WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

22-26 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.

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 Jul). 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]
AMS Space Weather Policy Statement unveiled -- Earlier this month, the AMS (American Meteorological Society) Council approved the "Space Weather Policy Statement" that provides a definition of "space weather," identifies the social impacts of space weather, discusses the efforts involved with predicting it and provides recommendations involving space weather research and services. [American Meteorological Society]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week, organized tropical cyclone activity was confined to the western North Pacific basin. A tropical depression formed at the start of the week over the waters of the Philippine Sea to the east of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. By the second half of the week this tropical depression eventually strengthened to Tropical Storm Cimaron as it moved to the northwest through the Luzon Strait between Luzon and Taiwan. Eventually, this marginal tropical storm crossed the South China Sea and made landfall along the southeastern coast of China to the northeast of Hong Kong. For additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Cimaron, refer to the NASA Hurricane Page.
Forum held to shape national ocean exploration program -- NOAA and the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA hosted "Ocean Exploration 2020: A National Forum" during this past weekend (19-21 July 2013) for the purpose of developing a national ocean exploration program for the US that would be implemented by 2020. More than 100 ocean explorers and representatives from federal agencies, state governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, ocean institutions and leading industries were invited to attend this forum. [NOAA News]
Arrests made in Puerto Rico on illegal trade of endangered sea turtles -- Federal officials with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Marshals Service along with local officials with the Puerto Rico Police Department, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources and the newly formed Puerto Rico Environmental Crimes Task Force arrested eight people in Puerto Rico last week on felony and misdemeanor charges for the illegal take, possession and sale of endangered sea turtles and their parts for human consumption. In addition, the group was charged with aiding and abetting violations of the Endangered Species and Lacey Act. [US Department of Justice]
Inland tropical cyclones can be fueled by a "brown ocean" -- Researchers at University of Georgia claim that some tropical cyclones can intensify even after making landfall provided that the ground over which the storm travels is sufficiently wet to continue providing the evaporative heating that it received when it was over the ocean. The saturated ground that provided the necessary water vapor could be considered to be a "brown ocean." The scientists found that of the 3254 tropical cyclones that formed globally between 1979 and 2008, as many as 227 tropical cyclones could be considered "inland tropical cyclones," with 45 of these systems maintaining or increasing in strength after landfall. [NASA's Earth Science News Team]
Distortion of GPS signals can help map hurricane winds -- Scientists at the NASA Langley Research Center and the University of Miami's Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies have developed a technique for measuring and mapping the speeds of the near-surface winds surrounding hurricanes by measuring the distortion in the GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite signals due to the effects of the hurricane winds upon the sea surface. The researchers tested their GPS technique using NOAA "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft. They believe that this new technique, which would complement the use of the more expensive droposonde, will provide more extensive and relatively inexpensive coverage of the wind patterns around developing hurricanes. Ultimately, this technique could be used with future satellites called the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). [American Geophysical Union]
Old buried seawall protected New Jersey homes from Hurricane Sandy's storm surges -- A team of engineers and geoscientists at Virginia Tech report that a stone seawall constructed in 1882 along the New Jersey coast in Ocean County, but long forgotten after being buried by the sand, appears to have helped the community of Bay Head survive the record storm surges and large ocean waves at high tide associated with last October's Hurricane Sandy. The researchers found that while 88 percent of the oceanfront homes in Bay Head one home was destroyed, but more than half of the oceanfront homes were damaged or destroyed in the neighboring community of Mantoloking , located beyond the buried relic seawall . [Virginia Tech News]
Mother Nature remains best defense against catastrophic storms -- Researchers at Stanford University claim that natural habitats such as dunes and reefs appear to offer the best protection against storms and rising sea levels along the US coastline. Their study, which is entitled "Coastal habitats shield people and property from sea-level rise and storms," has a comprehensive map of the entire US coastline (including Alaska and Hawaii) that shows a display of the coastal hazard index where and how much protection communities get from natural habitats such as sand dunes, coral reefs, sea grasses and mangroves. Another map shows predicted exposure of the coastline and coastal populations to sea-level rise in 2100 and storms. [Stanford News]
Debris from the Deepwater Horizon disaster identified as likely source of oil sheens on Gulf of Mexico -- Using a recently patented chemical analysis technique, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of California, Santa Barbara have chemically "fingerprinted" the oil sheens floating on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster to be pockets of oil trapped within the wreckage of the sunken oil rig and not from other sources. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution News Release]
