1-5 August 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.

• NOTE: This entry is for College level Ocean Science News -- Remove from this DataStreme file
  Welcome to attendees at the 27th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning to be held 3-5 August 2011 in Madison, WI.
• How the NOAA Administrator was "smitten by science" -- Recently, the NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco addressed attendees the National Science Youth Foundation Camp Annual Senate Luncheon, describing how she was "bitten by the science bug" as a student in high school. Ultimately, her interest in science led her to become a marine ecologist. She also described how NOAA is involved with science. [NOAA News]
• NOAA Administrator awarded the 2011 Blue Planet Prize -- Last week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, US Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and the NOAA Administrator, was awarded one of the two Blue Planet Prizes for 2011. For the 20th year, this international environmental award sponsored by the Asahi Glass Foundation is given annually to individuals or organizations that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application, which help solve global environmental problems [NOAA News]

• Eye on the tropics --- Several tropical cyclones were detected across the tropical ocean basins of the Northern Hemisphere during the last week.
  In the North Atlantic Basin, the fourth named tropical cyclone of 2011 formed late last week over the southern Gulf of Mexico just to the north of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Named Tropical Storm Don, this system traveled rapidly to the northwest across the western Gulf of Mexico, making landfall along the lower Texas Gulf Coast between Corpus Christi and Brownsville last Friday night. For additional information on Tropical Storm Don, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
  In the eastern North Pacific Basin, Tropical Storm Eugene, the fifth named tropical cyclone of the 2011 eastern Pacific hurricane season, formed on Sunday from a tropical depression over the waters off the coast of southern Mexico. This tropical storm was expected to travel toward the west-northwest, generally remaining well off the Mexican coast.
  In the western North Pacific, Tropical Storm Nock-ten formed from a tropical depression over the Philippine Sea during the early part of last week. This storm strengthened to a category 1 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) before making landfall on Luzon Island in the Philippines. Weakening as it traveled across Luzon, Tropical Storm Nock-ten continued to the west-northwest, reaching China's Hainan Island and the Gulf of Tonkin at the end of the week. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Tropical Storm Nock-ten.
  Tropical Storm Muifa formed last week from a tropical depression south of Guam. Initial movement was to the west and then to the northwest. By this past weekend, this tropical storm had increased to a super typhoon or a category 5 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) with maximum sustained surface winds reaching 160 mph. This typhoon had turned toward the north and was traveling across the western Pacific well to the east of the Philippines. Additional information on this system appear on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• International partnership designed to protect North Atlantic humpback whales -- Last week, officials with NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the Government of Bermuda pledged cooperation on scientific and educational programs designed to better protect the endangered North Atlantic humpback whale population. The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is off the Massachusetts coast. [NOAA News]
• Barrier islands are a featured habitat -- NOAA's Fisheries Service recently featured barrier islands as the Habitat of the Month on its Habitat Conservation web page. [NOAA Habitat Conservation]
• Long-range migrations and habitats of Pacific leatherback turtles mapped --An international team of scientists including those from the NOAA Fisheries Service have been tracking the movement of 126 leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean and the Indo-Pacific seas by satellite. This study is part of a research into how oceanographic features influence migration and foraging behavior of leatherbacks, which should improve conservation efforts for this endangered species. [NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center]
• Tracking an ice island off Labrador -- An image obtained from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite late last week shows the Petermann Ice Island-A that continues to drift southward in the waters of the western North Atlantic Ocean off Canada's Labrador coast. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Ice loss following collapse of Antarctic ice shelves are detailed -- An international team of scientists from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the University of Colorado and France's University of Toulouse have been combining data from satellite and aircraft observations to determine the amount of glacial ice that surges into the ocean following the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves. They hope that their research will help improve predictions of future ice loss and sea level rise likely to result from ongoing changes along the Antarctic Peninsula. [NASA GSFC]
• Assessing Greenland and Antarctic ice contributions to sea level during last interglacial -- Analysis of ocean cores have led researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oregon State University researchers to determine that the contribution from the ice sheet on Greenland to rising sea levels during the last warm interglacial (approximately 125,000 years ago) was less than expected, but more from Antarctica. They conclude that Greenland's ice sheet may have been more stable, while Antarctica's ice sheet could have been less stable. Global sea levels during this last interglacial were approximately 20 feet higher than they are currently. [University of Wisconsin-Madison 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.

• 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 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)
• 4(?) August 1609...A tempest struck the western Atlantic Ocean scattering small British convoy headed to Virginia. Two vessels sank; another, the Sea Venture was presumed lost. However, a ship made landfall on Bermuda, shipwrecking the crew. After a ten-month stay to build two small rescue boats, they sailed to Jamestown (Virginia) Colony. Incident accounts may have provided William Shakespeare with background material for The Tempest. (The Weather Doctor)
• 4 August 1666...A violent hurricane raked the island of Guadeloupe, destroying all boats along its coast, including a 17-ship fleet with 2000 troops. The island's batteries, with 6-foot thick walls, were destroyed and the 16-pounders (large cannons) were washed away. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 4 August 1858...After several unsuccessful attempts, the first trans-Atlantic cable, a 2000-mile submerged telegraph line conceived by Cyrus W. Field, was completed by USS Niagara and British ship Agamemnon. While the first messages were exchanged between President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria on 16 August, the cable ceased functioning in early September. The first permanent trans-Atlantic cable was laid in 1866. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
• 5-6 August 1959...Hurricane Dot crossed Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands producing sustained winds of 103 mph and gusts to 125 mph. Over 6 inches of rain fell there and over 9 inches on the island of Hawaii. The sugar cane crop on Kauai sustained $2.7 million in damages. (Intellicast)
• 5-7 August 1997...Although far to the southwest, Hurricane Guillermo generated surf to 12-foot heights along the beaches of southern California. In Newport Beach, lifeguards made almost 300 rescues on the 5^th and 6^th. Rip currents were responsible for one death and three injuries. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 6 August 1986...A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast of Australia dumped a record 12.91 inches of rain in one day on Sydney. (Wikipedia)
• 7 August 1679...The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes. The ship disappeared on the return leg of its maiden voyage from Lake Michigan. (Wikipedia)

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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.