WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

1-5 July 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.

Items of Interest:

Change in seasons -- The beginning of July marks the beginning of the new heating season. Traditionally, meteorologists and climatologists define the heating season to run from 1 July to 30 June of the following year. Heating degree day units are accumulated commencing on 1 July. Likewise, the snow season runs from 1 July through 30 June. Seasonal snowfall totals for next season will be summed from Monday.
The half-way point -- Midpoint of calendar year 2013 will occur at noon local standard time on Tuesday, 2 July 2013.
Way out there!...The earth reaches aphelion, the point in its annual orbit when it is farthest from the sun this Friday morning (officially at 15Z on 5 July 2013, which is equivalent to 11 AM EDT or 10 AM CDT). At aphelion, the earth-sun distance is 152,089,000 km, or 3.4% greater than the distance at perihelion, the smallest earth-sun distance, which occurred earlier this year on the late evening of 2 January 2013. [US Naval Observatory]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the Tropics -- Although sea surface temperatures continue to increase across the Northern Hemisphere following the summer solstice the previous week, the weather across the tropical ocean basins remained relatively quiet last week.

In the eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Cosme formed at the beginning of last week from a tropical depression over the waters to the south of Manzanillo, Mexico. Travel was generally toward the northwest. By late Tuesday afternoon, Tropical Storm Cosme had intensified to become the second hurricane of the basin's 2013 hurricane season. Within 24 hours, this minimal category 1 hurricane on the Saffir Simpson Intensity Scale weakened and was reclassified as a tropical storm. By late in the week, Tropical Storm Cosme weakened and dissipated after traveling to the west-northwest away from the Mexican coast. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Cosme can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Over this just-concluded weekend, Tropical Storm Dalila developed from a tropical depression that was southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. This tropical storm was forecast to travel toward the northwest, initially paralleling the Mexican coast before curving toward the west-northwest out over the eastern North Pacific.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Bebinca traveled across China's Hainan Island and the Gulf of Tonkin at the start of last week. Bebinca dissipated as it approached the coast of northern Vietnam near Hanoi.
Late last week, Tropical Storm Rumbia formed over the Philippine Sea to the east of Mindanao. This tropical storm traveled northwestward across the central Philippine Islands over the weekend. Rumbia was forecast to continue moving toward the northwest before making a possible landfall along the southeastern coast of China just to the east of Hainan Island.

Public input sought on nominating new marine sanctuaries -- NOAA officials are seeking public input through late August on a proposed process that is designed to evaluate potential new national marine sanctuaries that would be established in the nation's marine and Great Lakes environments. [NOAA News]
NOAA PORTS® data system installed in Charleston, SC harbor -- Late last week a NOAA Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (or PORTS®) was dedicated in the harbor of Charleston, SC. This system contains sensors designed to increase safety for ships in the Charleston harbor, including air gap sensors that help determine under bridge clearance for large ships. Additional water level and meteorological information from long-term tide stations are made available to ship operators traversing the harbor. To date, NOAA PORTS® systems have been installed in 23 of the nation's harbors in an effort designed to enhance the local economy as well as the safety for boaters and commercial shippers. [NOAA News]
New website for Cyclone Center launched -- The unique citizen-science project called CycloneCenter.org in which the public helps analyze the intensities of past tropical cyclones has launched a new version of its website. Over 4000 citizen scientists all over the globe have made 210,000 satellite image classifications. CycloneCenter.org is a partnership with NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, the Citizen Science Alliance, the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites and the University of North Carolina in Asheville. [NOAA National Climatic Data Center News]
SeaSat satellite celebrates an anniversary -- Thirty-five years ago this week, NASA launched the experimental satellite called SeaSat, the first multi-sensor spacecraft dedicated specifically to observing Earth's ocean. Unfortunately, after 106 days of operation, the intended mission ended due to a malfunction. However, during its brief life, the onboard sensors collected sufficient data about the oceans that scientists continue to study. In fact, the Alaska Satellite Facility at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks released processed imagery from SeaSat this past week. The SeaSat satellite can be viewed as a trailblazer because the sensors that were placed upon this satellite have been used successfully on many of the subsequent Earth-sensing satellites. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
Critical program reviews of a new polar satellite completed -- Two key program reviews of NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) were recently completed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center that showed preparations for the anticipated launch of the JPSS-1 spacecraft in 2017 remained on schedule and on budget. The JPSS-1 spacecraft would be the second in the series of next generation polar-orbiting weather satellites, following the launch of the initial spacecraft in the JPSS series in October 2011 that has subsequently been named the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. These polar-orbiting satellites are the result of a joint NOAA and NASA effort designed to provide a continuous flow of global data for monitoring and forecasting environmental phenomena. [NOAA News]
"Testing the Waters" updated -- The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released this year's report entitled "Testing the Waters 2013" that represents a guide to water quality for several thousand of the nation's vacation beaches along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes; 200 of the more popular beaches are rated in a scheme that is based on the water quality at the beach as well as the monitoring and notification practices. [Natural Resources Defense Council]
Desalination of seawater using a simpler and more energy efficient process -- Chemists at the University of Texas at Austin and Germany's University of Marburg have devised a prototype "water chip" that uses a small electrical field to remove dissolved salts from seawater. These researchers claim that their technique, called "electrochemically mediated seawater desalination," consumes so little energy that it can run on a store-bought battery. [University of Texas]
Bluefin tuna could face extinction -- Three species of bluefin tuna in the world's oceans are in danger of extinction because of a high demand for this fish as well as by illegal fishing and bycatch. Strict limits on international fisheries have attempted to reduce fish catch. While recent efforts have helped prevent illegal fishing, numerous bluefin tuna have been lost accidently because of bycatch. Because of the bycatch problem, NOAA has suspended longline fishing for bluefin tuna for the rest of 2013. [Global Animal]
Hydrogen fuel cells could help power seaports -- A recent study conducted by scientists from the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories recommends the use of hydrogen fuel cells as clean, quiet and efficient auxiliary power sources for docked ships in seaports, replacing on-board diesel generators that are sources of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. [Sandia National Laboratories News Releases]
Coral reef survival needs major changes -- Researchers from the Carnegie Institution of Science warn that unless deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions are made, coral reefs around the globe would die because of increasingly inhospitable ocean chemistry conditions by 2100. Coral reefs are very sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry because of increased greenhouse gas emissions, as well as from other factors associated with human activity including coastal pollution, warming waters, overdevelopment and overfishing. [Carnegie Institution of Science]
Two-foot rise in sea level along Maryland shore by 2050 -- A panel of scientific experts from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science prepared a report for the Governor that recommended that the State of Maryland should plan for a projected rise in sea level by as much as two feet by 2050 due to anticipated changes in climate. [University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science]
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:

