WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

2-6 June 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.

Items of Interest:

Change in season -- Meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the three-month span from June through August, commenced this past Sunday (1 June 2014). In three weeks, the summer solstice will occur on Saturday, 21 June, which marks the beginning of astronomical summer.
"Break the Grip of the Rip®" -- NOAA, the United States Lifesaving Association and the National Park Service have designated this upcoming week of 1-7 June 2014 as national Rip Current Awareness Week. Using the theme, "Rip Currents: Break the Grip of the Rip®," efforts are meant to heighten public awareness of rip currents at surf beaches that claim the lives of as many as 100 people in the United States annually. [NWS Rip Current Safety]
Becoming AWARE -- During this upcoming week (1-7 June), South Carolina will conduct Hurricane Awareness Week.
Early Sunrise -- Within the next week, many locations in the continental United States will experienced the date of earliest sunrise. While the longest daylight at each locale in the Northern Hemisphere will occur in over two weeks on the summer solstice (early on Saturday, 21 June 2014), the occurrence of earliest local sunrise occurs before this date because the apparent sun now "leads" the clock time. This time discrepancy, which now amounts to approximately 2 minutes, occurs because of a combination of factors that result from the earth moving more slowly in its elliptical orbit because the earth presently is near its farthest point from the sun (aphelion on the evening of 3 July 2014) and the effect of the tilt of the earth's spin axis (near the summer solstice). For reference, the latest sunsets of the year will occur later in June as the apparent sun slows and by the first week of July "lags" clock time by about 4 minutes.
World Environment Day -- This Thursday, 5 June 2014, is World Environment Day (WED), a day that has been created by the United Nations in an effort to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environment and to enhance political attention and action. This observance was established initially by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Various activities are being planned. In support of the UN designation of 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), this year's theme for World Environment Day is "Raise your voice, not the sea level," a campaign to encourage better understanding of SIDS and to emphasize the urgency to help protect the islands in the face of growing risks and vulnerabilities, particularly as a result of climate change. [World Environment Day]
World Ocean Day to be celebrated -- World Ocean Day or a "Celebration of the Sea" will be celebrated Sunday, 8 June 2014 in an effort to increase public awareness and to foster public involvement in the management of the ocean and its resources. Although this date was created at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it had not been officially recognized by the United Nations until 2009. This year's theme is Together we have the power to protect the ocean! A partial listing is provided for events across the US and other nations that will celebrate World Ocean Day. [The Ocean Project]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- Tropical cyclone activity was limited to the eastern North Pacific basin again last week as Hurricane Amanda continued to travel across the waters of the eastern North Pacific well off the coast of Mexico. At the start of last week, Amanda was a category 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) as it traveled to the to the north-northwest. In addition to being the first named tropical cyclone of the 2014 eastern Pacific hurricane season, it was also the strongest hurricane in the month of May in that basin. Through last week, Amanda weakened to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression as it turned to take a track toward the northeast and finally east. Near the end of this past week, Amanda finally dissipated approximately 350 miles to the south of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Amanda.
Consensus reached on plans to distribute New England groundfish disaster funds -- During the last week state fishery directors from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York acting in partnership with NOAA announced a proposed framework for the distribution of $32.8 million in federal disaster monies to the New England groundfish industry. These funds are part of the $75 million allocated by the US Congress during this fiscal year to help with six declared fishery disasters across the nation. [NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region News]
International rescue network inducted into Space Technology Hall of Fame -- The international COSPAS-SARSAT rescue network was recently inducted into the Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of Fame at the 30th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, CO in recognition of this network's space applications used to improve life on Earth through its rescue efforts involving satellites. According to recent tabulations, the NOAA fleet of satellites have supported the rescue of 37,000 stranded people worldwide, including more than 7,300 in the United States since the inception of the network in 1982. COSPAS-SARSAT comprises 43 countries and organizations, including the United States, France and Canada that comprise the "SARSAT" (Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking) portion, while the Russian Federation leads the COSPAS (Cosmitscheskaja Sistema Poiska Awarinitsch Sudow, which is Russian for "space system for search of vessels in distress"). [NOAA News]
NASA's 2014 hurricane research mission widened -- NASA is increasing its hurricane research efforts during the upcoming 2014 Atlantic hurricane season in an effort to probe physical processes that occur in named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes) in that basin. The major effort will involve the use of two unmanned Global Hawk aircraft flying over these tropical systems and two new space-based missions. The Global Hawk aircraft, equipped with numerous high-tech instruments, will be used in conjunction with the agency's airborne "Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel" or HS3 mission, headquartered at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. One of the space-based missions is the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, which was launched in late February, will provide precipitation measurements every three hours around the globe. The other space-based mission involves the RapidScat instrument that is scheduled to be sent to the International Space Station in August. RapidScat will measure ocean surface winds in the tropics and midlatitudes. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
NASA's IceBridge Arctic field campaign concludes for the season -- Just before the start of last week, NASA's P-3 research aircraft left Thule Air Base, Greenland and returned to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia signaling the conclusion of the 11-week field campaign of NASA's Operation IceBridge in the Arctic. Researchers used the aircraft to collect data on Arctic sea and land ice. In addition, the campaign resulted in two sea ice data products and provided a professional development opportunity for three science teachers. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
New precipitation measuring satellite passes tests and becomes operational -- Following a successful checkout period conducted after launch, control of the new Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory (GPM) satellite was handed over to the engineers and scientists of the Earth Science Mission Operations team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center late last week. The GPM spacecraft, which is a joint NASA JAXA mission, was launched last February. Its sensors collect precipitation information that will help map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
Hurricane Sandy did not contribute to coastal flooding from subsequent winter storms -- A new US Geological study concludes that the coastal flooding along New York's Great South Bay and New Jersey's Barnegat Bay caused by winter storms in from November 2012 through October 2013 were not influenced by changes to the barrier islands and other bay features caused by Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall along the New Jersey coast in October 2012. Some of these winter storms generated water levels that ranked within the top 20 highest storm water levels since October 2007. [USGS Newsroom]
Describing how ENSO can lead to a "cascade of global impacts" -- A blog written by scientists at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center and Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) describes how the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, also known as ENSO, develop from changes in the atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns across the tropical Pacific Ocean and how this phenomenon affects the climate across large areas of the globe, even though many areas far from the tropical Pacific. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Explaining the difference between storm surge and storm tide --NOAA's National Ocean Service provides a graphical explanation as to the difference between the terms storm surge and storm tide. [NOAA National Ocean Service]
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:

