WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

14-18 May 2012

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2012. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

Hurricane season begins in the eastern North Pacific -- The 2012 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin begins on Tuesday, 15 May 2012. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will begin in two weeks on 1 June. The official hurricane seasons in both basins end on 30 November 2011. NOAA has declared the week of 27 May-2 June 2012 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
North American Safe Boating Week -- Commencing this coming Saturday, the week of 19-25 May has been declared 2012 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2012 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- Only one tropical cyclone was found across any of the globe's ocean basins during the last week. In the Southern Indian Ocean basin, a weak tropical storm, identified as Tropical Storm 19S, formed over the waters developed early last week over the waters of the Banda Sea northeast of Timor. Traveling to the southeast, this tropical storm was relatively short lived, as it dissipated within 18 hours. For more information and satellite images on Tropical Storm 19S, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
Hurricane re-analysis project for North Atlantic revises list for 1930s -- Scientists at NOAA's National Hurricane Center and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory are undertaking the Atlantic Hurricane Database Re-analysis Project, an effort designed to extend and revise the Center's North Atlantic hurricane database (or HURDAT) that commences in 1851. Recently they have reanalyzed the 1931 through 1935 seasons, adding 14 newly discovered tropical storms to the list and removing four existing storms. conducted a and revisiting storms in more recent years, information on tropical cyclones is revised using an enhanced collection of historical meteorological data in the context of today's scientific understanding of hurricanes and analysis techniques. [NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory]
Public invited to comment on proposal to protect sea turtles from trawlers -- In compliance with a court agreement, NOAA's Fisheries Service will be accepting public comment for the next two months on a proposed rule that would require turtle excluder devices be placed on several types of shrimp trawls to be used in Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic shrimp fisheries. [NOAA News]
Flow from Mississippi River helped keep Deep Horizon oil slick offshore -- Geoscientists at the University of Pennsylvania claim that the force associated with the flow of the lower Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico created sufficient quantities of river water to create a dome of fresh water that pushed most of the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon explosion away from the northern Gulf Coast. [University of Pennsylvania News]
Pumping groundwater would lead to sea level rise -- Researchers from the Netherlands and Taiwan claim that by 2050, worldwide pumping of groundwater for irrigation, public consumption and industrial uses would cause a global rise in sea level by approximately 0.8 mm per year. The researchers noted that the sea level rise attributed to groundwater pumping was countered between about 1970 and 1990 by dams that trapped water before the water returned to the oceans. [American Geophysical Union]
Ocean habitats altered by plastic trash -- In a study conducted at the University of California-San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, researchers report that human-produced plastic garbage spreading across the world's oceans have been altering the habitats in the marine environment. The study was a part of the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) to the North Pacific Ocean Subtropical Gyre [University of California-San Diego News Center]
Warming of the Arctic appears to favor European weather extremes -- A meteorologist at Germany's GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel claims that the frequency and magnitude of recent weather extremes across Europe including summer heat waves and winter cold spells appear to be closely linked to recent Arctic warming that has accelerated the retreat of Arctic sea ice and the warming of the ocean surface. Changes in atmospheric circulation patterns could result that favor the weather extremes. [Alfred Wegener Institute]
Cuts to national observation programs could imperil weather and climate forecasts -- A new report from the National Research Council warns that a rapid decline in the nation's Earth observation capabilities could occur in the near future, which would result in less accurate weather and climate forecasts. The nation's observational capabilities could fall to only 25 percent of current levels because many of the nation's observational satellites are approaching the end of their expected lifetimes and budget shortfalls have meant that new satellite missions have been running behind schedule or remained unfunded. [Climate Central]
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:

14 May 1836...U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, the first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific. (Naval Historical Center)
15 May 1934...Lightship No. 117, occupying the Nantucket Shoals Station, in a dense fog, was struck by the RMS Olympic and sank on station with the loss of seven crew members. (USCG Historian's Office)
15-24 May 1951...Hurricane Able did a "loop-the-loop" north of the Bahamas and reached Category 3 strength off Cape Hatteras, NC. (The Weather Doctor)
16 May 1917...Marquette, MI had its latest opening of navigation on Lake Superior in history. (Intellicast)
17-21 May 1887...An early season tropical storm raked Cuba and The Bahamas. (The Weather Doctor)
17 May 1970...The Norwegian ethnologist, Thor Heyerdahl, and a multinational crew set sail on a trans-Atlantic voyage from Morocco on Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after the ancient Egyptian vessels in an effort to prove his theory that Mediterranean sailors reached the Americas in ancient times. After 57 days, the Ra II reached Barbados. (The History Channel)
19 May 1535...French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail on his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage). (Wikipedia)
19 May 1912...The US Navy established the North Atlantic Ice Patrol following the RMS Titanic disaster. (Naval Historical Center)
20 May 1497...John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a 2 May date). (Wikipedia)
20 May 1498...The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama became the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrived at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut) on the Malabar Coast, after departing Lisbon, Portugal in July 1497. (The History Channel) (Wikipedia)
20 May 1570...Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas. (Wikipedia)
20 May 1845...HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sailed from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands were lost. (Wikipedia)
20 May 1964...The first U.S. atomic-powered lighthouse was put into operation in the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore Harbor, MD. Designed to supply a continuous flow of electricity for ten years without refueling, the 60-watt nuclear generator generated heat from strontium-90 in the form of strontium titinate, a safe radioisotope. The heat was converted to electricity by 120 pairs of lead telluride thermocouples. Complete with shielding, the unit was only 34.5 inches high and 22 inches in diameter. It was designed and produced by the nuclear division of Martin-Marietta Corp. (Today in Science History)
20 May 1999...A devastating cyclone, packing winds of up to 170 mph and a high storm surge, struck the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Some 600 villages were devastated and more than 400 people killed. (The Weather Doctor)