Green algae bloom found in the Yellow Sea -- A recent image produced from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows a large expanse of blue-green algae in the waters of the Yellow Sea off the east coast of China. [NASA Earth Observatory]
First global atlas of marine plankton released -- A team of international scientists from the US, the United Kingdom and France produced an atlas known as the "Marine Ecosystem Biomass Data" that provides a comprehensive inventory of the marine biota based on counts of individual cells or organisms. This first global atlas of marine plankton provides a view of underwater microscopic organisms that are found at various depths in the world's oceans. The database is available to the public through on a website. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution News Release]
Next generation geosynchronous satellite to provide continuous full-disk imagery -- Engineers and scientists involved with the planning and development of NOAA's next generation of geosynchronous environmental satellites that will begin with GOES-R report that these satellites will have the ability to obtain data at a rate capable of producing full-disk images of Earth at five-minute intervals. Current GOES satellites make a full disk scan in approximately 30 minutes. Increased imagery over a shorter time span and at higher resolution will provide more timely and informative data to forecasters everywhere in the Western Hemisphere. [NASA GOES Project]
Review of global climate for June 2013 --Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center recently reported on their analysis of preliminary weather data collected globally during the month of June 2013. The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for June 2013 was 61.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which tied the temperature for June 2006 as the fifth highest for any month of June since sufficiently detailed global climate records began in 1880. The global temperature for June 2013 was 1.15 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century (1901-2000) average. The scientists noted that June 2013 was the 340th consecutive month in which the global temperature was above the 20th century average; the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985. When considered separately, the average land temperature was the third highest for any June since 1880, while the temperature over the oceans was the tenth highest for any June. Sea-surface temperatures across the eastern half of the equatorial Pacific Ocean were slightly below average in June due to ENSO-neutral conditions (ENSO = El Niño/Southern Oscillation).
The researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center noted the areal extent of the Arctic sea ice for June 2013 was the eleventh smallest since satellite surveillance began in 1979. On the other hand, the extent of the Antarctic sea ice was the third largest in the 35-year record. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate] [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory] A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for March 2013 is available from NCDC.
"Supraglacial" lake drainage studied -- Researchers from The City College of New York (CCNY), Los Alamos National Laboratory and the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge have been studying the drainage from "supraglacial" lakes, which are bodies of liquid water that collect on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, using data collected from five GPS (Global Positioning System) stations surrounding two such lakes. They found differences in how the lakes drain from the surface to the beneath the glacier can affect glacial movement because the amount of drainage lubricates the bottom of the ice sheet when they drain, causing the ice to flow faster. Knowledge of the draining could help in understanding how surface melting of the ice could impact sea-level rise. [The City College of New York News]
Scientists scale amount of future global sea-level rise in terms of increases in global air temperature -- An international team of scientists including those from Oregon State University and Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research predict that for each Celsius degree increase in global air temperature during future decades the global sea level would rise by nearly 2.3 meters. They based their forecast upon analysis of past climate indicators and upon computer simulations of the major potential contributors to long-term global sea-level rise using physical models The researchers warn that while thermal expansion of the ocean and the melting of mountain glaciers appear to be the most important factors causing current sea-level rise, the extensive ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland would become the dominant contributors to sea-level rise over the next two millennia. [Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research] or [Oregon State University 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]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

22 July 1986...Hurricane Estelle passed 120 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands creating a ten to twenty-foot surf. The large swells resulted from a combination of high tides, a full moon, and 50-mph winds. The hurricane also deluged Oahu Island with as much as 6.86 inches of rain on the 24th and 25th of the month. (Storm Data)
22-23 July 1996...A strong storm system centered south of Tahiti in the South Pacific was responsible for eight-foot surf along the south shores of Hawaii's Oahu Island. Water safety personnel rescued 95 people from the high surf. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
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)