6 July 1994... Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Alberto produced major flooding across northern and central Georgia. Three-day rains exceeded 15 inches at Atlanta. An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA on the 6^th to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. Numerous road closures and bridge washouts. Thirty people were killed and 50,000 were forced from their homes, as 800,000 acres were flooded. Total damage exceeded $750 million.. (NCDC) (Intellicast)
• 3 July 1903...The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced and completed between San Francisco on the US West Coast, Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila in the Philippines. After testing, the first official message was sent the next day. A cable between San Francisco and Hawaii had been established at the beginning of the same year, with its first official message sent on 1 Jan 1903. This technological event ended Hawaii's isolation by connecting it to the mainland U.S. and the rest of the world. The cable was a mainstay of communications into the early 1950s when newer technology rendered it obsolete. (The 1902 all-British telegraph line from Canada to Australia and New Zealand was the first line to cross the Pacific Ocean.) (Today in Science History)
• 3 July 1992...At 11 PM EDT, several waves to heights of 18 feet crashed ashore at Daytona Beach, FL. Sailboats were tossed onto cars, 200 vehicles damaged and 75 minor injuries reported. While the exact cause was unknown, morning storms were moving parallel to the coast approximately 430 miles to the east. (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, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.