WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

12-16 May 2014

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2014. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Item of Interest:

Hurricane season begins in the eastern North Pacific -- The 2014 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin begins on Thursday, 15 May 2014. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will begin in two weeks on 1 June. The official hurricane seasons in both basins end on 30 November 2014. NOAA has declared the week of 25-31 May 2014 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
North American Safe Boating Week -- Commencing this coming Saturday, the week of 17-23 May has been declared 2014 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2014 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
Zenithal Sun -- The end of this upcoming week marks one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents on the Big Island on about 14 May at South Cape (Ka Lae at 18.9 deg North latitude and 155.68 degrees West longitude) and on the 18th and 19 May at Hilo; those on Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) will experience the noon sun at the zenith in approximately two more weeks (25-27 May). The sun will again be over the Big Island during the last week of July. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
Third U.S. National Climate Assessment has been released -- During the last week the Obama Administration released the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment, a report confirming that climate change is affecting every major region of the nation, together with key sectors of the US economy and society. The 840-page report, prepared by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is the product of a three-year effort by a team of over 300 climate scientists and experts. [NOAA News] Note a synopsis of the key findings from the Assessment, is available either on a Highlights page or as a 20-page Overview booklet. The entire 820-page report is available, but due to its size could be a slow download.

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. However, the first tropical low pressure system of 2014 developed over the eastern North Pacific off the coast of southwestern Mexico. This system never developed into becoming a tropical depression. Additional information and satellite images on this low pressure can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
New tool helps mariners see surface and tidal currents -- NOAA's National Ocean Service has unveiled a website designed to mariners with near real-time coastal ocean surface current observations and tidal current predictions in coastal waters using high frequency (HF) radar located at the water's edge. The intent of this website is to make marine navigation safer for mariners and commercial shippers. At the present time, the observations from these radar units are available for the Chesapeake and San Francisco Bays, with additional locations to follow. The HF radar ocean surface current data will complement NOAA's PORTS®, a system that provides real-time water level, current and meteorological observations for safe navigation. [NOAA News]
Two areas in North Atlantic selected for targeted habitat conservation efforts -- During the last week NOAA Fisheries announced the selection of two sites in the agency's North Atlantic Region as the next Habitat Focus Areas that is under NOAA's Habitat Blueprint. The two areas where habitat conservation and restoration efforts will be supported are the Penobscot River watershed in Maine and the Choptank River complex in Maryland and Delaware. [NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region News]
Deep sea animals colonize sunken ship containers -- Scientists at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently described how deep-sea animal communities have developed on and around a lost shipping container that sunk to the seafloor at depth of approximately 4200 feet below the ocean surface in 2004. The researchers compared these colonies with those in surrounding areas. [Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]
Revised rules proposed to improve implementation of the Endangered Species Act -- NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service recently proposed two rules and a policy designed to improve the process of designating areas of "critical habitat" and consulting on the effects of federal actions on critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These two federal agencies are responsible for administering the ESA. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Nearly 200,000 glaciers mapped to better estimate future sea level rises -- Glaciologists from the University of Colorado Boulder and Trent University in Ontario have led the first detailed mapping of essentially all of the world's glaciers in an attempt to determine how the melt water from these glaciers would contribute to global sea rise as the global temperature increases. A team of scientists from 19 countries mapped and cataloged the locations and sizes of 198,000 glaciers from around the world as part of the massive Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI). [University of Colorado Boulder News]
Increasing global temperatures and natural climate variations are nearly equal contributors to Greenland glacier melting -- Atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington and their colleagues from China and Korea estimate that nearly half of the melting of the Greenland glaciers due to recent warming of Greenland and surrounding areas may be due to the climate variations originating in the tropical Pacific. These climate variations are not necessarily connected with the overall increase in global temperatures associated with increased levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, which the researchers claim to account for the other half for the observed warming of Greenland. According to their analysis, temperatures over Greenland and nearby sections of Canada have increased at a rate of approximately one Celsius degree per decade since 1979, which is several times the global average.[University of Washington 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:

12 May 1916...Plumb Point, Jamaica reported 17.80 inches of rain in 15 minutes, which set a world record. (The Weather Doctor)
12 May 1978...The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.
14 May 1836...U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, the first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific. (Naval Historical Center)
15 May 1934...Lightship No. 117, occupying the Nantucket Shoals Station, in a dense fog, was struck by the RMS Olympic and sank on station with the loss of seven crew members. (USCG Historian's Office)
15-24 May 1951...Hurricane Able did a "loop-the-loop" north of the Bahamas and reached Category 3 strength off Cape Hatteras, NC. (The Weather Doctor)
16 May 1917...Marquette, MI had its latest opening of navigation on Lake Superior in history. (Intellicast)
17-21 May 1887...An early season tropical storm raked Cuba and The Bahamas. (The Weather Doctor)
17 May 1970...The Norwegian ethnologist, Thor Heyerdahl, and a multinational crew set sail on a trans-Atlantic voyage from Morocco on Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after the ancient Egyptian vessels in an effort to prove his theory that Mediterranean sailors reached the Americas in ancient times. After 57 days, the Ra II reached Barbados. (The History Channel)