WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

10-14 June 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.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- The first named tropical cyclone of 2013 in the North Atlantic basin formed over the waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico at midweek, just a few days after the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. This tropical cyclone, which was named Tropical Storm Andrea, intensified from a trough of low pressure located to the northeast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. This tropical storm strengthened as it traveled to the northeast across the Gulf, with maximum sustained surface winds reaching 60 mph. On Thursday afternoon Andrea made landfall along the Big Bend of Florida's Gulf Coast north of Cedar Key. Moving across northern Florida and southeastern Georgia, Andrea began to weaken. Many locations in Florida experienced locally heavy rains and strong winds that accompanied Andrea. Eventually, Andrea lost its tropical characteristics as it moved to the northeast across the coastal Carolinas, where some areas received between three and six inches of rain. Post tropical cyclone Andrea continued northward along the Atlantic Coast reaching northern New England on Saturday. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Andrea are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Yagi formed over this past weekend at least 500 miles to the southeast of Okinawa. This tropical storm was forecast to travel north-northeast toward Japan during the first several days of this week. Some intensification was anticipated.
Hurricane season outlook is updated -- During the last week Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, issued their updated June forecast for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. They foresee a continued very warm tropical Atlantic Ocean with no significant El Niño developing. Therefore, they did not modify their April forecast that calls for 18 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), with nine potentially becoming hurricanes. As many as four of these hurricanes could become severe, reaching category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. They also anticipate an above-average probability of a major Atlantic hurricane making landfall somewhere along the coast of the coterminous US and in the Caribbean. [The Tropical Storm Project] For comparison, forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issued their Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook in which they anticipated an active or extremely active hurricane season. [NOAA News]
NOAA Administrator makes keynote address for Oceans Week -- Last Tuesday Acting NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan gave the keynote address at the 13th annual Capitol Hill Oceans Week in Washington, DC. Her talk, which was entitled "Healthy Oceans and Coasts For a Resilient America," highlighted the recent accomplishments of NOAA in helping maintain oceans and coastal regions. She also identified future efforts to be undertaken by her agency. [NOAA News]
Public comment invited on proposed rule to reduce risk of whale-ship strikes off US East Coast -- NOAA Fisheries Service is seeking public comments through early August on its proposal to make permanent the rules to reduce the number of collisions between ships and the endangered North Atlantic right whales. These rules had been originally implemented five years ago and need to be extended. [NOAA News]
New resource introduced to help nation's "working waterfronts" flourish -- Members of the National Working Waterfront Network, a group of municipalities, federal and state agencies, NOAA Sea Grant programs, businesses and community development organizations, have developed a new web-based information resource called the "Sustainable Working Waterfront Toolkit" to help secure the future of the nation's working waterfronts and waterways. This portal covers five general areas: Historic Trends, Economics, Financing, Law and Policy, and Tools in Action. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research]
Finding where trash accumulates in deep ocean -- A researcher and her colleagues at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute studied at least 18,000 hours of underwater video obtained from the Institute's remotely operated vehicles (ROV)over the last 22 years to look for seafloor trash down to depths of 4000 meters below the ocean surface. The researchers report that some of the trash can be found on the open ocean floor, as well as in areas that include the Monterey Canyon. Most of the debris consisted of objects made of plastic, followed by metal objects. [Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]
Earthquake acoustics could warn of impending massive tsunami -- Stanford scientists have identified key acoustic characteristics of the magnitude 9.0 Japan earthquake that produced the massive tsunami in 2011. These key acoustic characteristics obtained from computer simulations indicated that the earthquake had produced sound waves in the ocean that reached land tens of minutes in advance of the tsunami. The technique for detecting sound waves emanating from undersea earthquakes could be applied worldwide to create an early warning system for massive tsunamis. [Stanford University News]
Plankton found in 3-billion year old microfossil collection -- An international team of researchers led by a geoscientist from Penn State University has discovered microfossils of plankton from 3-billion year old rocks found in Western Australia. These plankton apparently inhabited the global oceans at that time. [Penn State University News]
Biological processes involved with coral formation may help predict future of coral reefs -- Scientists at Rutgers University have described the biological processes involved with how corals create their skeletons, showing in the laboratory how certain proteins secreted by corals precipitate carbonate as a limestone that forms the corals' characteristic skeleton. These skeletons form the massive coral reefs in the world's oceans. The researchers found that the reaction involved with coral reef formation occurs regardless of water acidity, which suggests that these organisms will survive in coming centuries when the world's oceans are predicted to become more acidic. [Rutgers Media Relations]
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:

10 June 1909...The International Distress Call (SOS distress signal) was used for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue.
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)