4-8 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.

• 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 -- Although temperatures continue to increase across the Northern Hemisphere following the summer solstice the previous week, the weather across the tropical ocean basins remained relatively quiet last week.
  In the North Atlantic Basin, the first named tropical cyclone formed at the midpoint of last week over the waters of the Bay of Campeche in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. This system, which was identified as Tropical Storm Arlene, traveled westward and made landfall along the eastern coast of Mexico, accompanied by 50-mph wind gusts and some heavy rain bands. Rapidly weakening after landfall, remnants of this tropical storm moved westward across the mountains of Mexico. Satellite images and additional information associated with Tropical Storm Arlene can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  In the western North Pacific, Tropical Storm Meari made landfall at the start of last week over North Korea. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Meari can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page. [Editor's note: The title should read North Korea, not North Vietnam. EJH]
• End of La Niña raises uncertainty in climate outlooks -- Recent sea surface data collected by the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite indicate that the recent La Niña event has essentially ended across the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the month of June 2011, with a return to "normal conditions." A climatologist and oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discusses how the current period between La Niña and El Niño patterns represent a high degree of uncertainty for long-range climate forecasters who are producing seasonal and longer climate outlooks. [NASA JPL]
• Archaeological survey of Civil War shipwrecks is conducted -- Early last week a team from NOAA and the US Navy conducted a two-day archaeological survey of the remains of the USS Cumberland and CSS Florida, two sunken Civil War vessels in the James River at Hampton Roads, VA. The researchers on the team used state-of-the-art sonar technology to create three-dimensional maps of the two shipwrecks that can be used to analyze their condition. [NOAA News]
• Bluefin tuna fishing quotas set -- Officials with NOAA Fisheries Service announced last week that quotas and other measures to manage the nation's bluefin tuna fishery were being implemented. The total quota for the United States had been set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in November. [NOAA News]
• Changing climate could affect zooplankton in ocean waters with low oxygen -- A researcher at the University of Rhode Island claims that changes in climate could adversely affect those marine zooplankton that have adapted to areas of the ocean with relatively low oxygen levels. [University of Rhode Island]
• Science should drive Great Lakes policy on Asian carp -- Researchers at Michigan State University argue that action based upon science should be taken as soon as possible to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. [Michigan State University]
• Earthquake triggers in the Pacific basin are studied -- Scientists associated with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project (CRISP) Expedition report that rock and sediment samples collected from a nearly 1500-meter core drilled in the eastern Pacific Ocean may help explain the cause of large, destructive earthquakes similar to the Tohoku Earthquake that struck Japan in mid-March. [Integrated Ocean Drilling Program]
• Drilling through hardest rocks in the ocean crust -- Geologists associated with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) recently completed drilling a 1500-meter borehole in the seafloor of the eastern Pacific Ocean, through some of the hardest basaltic rocks. This expedition is the fourth in a program designed to provide a better understanding of the crystalline magma forming the ocean floor. [Integrated Ocean Drilling Program]

• New climate normals put released -- During the last week, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center issued the new national climate normals that represent averages for the three decades running from 1981-2010, which replace the older normal values calculated for the 1971-2000 reference period. The NOAA scientists also noted that the nation's average temperature increased by approximately 0.5 Fahrenheit degrees between the old and new normal periods. Overnight minimum values tended to increase more than daytime high temperatures. [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:

• 4 July 1687...An early experience of a tropical revolving storm was made by Captain William Dampier, whose ship survived what he called a "tuffoon" off the coast of China. In New Voyage Round the World, (published in 1697) Dampier wrote that this violent whirlwind storm had a calm central eye, and its winds moved from opposite directions as the storm moved passed. This was one of the earliest known European descriptions of a typhoon, which also presented a new understanding that storms somehow move, rather than remain stationary. During his ocean travels, he kept a detailed journal, noting native cultures, and made careful descriptions of natural history which in effect made him an early contributor to scientific exploration. (Today in Science History)
• 4 July 1840...The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer, RMS Britannia, departed from Liverpool, England bound for Halifax, NS on its first transatlantic passenger cruise. (Wikipedia)
• 4 July 1903...President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first official message over the new cable across the Pacific Ocean between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. (Today in Science History)
• 5 July 1805...Robert FitzRoy, British naval officer, hydrographer and meteorologist, was born. He was also commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle aboard which Charles Darwin sailed around the world as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. FitzRoy retired from active duty in 1850 and from 1854 devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). His death on 30 April 1865 was by suicide, during a bout of depression. (Today in Science History)
• 5 July 1916...An early season hurricane produced 82-mph winds, an 11.6-foot tide, and a barometric pressure of 28.92 inches at Mobile, AL. (David Ludlum)
• 5 July 1989...Moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Allison triggered thunderstorms over the Middle Atlantic Coast Region, which deluged Wilmington, DE with a record 6.83 inches of rain in 24 hours, including 6.37 inches in just six hours. Up to ten inches of rain was reported at Claymont, northeast of Wilmington. July 1989 was thus the wettest month in seventy years for Wilmington, with a total of 12.63 inches of rain. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• 6 July 1484...Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão located the mouth of the Congo River. (Wikipedia)
• 6 July 1988...The world's worst offshore accident occurred when 167 oil workers were killed by explosions and fires that destroyed the Piper Alpha drilling platform in the British sector of the North Sea.
• 7 July 1901...First three-day weather forecast issued for the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 7 July 1952...The liner SS United States made the fastest-ever eastbound crossing of the Atlantic of 3 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes on her maiden voyage from Nantucket Light Ship off New York's Long Island to Bishop Rock Lighthouse in western England.
• 8 July 1497...The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, set sail from Lisbon, Portugal with four ships on the first direct European voyage to India, first rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and reaching Calicut on India's southwest coast on 20 May 1498. (Wikipedia)
• 8 July 1879...The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, CA.

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