WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

16-20 July 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.

Item of Interest:

Zenithal Sun -- Residents of Honolulu will experience a noontime sun that would be directly overhead during this week (15-17 July). This occurrence of a zenithal sun is one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents of Honolulu and the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The other time when the Oahu experienced a zenithal sun was in late May. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
State of the climate examined for 2011-- Last week, NOAA, in coordination with the American Meteorological Society, released a peer-review report entitled the 2011 State of the Climate that notes two La Niña events at the start and end of 2011 cooled the globe sufficiently to cause the global temperature for the calendar year to be the lowest since 2008, even though the annual temperature remained above the 30-year average. This 22nd annual State of the Climate report, complied by 378 scientists from 48 nations, provides a detailed update on 43 global-scale climate indicators, notable weather events and other data collected by a global network of environmental monitoring stations and instruments onboard satellite platforms. The concentrations of greenhouse gases climbed, while the Arctic sea ice extent decreased. The report noted that many extreme events occurred at regional and local levels, including historic drought, record flooding, major heat waves and numerous tornado outbreaks. A supplementary paper, Explaining Extreme Events of 2011 from a Climate Perspective, was produced by NOAA and the United Kingdom's Met Office. [NOAA News]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- During the last week, organized tropical cyclone activity was confined to the eastern North Pacific basin:
Hurricane Daniel, the third hurricane of 2012 in the basin, intensified to become a major category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale over last weekend as it traveled westward well to the south of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. By midweek, Daniel had weakened to a tropical storm and then to a tropical depression as it continued to travel to the west, crossing longitude 140 degrees west as it entered the central North Pacific basin. The remnant low that had been Hurricane Daniel was responsible for strong winds at Hilo, on Hawaii's Big Island. For more information on Hurricane Daniel, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
Tropical Storm Emilia, the fifth named tropical cyclone of the 2012 eastern North Pacific season, formed well off the southwestern Mexican coast last weekend. Traveling to the west-northwest, this tropical storm intensified to a major category 4 hurricane early in the week. Hurricane Emilia continued toward the west, weakening to a tropical storm by last Friday. This system should continue to weaken on Sunday as it moves to the west toward the central North Pacific basin, passing to the south of the Hawaiian Islands as a tropical depression by midweek. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Emilia.
A tropical depression formed over the waters south of Manzanillo, Mexico and intensified to become a tropical storm and then a hurricane late last week as it traveled toward the west. Named Hurricane Fabio, this system quickly intensified to become a category 2 hurricane late last Saturday as it traveled toward the northwest. This hurricane was forecast to weaken as it travels northward over cooler waters off Baja California. Satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Fabio can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Hurricane awareness week in New England -- During week of 16-20 July, four of the five New England States will observe Hurricane Awareness Week. The fifth state, Vermont, recognizes Hurricane Preparedness Day on Monday, 16 July 2012.
NOAA Administrator addresses the International Coral Reef Symposium 2012 -- Early last week, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, presented the opening keynote address to the International Coral Reef Symposium 2012 that was being held in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The title of her address was "From Science to Policy: Using Science to Inform Coral Reef Conservation and Management." [NOAA News]
Yellowtail flounder allocation adjusted for US Georges Bank -- Late last week, NOAA officials announced that the agency will adjust the 2012 Georges Bank yellowtail flounder quotas for both commercial scallop and groundfish fisheries to preserve fishing opportunities for both industries. This adjustment had been recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council, with input from other groups. [NOAA News]
Joint US-Canadian study of Lake Huron ecosystem is underway -- US and Canadian researchers, including those from the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), are currently participating in the 2012 Lake Huron Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative that represents an international effort to study the effects of invasive species, water quality, fisheries and climate change on the Lake. This joint U.S.-Canadian program, led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Great Lakes National Program Office and Environment Canada, is conducted primarily around the NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. [NOAA News]
Lake Michigan warms with record heat --The record heat that the Midwest experienced during the first week of July 2012 helped warm Lake Michigan. MODIS sensors on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites and the water temperature sensors on NOAA's instrumented buoy moored in southern Lake Michigan reported surface water temperatures that reached the upper 70s and even 80 degrees. The 80-degree water temperature was the earliest on record and was more than 15 Fahrenheit degrees above average for early July. [NWSFO Milwaukee-Sullivan]
Viruses linked to algae controlling coral health -- Scientists at Oregon State University have discovered two viruses that appear to infect those single-cell algae residing in corals that are important for coral health and growth. The researchers claim that the viruses could play a role in the worldwide decline of coral ecosystems. [Oregon State University News]
Winds had a role in keeping Gulf oil spill from South Florida -- Scientists at the University of Miami, the Colorado School of Mines and the Naval Research Laboratory found that their numerical ocean model simulations indicate that the winds over the Gulf of Mexico during spring 2010 played a crucial role in producing surface drift in the upper layers of the Gulf waters that transported the oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon disaster away from South Florida. [Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science]
Trigger found for rapid rises in prehistoric sea level -- A team of scientists from the United Kingdom's University of Bristol report finding the cause of the rapid rise in sea level during two events that occurred approximately 14,600 years ago with the Meltwater pulse 1a and at 8200 years ago. Employing climate and ice sheet models, they claim that the "saddle-collapse" process was responsible in which domes of ice over North America became separated in the saddle area, leading to rapid melting and the opening of an ice-free corridor. [University of Bristol Press Releases]
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:

