WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

23-27 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 Hawaii's Big Island will experience a noontime sun that would be directly overhead during this week (22-23 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 Hilo and elsewhere on the Big Island. The other time when the Big Island experienced a zenithal sun was in mid May. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity was confined to the Pacific basin of the Northern Hemisphere during the last week.
In the eastern North Pacific basin, former Hurricane Fabio continued to travel northward as a tropical storm early last week off the western coast of Mexico. This hurricane, which had reached category 2 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, weakened to become a tropical depression and then a remnant low well to the west of Baja California. Some clouds and showers associated with this remnant low moved across southern California. Satellite imagery and additional information on Hurricane Dora can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Khanun formed last weekend east of Okinawa, Japan and then moved toward the northwest and then north to make landfall along the southern coast of South Korea. Moving north across the Korean Peninsula caused Khanun to weaken to a tropical depression before dissipating by midweek. See the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Khanun.
At the end of last week, Tropical Storm Vicente formed from a tropical depression off the northeast coast Luzon, the main island in the Philippines. By the end of the weekend, Tropical Storm Vicente was traveling westward across the South China Sea and could pass over China's Hainan Island and then over northern Vietnam.
Partnerships with coastal tribes formed to explore climate change -- The "First Stewards" symposium was held last week at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC to consider how climate change affects the nation's indigenous coastal cultures. This symposium was hosted by several coastal treaty tribes from Washington state who are collaborating with NOAA and other partners. In addition to native leaders representing American Indians, Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders, climate scientists, policy makers and representatives from a variety of non-governmental organizations were in attendance. [NOAA News]
Collecting marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands -- Over one week ago, the 224-ft. NOAA Ship Oscar Elton-Sette returned to Honolulu with a team of 17 scientists along with nearly 50 metric tons of marine debris that they collected during a month-long cruise in the waters of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The voyage was one of the annual missions to collect marine debris in the waters around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands that threaten life in this coral reef ecosystem. [NOAA News]
Review of global climate for June 2012 --Relying upon preliminary data, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center have noted that the combined global land and ocean temperature for June 2012 was 0.63 Celsius degrees (1.1 Fahrenheit degrees) above the 20th century (1901-2000) average, which makes this past June the fourth warmest since reliable global climate records began in 1880. The global land surface temperature was the highest for any June on record, while the global ocean surface temperature was the tenth warmest June in 132 years. Furthermore, the combined global land and ocean temperature for the first six months of the year (January through July 2012) was the eleventh highest on record. The demise of last year's La Niña event during the first half of this year was considered to influence the land and ocean temperatures.
According to the scientists, the loss of Arctic sea ice in June was a record since satellite surveillance began in 1979. Consequently, the Arctic sea ice extent during this past June tied June 2010 for the second smallest of the 34-year record. On the other hand, Antarctic sea ice extent in June was the tenth largest of the satellite era. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
Satellite sees ice calving from Greenland glacier -- A sequence of images obtained one week ago from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows massive icebergs breaking off the Petermann Glacier on the northwestern coast of Greenland.[NASA Earth Observatory]
Identifying the causes of dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico -- Following a two-year study, a team of biologists from the University of Central Florida and their colleagues from other research institutions have determined the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon disaster and other environmental factors, in including the cold winter of 2010, led to the record by number of dolphin deaths in the northern Gulf of Mexico. [University of Central Florida Research News]
Earth-observing camera sent to Space Station-- A remote-controlled Earth-observing camera system called ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System) was launched to the International Space Station aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's third H-II Transfer Vehicle last Friday. Once installed, researchers on the ground will remotely command the ISERV system to acquire imagery of specific areas of the globe for disaster analysis and environmental studies. [NASA]
