WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

11-15 June 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:

Chief operating officer for NOAA appointed -- Recently, Rear Admiral David Titley, USN, was named the new Deputy Under Secretary for Operations at NOAA. He will be responsible for managing the agency's operations and will also serve as a key advisor to Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA Administrator and the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. Editor's note: The staff at the AMS Education Program congratulate Dr. Titley as he has been a friend to the program for several years, addressing K-12 science educators and undergraduate faculty at AERA Summer Training Sessions and AMS Diversity Workshops in Ocean and Climate Studies. EJH [NOAA News]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week tropical cyclone activity was relatively light across the world's tropical ocean basins:
In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Mawar intensified to become a major category 3 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale early last week as it traveled to the northeast to the southeast of Japan. However, by midweek, Mawar weakened and became a tropical storm. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite imagery and additional information on Typhoon Mawar.
In the South Indian Ocean Basin, Tropical Storm Kuena formed near the Seychelles at midweek. However, this tropical storm was relatively short-lived, as it dissipated within a day. Additional information on Tropical Storm Kuena along with satellite imagery is available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
El Niño watch issued -- During the last week, forecasters at National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center issued an El Niño watch since they feel that a 50 percent chance that El Niño conditions could develop during the second half of 2012. An El Niño event represents anomalous atmospheric and oceanic circulation conditions associated with anomalously warm water in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Currently, ENSO-neutral conditions prevail across the equatorial Pacific. ENSO stands for El Niño Southern Oscillation and ENSO-neutral conditions are associated with relatively small anomalies or departures in the sea surface temperatures from long-term average values across the equatorial Pacific Ocean east of the Dateline. [NWS Climate Prediction Center]
Seeing a more colorful ocean from space -- In observance of World Oceans Day last week, NOAA officials released an ocean color image for the world's oceans showing the May 2012 average global chlorophyll concentration produced from data produced by the VIIRS sensor on NOAA's new Suomi NPP satellite. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Massive algal blooms found under Arctic sea ice --A scientist at Stanford University who participated in the NASA-sponsored ICESCAPE expedition in 2011 reports that his team of interdisciplinary scientists found a massive phytoplankton bloom under the Arctic pack ice that covers a portion of the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait. Until recently, no phytoplankton was assumed to reside below the ice. This discovery should affect how scientists think of Arctic ecosystems especially as the region warms. [Stanford University News]
Arctic ice melt could create severe winters -- Researchers at Cornell University report that the melting of Arctic sea ice appears to be capable of triggering severe winter weather outbreaks across the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic Oscillation could create conditions that favor cold air invasions across North America and Europe accompanied by strong winds and heavy precipitation. [Cornell University Press Relations Office]
Arctic site reports record concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide -- An atmospheric scientist with NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) recently reported that the NOAA sampling station a Barrow, AK reported an atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide had reached 400 parts per million in April, which represents a record monthly amount for any Arctic station. [NOAA Research]
Current climate appears more sensitive to carbon dioxide than over past 12 million years -- A team of paleoclimate researchers who produced the first continuous reconstructions of Pacific Ocean temperatures during the late Miocene epoch (12 million to 5 million years ago) claim that unlike current times, the climate in the Miocene appeared decoupled from atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. At that time, carbon dioxide levels were near those prior to the Industrial Revolution, but Miocene temperatures over the North Pacific were as much as 14 Fahrenheit degrees above current readings. [NSF 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:

11 June 1644...The Florentine scientist, Evangelista Torricelli described in a letter the invention of a barometer, or "torricellian tube." (Today in Science History)
11 June 1764...The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
11 June 1770...The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia when he ran aground. (Information Please)
11 June 1847...The English naval officer and an Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to locate the Northwest Passage.
12 June 1925...Lake Huron Lightship radio fog signal was placed in commission, the first signal of this kind on the Great Lakes. (USCG Historian's Office)
12 June 1991...On the same day that Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines awakened from its 635-year slumber, Typhoon Yunya crossed Luzon province. Mudslides and flooding caused many deaths and when added to the impacts of Pinatubo left more than a million homeless. (The Weather Doctor)
13 June 1415...Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa.
13 June 1881...The steamer USS Jeannette was crushed in Arctic ice pack north of Siberia as the 1879-1881 Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong, USN, attempted to reach the North Pole by ship. (Naval Historical Center)
13 June 1977...A tropical cyclone crossed the Arabian Sea from near the Laccadive Islands off southwest India and slammed into the island of Masirah, sultanate of Oman. Winds reached at least 104 mph and the 24-hour rainfall total was 16.95 inches. About 99% of buildings were damaged. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
14 June 1834...The first US patent for a practical underwater diving suit was issued to Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, ME. One month earlier, he tested his suit, an airtight leather outfit with a brass helmet connected via a rubber hose to an air bellows pump on a boat, in the Webb River. (Today in Science History)
15 June 1744...British Admiral George Anson returned to England after circumnavigating the globe in an expedition that lasted nearly four years.
15 June 1990...The first use of bioremediation in open waters was to treat an oil slick from the supertanker Mega Borg following an explosion and fire on 8 June 1990 approximately 70 miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX. The 3-day bioremediation tests were conducted using oil-metabolizing bacteria and nutrients. The results of the tests were inconclusive. (Today in Science History)
Month of June...According to a 1969 US Army technical report, the average dewpoint temperature at Ras Andahglie and Assab, Eritrea (Ethiopia) average slightly more than 84 degrees Fahrenheit. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 June 1903...The famous Norwegian explorer, Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, began the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by leaving Oslo, Norway on the ship Gjøa. Amundsen and six others spent two winters exploring over land and ice from the place currently called Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada. (Wikipedia)
17 June 1579...During his "Famous Voyage," Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, claimed San Francisco Bay for England, calling the region along the northern California coast "Nova Albion" (meaning, New England). (Wikipedia)
16-18 June 1972...The greatest three-day rainfall in Hong Kong since 1889 produced 25.68 inches and resulted in disastrous landslides and building collapses. More than 100 people died, while thousands were made homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)