1 July 1792...A tremendous storm (a tornado or hurricane) hit Philadelphia and New York City. Many young people were drowned while out boating on that Sunday. (David Ludlum)
1 July 1885...The United States terminated reciprocity and a fishery agreement with Canada. (Wikipedia)
2 July 1578...The British seaman and explorer, Martin Frobisher sighted Baffin Island, one of Canada's Arctic islands. (Wikipedia)
2-6 July 1994... Heavy rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Alberto produced major flooding across northern and central Georgia. Three-day rains exceeded 15 inches at Atlanta. An impressive 21.10 inches of rain fell at Americus, GA on the 6^th to establish a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Peach State. Numerous road closures and bridge washouts. Thirty people were killed and 50,000 were forced from their homes, as 800,000 acres were flooded. Total damage exceeded $750 million.. (NCDC) (Intellicast)
3 July 1903...The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced and completed between San Francisco on the US West Coast, Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila in the Philippines. After testing, the first official message was sent the next day. A cable between San Francisco and Hawaii had been established at the beginning of the same year, with its first official message sent on 1 Jan 1903. This technological event ended Hawaii's isolation by connecting it to the mainland U.S. and the rest of the world. The cable was a mainstay of communications into the early 1950s when newer technology rendered it obsolete. (The 1902 all-British telegraph line from Canada to Australia and New Zealand was the first line to cross the Pacific Ocean.) (Today in Science History)
3 July 1992...At 11 PM EDT, several waves to heights of 18 feet crashed ashore at Daytona Beach, FL. Sailboats were tossed onto cars, 200 vehicles damaged and 75 minor injuries reported. While the exact cause was unknown, morning storms were moving parallel to the coast approximately 430 miles to the east. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
4 July 1687...An early experience of a tropical revolving storm was made by Captain William Dampier, whose ship survived what he called a "tuffoon" off the coast of China. In New Voyage Round the World, (published in 1697) Dampier wrote that this violent whirlwind storm had a calm central eye, and its winds moved from opposite directions as the storm moved passed. This was one of the earliest known European descriptions of a typhoon, which also presented a new understanding that storms somehow move, rather than remain stationary. During his ocean travels, he kept a detailed journal, noting native cultures, and made careful descriptions of natural history which in effect made him an early contributor to scientific exploration. (Today in Science History)
4 July 1840...The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddlewheel steamer, RMS Britannia, departed from Liverpool, England bound for Halifax, NS on its first transatlantic passenger cruise. (Wikipedia)
4 July 1903...President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first official message over the new cable across the Pacific Ocean between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. (Today in Science History)
5 July 1805...Robert FitzRoy, British naval officer, hydrographer and meteorologist, was born. He was also commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle aboard which Charles Darwin sailed around the world as the ship's naturalist. That voyage provided Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution. FitzRoy retired from active duty in 1850 and from 1854 devoted himself to meteorology. He devised a storm warning system that was the prototype of the daily weather forecast, invented a barometer, and published The Weather Book (1863). His death on 30 April 1865 was by suicide, during a bout of depression. (Today in Science History)
5 July 1916...An early season hurricane produced 82-mph winds, an 11.6-foot tide, and a barometric pressure of 28.92 inches at Mobile, AL. (David Ludlum)
5 July 1989...Moisture from what once was Tropical Storm Allison triggered thunderstorms over the Middle Atlantic Coast Region, which deluged Wilmington, DE with a record 6.83 inches of rain in 24 hours, including 6.37 inches in just six hours. Up to ten inches of rain was reported at Claymont, northeast of Wilmington. July 1989 was thus the wettest month in seventy years for Wilmington, with a total of 12.63 inches of rain. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
6 July 1484...Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão located the mouth of the Congo River. (Wikipedia)
6 July 1988...The world's worst offshore accident occurred when 167 oil workers were killed by explosions and fires that destroyed the Piper Alpha drilling platform in the British sector of the North Sea.
7 July 1901...First three-day weather forecast issued for the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
7 July 1952...The liner SS United States made the fastest-ever eastbound crossing of the Atlantic of 3 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes on her maiden voyage from Nantucket Light Ship off New York's Long Island to Bishop Rock Lighthouse in western England.