Investigation how ocean chemistry affects climate change -- Scientists at the University of Toronto and the University of California Santa Cruz claim that the chemistry of the world's oceans have helped affect climate change. They point an event 50 million years ago where seawater chemistry was altered as causing the cooling trend over the last 45 million years. The event at 50 million years ago was the collision between India and Eurasia that resulted in dissolution of an extensive belt of water-soluble gypsum across the region from Oman to Pakistan and western India, with changes in the sulfate content of the ocean ultimately affecting the amount of sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere. These changes in the sulfate aerosols would have marked the transition from a warm "greenhouse" to cold glacial climate. [University of Toronto 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:

23 July 1715...Boston Light, the first lighthouse in America was authorized by the Boston Light Bill for construction at Little Brewster Island, MA. This light, located on Little Brewster Island to mark the entrance to Boston harbor, has guided ships since its lantern was first lighted just before sunset, on 14 Sep 1716. In the 1600s, treacherous rocks caused countless loss of lives. False signal fires lit in the wrong places by "wreckers" lured ships aground to plunder. Boston Light was blown up by the British in 1776, but rebuilt in 1783 by Governor John Hancock. The lighthouse was also the last remaining staffed station in the U.S. (Today in Science History)
23 July 1788...A weather diary kept by George Washington recorded that the center of a hurricane passed directly over his Mount Vernon home. The hurricane crossed eastern North Carolina and Virginia before moving into the Central Appalachians. Norfolk, VA reported houses destroyed, trees uprooted, and crops leveled to the ground. (David Ludlum)
23 July 1958...USS Nautilus (SSN-571) departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for the first submerged transit of the North Pole. (Naval Historical Center)
23 July 1982...The International Whaling Commission decided to end commercial whaling by 1985-86. (Wikipedia)
24 July 1609...A fleet of ships carrying colonists to the New World met with a hurricane near Bermuda, resulting in much loss of property but little loss of life. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
24-25 July 1979...Claudette, a weak tropical storm, deluged southeastern Texas with torrential rains. The Houston suburb of Alvin received 43.00 inches, a 24-hour precipitation record for not only the Lone Star State, but for the U.S. Freeport reported a total of 30 inches. Total damage from flooding was over $400 million. On the 27^th, a van loaded with people on their way to a church camp stopped on Texas Highway 7 due to a flooded bridge just west of Centerville. A truck rammed the van, pushing it into the flooded creek, resulting in five people drowning. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum) (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
24-26 July 1996...Although thousands of miles from southern California, an intense South Pacific storm south of Tahiti produced seven to ten foot surf with some sets up to 12 feet along the southern California coast. Lifeguards participated in more than 500 rescues along the beaches. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
25 July 1956...The Italian ship Andrea Doria sank in dense fog near Nantucket Lightship, MA. Ten hours earlier, the ship was rammed by the Swedish-American liner, Stockholm, forty-five miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Fifty-two persons drowned, or were killed by the impact. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
25 July 1994...Hurricane Gilma, like Emilia a week earlier, reached Category 5 strength in the Central Pacific. (Intellicast)
27 July 1866...The 1686-mile long Atlantic Cable was successfully completed between Newfoundland and Ireland by the American businessman Cyrus W. Field, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time. Two previous attempts at laying a cable ended in failure. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
27 July 1926...A hurricane came inland near Daytona Beach, FL. The hurricane caused 2.5 million dollars damage in eastern Florida, including the Jacksonville area. (David Ludlum)
27 July 1943...On a whim, and flying a single engine AT-6, Lieutenant Ralph O' Hair and Colonel Duckworth were the first to fly into a hurricane. It started regular Air Force flights into hurricanes. (The Weather Channel)
28 July 1819...A small but intense hurricane passed over Bay Saint Louis, MS. The hurricane was considered the worst in fifty years. Few houses were left standing either at Bay Saint Louis or at Pass Christian and much of the Mississippi coast was desolate following the storm. An U.S. cutter was lost along with its thirty-nine crewmembers. The storm struck the same area that was hit 150 years later by Hurricane Camille. (David Ludlum)