WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

29 April -3 May 2013

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2013 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 2 September 2013. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Item of Interest:

Between equinox and solstice -- Next Wednesday (1 May 2013) will be May Day, which had its origins as a great Celtic festival Beltane. This date is close to the traditional "cross quarter" day, roughly halfway between the vernal equinox (20 March 2013) and the summer solstice (21 June 2013). (Note that Sunday 5 May 2013 is closer to the halfway point between the equinox and solstice. EJH)

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- No organized tropical cyclones were found across any of the globe's ocean basins during the last week.
Sea surface temperatures on Northeast Continental Shelf reaches record high levels -- NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center recently announced that sea surface temperatures in the waters of the western North Atlantic off the New England and Middle Atlantic States during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years. The region, identified as the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem, extends from the Gulf of Maine southward to North Carolina's Outer Banks. In 2012, the sea surface temperature in this region reached a record high of 14 degrees Celsius (57.2 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record high in 1951. Currently SST observations are supplemented by satellite-based observations, extending the 150-year record that originally started with ship-board measurements. Additional information can be obtained from the Center's Spring 2013 Ecosystem Advisory, which covers the fall of 2012 with supporting information. [NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center]
New initiative launched to attack aquatic invasive species in Great Lakes -- A new set of tools has been produced by a group of researchers from the University of Notre Dame and outreach specialists from the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant that would evaluate the threat of new aquatic invasive species in the North American Great Lakes. The risk assessment tools, which would be available to resource managers, would be based on factors such as the ability of the species to survive in Great Lakes conditions and how difficult this species would be to control. [NOAA News]
Biological processes affect ability of sea spray particles to seed clouds -- Scientists at the University of California, San Diego and their colleagues report that biological activity in oceans alters the chemical composition of sea spray in was that ultimately affect the ability of airborne particles produced from sea spray to seed clouds over the ocean. These aerosols derived from sea spray could influence climate by either absorbing or reflecting incident sunlight and by seeding clouds. [University of California, San Diego News Center]
Sunlight snow appears to help clean air and reduce ozone in Arctic -- Researchers from Purdue University who participated in NASA's Bromine, Ozone and Mercury Experiment (BROMEX) in 2012 have discovered that sunlit surface snowpack over the Arctic sea ice appears to be a major source of atmospheric bromine gas, a halogen gas derived from sea salt. This bromine source represents a key to unique chemical reactions that remove atmospheric pollutants and destroy low level ozone. They also found that the loss of sea ice at increasing rates during recent years could have exceedingly disruptive effects in the atmospheric chemistry across the polar cap. [NSF News]
Improvement made in Asian monsoon predictions -- Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA have found a crucial connection between the summer monsoon over Asia and the El Niño climate pattern preceding it that could significantly improve the ability of forecasters to reliably predict the monsoon several months in advance. [University of California, San Diego News Center]
Daily "Keeling Curve" update to be launched -- Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego has begun posting daily updates of the famous "Keeling Curve," which is a time series of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels obtained from measurements made at Hawaii's Mauna Loa Observatory and named for the late Charles David (Dave) Keeling, a world-leading authority on atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulation and Scripps climate science pioneer. A daily Twitter feed is also available. Currently, the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are approaching 400 parts per million across the Northern Hemisphere. [University of California, San Diego News Center]
Links between terrestrial climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide found by new geochemical method -- Researchers from the University of Connecticut and other research institutions in the US and the United Kingdom have used a new chemical technique to measure changes in terrestrial temperature associated with changes in the global concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This group was studying the transformation in the warm carbon dioxide-rich "greenhouse" climate to a more variable modern "icehouse" climate with lower amounts of the gas approximately 34 million years ago at the transition between the Late Eocene and the Oligocene epochs. [UConn Today]
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:

30 April 1492...Spain gave Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. (Wikipedia)
30 April 1894...An Antarctic iceberg fragment was sighted at a latitude comparable to Rio de Janeiro. Reported by the ship Dochra, this sighting remains the nearest to the equator that an iceberg has been seen. (Today in Science History)
30 April 1991...Southeast Bangladesh was devastated by a tropical cyclone with sustained winds of approximately 150 mph during the early morning. A 20-foot storm surge inundated offshore islands south of Chittagong, taking water from the Bay of Bengal inland for miles. This cyclone resulted in up to 200,000 deaths and $1.4 billion damage. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
1 May 1683...A patent was awarded in England for the extraction of salt from seawater. (Today in Science History)
1 May 1883...At Cape Lookout, NC, a storm tide swept over the island drowning sheep and cattle. (Intellicast)
1 May 1921...The first radio fog signals in the United States were placed in commission on Ambrose Lightship, Fire Island Lightship, and Sea Girt Light Station, NJ. These signals installed by the US Lighthouse Service were meant to guide ships approaching New York Harbor. (USCG Historian's Office)
1 May 1936...The Whaling Treaty Act outlawed the taking of right whales or calves of any whale. This law was enforced by the Coast Guard. (USCG Historian's Office)
2 May 1775...Benjamin Franklin completed the first scientific study of the Gulf Stream. His observations began in 1769 when as deputy postmaster of the British Colonies he found ships took two weeks longer to bring mail from England than was required in the opposite direction. Thus, Franklin became the first to chart the Gulf Stream. (Today in Science History)
2 May 1880...The first U.S. steamboat to successfully employ electric lights was the Columbia, a 309-ft long vessel which operated between San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR. An "A" type dynamo was placed in operation to illuminate the passenger rooms and main salons. (Today in Science History)
2 May 1932...After a Convention with Canada, the Northern Pacific Halibut Act re-enacted the Act of 7 June 1924 and made it unlawful to catch halibut between 1 November and 15 February of each year in territorial waters of United States and Canada, as well as on the high seas, extending westerly from there, including the Bering Sea. The Coast Guard enforced this act. (USCG Historian's Office)
2-3 May 1998...Ocean swells from storms in the South Pacific caused surf heights of 7 to 9 feet, with sets to 12 feet along the southern California coast. A man fishing on rocks at Rancho Palos Verdes, CA was swept away. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
3 May 1494...The explorer Christopher Columbus sighted the island of Jamaica in the West Indies. He named the island Santa Gloria. On the following day, he landed on Jamaica. (Library of Congress)
3 May 1761...Large tornadoes swept the Charleston, SC harbor when a British Fleet of 40 sails was at anchor. It raised a wave 12 feet high, leaving many vessels on their beam-ends. Four people drowned. (Intellicast)
4 May 1869...The first U.S. patent for an offshore oil-drill rig was issued to T.F. Rowland for his "submarine drilling apparatus" (No. 89,794). (Today in Science History)
4 May 1904...Construction began on the Panama Canal. (Wikipedia)
4 May 1910...Congress required every passenger ship or other ship carrying 50 persons or more, leaving any port of United States to be equipped with radio (100-mi radius) and a qualified operator. (USCG Historian's Office)
5 May 1990...A strong Pacific cold front moving rapidly inland caused weather conditions at the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington State to quickly change from sunny and calm to westerly winds of 60 mph and ten-foot waves. Three recreational fishing boats capsized in heavy seas off Port Angeles resulting in five deaths. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)