17 July 1858...The U.S. sloop Niagara departed Queenstown, Ireland to assist in laying the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. (Naval Historical Center)
17 July 1994...The Polar Sea departed from Victoria, BC on operation Arctic Ocean Section 1994 and became the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole. She then transited the Arctic Ocean back to her home port in Seattle, WA. (USCG Historian's Office)
17 July 1998...A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroyed 10 villages in Papua, New Guinea killing an estimated 1500 people, leaving 2000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless. (Wikipedia)
18 July 1986...Videotapes, taken by the deep-sea Alvin submersible, showing SS Titanic's remains were released. Looking like huge stalagmites, rusticles ("rust icicles") are a byproduct of the bacteria slowly converting the iron in the hull. The colony of iron-eating bacteria flourishes in the anaerobic (without oxygen) environment inside the hollow multi-layered rusticles while on the outside, porous layers support oxygen-dependent bacteria. In this eerie way, there is still life on the Titanic as the ship lies deep on the ocean floor. (Today in Science History)
18-19 July 1979...A 30-foot high tsunami wave leveled four Indonesian villages on the Sunda Islands during the night. The wave swept 1500 feet inland, causing 589 deaths among the sleeping villagers. A landslide from Mount Werung (Lomblen Island) caused the tsunami. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-22 July 1997...Hurricane Danny, the only hurricane that made landfall in the continental US in 1997, moved inland into coastal Alabama at a snails pace. Radar storm total estimates of 43 inches over Mobile Bay. A torrential 32.52 inches of rain fell on 19-20 July at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Alabama. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
19 July 1843...The first all-metal liner, the SS Great Britain, was launched from Bristol, England. Designed by I. K. Brunel, the SS Great Britain was the first of the great steamships. She was the world's first screw-propeller driven (and first iron-hulled) steamship to cross the Atlantic (1845). The six-masted, single-screw, 3,270-ton vessel is 322 feet in length overall and carried a crew of 130 including 30 stewards for her 360-seat dining room. As the world's biggest ship of the time, she embarked on a varied career, first as a luxury liner carrying passengers to New York and Melbourne, then as a ferry carrying troops to the Crimea and India, and finally as a cargo ship, before being abandoned in the Falkland Islands in 1886. She was brought back to Bristol on this day in 1970, where she is now being restored by volunteers to her original appearance at the Great Western Dock in which she was built. (Today in Science History)
19 July 1886...A hurricane from the Gulf of Mexico crossed Florida causing great damage from Cedar Keys to Jacksonville. This was the third hurricane in one month to cross the Florida peninsula. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
19 July 1897...LT Robert E. Peary, USN, departed on a year long Arctic Expedition that made many important discoveries, including one of largest meteorites, Cape York. (Naval Historical Center)
19 July 1994...Hurricane Emilia was the first of three Category-5 hurricanes to develop in the Central Pacific in 1994 as unusually warm sea temperatures prevailed south of Hawaii. Sustained winds reached 160 mph. (Intellicast)
20 July 1964...Four Navy divers entered Project SEALAB I capsule moored 192 feet on the ocean floor off Bermuda for an 11-day experiment. On the 22^nd they submerged and then surfaced on 31 July 1964. (Naval Historical Center)
20 July 1985...Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank approximately 40 miles off the coast of Key West, FL, in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots. (InfoPlease.com)
22 July 1986...Hurricane Estelle passed 120 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands creating a ten to twenty-foot surf. The large swells resulted from a combination of high tides, a full moon, and 50-mph winds. The hurricane also deluged Oahu Island with as much as 6.86 inches of rain on the 24th and 25th of the month. (Storm Data)
22-23 July 1996...A strong storm system centered south of Tahiti in the South Pacific was responsible for eight-foot surf along the south shores of Hawaii's Oahu Island. Water safety personnel rescued 95 people from the high surf. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)