WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

30 July-3 August 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:

Young scientists and engineers earn presidential honor -- Early last week, the White House announced the more than 90 winners of the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which represent highest honor given by the federal government to outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. Three scientists from NOAA were award recipients. [NOAA News] Six NASA scientists received awards. [NASA JPL]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Several tropical cyclones were detected across the tropical waters of the western North Pacific basin during the last week.
Tropical Storm Vicente, which had formed off the northeast coast of the main island in the Philippines ( Luzon) late in the previous week, intensified as it traveled in an erratic path to the west-northwest across the South China Sea. As Vicente approached the southern coast of China near Hong Kong, it intensified to become a major category 4 typhoon in the Saffir-Simpson Scale. After making landfall in southern China near Macao, Vicente dissipated by midweek. For additional information on Typhoon Vicente including satellite images, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
At the start of this past weekend, two additional tropical storms formed over the waters of the western North Pacific. One of these tropical storms, which was identified as Saola, formed from a tropical low pressure systems over the Philippine Sea to the east-southeast of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. This tropical storm was traveling to the north-northwest over the weekend and could become a typhoon by the start of the week. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information on "System 93W" before it became Tropical Storm Saola.
The other tropical storm that formed this past weekend was Tropical Storm Damrey, a system developed to the northeast of Iwo Jima. This new tropical storm was moving toward the west, but could turn gradually to the west-northwest over the first few days of this week.
Fish spawning habitats in the western Florida Keys to be mapped -- During the past week, scientists from NOAA's Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and other partner agencies commenced a 10-day research cruise onboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to investigate and map the fish spawning locations and fish movements around the sanctuary's .Tortugas Ecological Reserve located in the Gulf of Mexico waters to the west of Key West. [NOAA News]
Monterey Bay marine exploration center opens -- At the start of last week, officials with NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the central California's city of Santa Cruz opened the Sanctuary Exploration Center. This state-of-the-art facility along the beach area in Santa Cruz consists of interpretive and hands-on exhibits and a theater that will highlight the region's marine ecosystem found in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.[NOAA News]
Relatively small Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" due to Midwest drought --Scientists conducting NOAA-supported research involving the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium report that the size of this current year's oxygen-deficient "dead zone" in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is the fourth smallest since routine mapping of the annual hypoxic area began in 1985. These researchers theorize that the drought conditions across the Midwest has reduced the runoff in the Mississippi River watershed, leading to the smallest amount of nutrients entering the Gulf in decades. [NOAA News]
Sea Level Rise Viewer tool available -- NOAA Coastal Services Center has unveiled its Sea Level Rise Viewer that should allow the public to visualize the potential impacts that sea level rise and coastal flooding would have upon coastal communities. Currently, areas along the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Florida, and Georgia have been completed and made available, with other coastal counties in the nation to be added in the near future. [Digital Coast NOAA Coastal Services Center]
Vitamin "deserts" confirmed in the global ocean -- A team of scientists from the University of Southern California and the University of Hawaii using a new analytic technique involving mass spectrometry have confirmed the existence of vitamin "deserts" or vitamin B deficient zones in the world's oceans. [University of Southern California News]
GPS used to monitor short-term ice melt on Greenland quickly -- A team of scientists at Ohio State University and their colleagues from other research centers have devised a way to use a network of 50 GPS (Global Positioning System) units to measure the short-term changes in the rate of ice loss on Greenland. They see the potential for GPS to detect the effects of changing climate that include ice loss, the uplift of bedrock, changes in air pressure and sea level rise on time scales that would be shortened to six months due to the more rapid detection times. [Ohio State University Research 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:

31 July 1498...On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, the explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to reach the island of Trinidad. (Wikipedia)
31 July 1978...A 50-yard wide waterspout came onshore at Kill Devil Hills, NC and destroyed a small house. One person died and four were hurt. Waterspouts are typically considered relatively benign. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
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)