2-4 June 1986...A tropical disturbance brought flooding rains to parts of the Greater Antilles. The flooding caused 59 deaths in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. As many as 240,000 people lost their homes to this disturbance. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
3 June 1979...The world's worst oil spill occurred when an exploratory oil well, Ixtoc 1, blew out, spilling over 140 million gallons of crude oil into the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico. Although it is the largest known oil spill, it had a relatively low environmental impact. The well was finally capped in March 1980. Booms were placed along the Texas coast to protect major inlets from the oil that was carried northward by prevailing surface currents in the Gulf of Mexico. (Information Please) (Wikipedia)
4 June 1825...A hurricane struck Long Island, NY leveling trees and causing damage to ships. The early season hurricane, which originated near Cuba, caused major damage along the Atlantic coast from Charleston, SC to New York City. Many were lost at sea. (David Ludlum)
4 June 1976...Forty-foot waves from a tropical cyclone smashed Gogha (port), India. Excellent warnings limited the death toll to approximately 70. Dredging of the harbor at Bhavnnagar ceased for several years as storm runoff from the Kansa River washed away accumulated sand and silt. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
6 June 1882...More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay, India were killed as a tropical cyclone that developed over the Arabian Sea pushed huge waves into the harbor. (Wikipedia)
7 June 1914...The first vessel, the Alliance, passed through the Panama Canal. The 51-mile long canal, which links the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans across the isthmus of Panama, was officially opened on 15 August 1914. (Today in Science History) (Wikipedia)
7 June 1924...The Oil Pollution Act was passed. It was enforced by the Coast Guard.
Protection of halibut in the North Pacific Ocean was placed under Bureau of Fisheries (Coast Guard- enforced since 1926). (USCG Historian's Office)
7 June 1972...Richmond, VA experienced its worst flood of record as rains from Hurricane Agnes pushed the water level at the city locks to a height of 36.5 feet, easily topping the previous record of thirty feet set in 1771. (The Weather Channel)
7-10 June 2001...Tropical Storm Allison made landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston early on the 6^th and drifted northward before becoming stationary as a depression later in the day near Lufkin. Later, it began to drift back southward, moving offshore over the Gulf late on the 9^th at nearly the same place as it had made landfall. Allison caused disastrous flooding across the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, especially in the Houston area where a storm total of 36.99 inches fell at Port Houston. Twenty-three people lost their lives in Texas. Damage in the region amounted to $5 billion, which included 45,000 homes, 70,000 vehicles and 2000 businesses. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
8 June 1937...Observation of the total eclipse of the sun was made by a U.S. Navy detachment commanded by Captain J. F. Hellweg, USN, which was participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expedition. (Naval Historical Center)
8-9 June 1990...The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX, the result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Two crew members were killed. Coast Guard units fought the resulting fires and recovered spilled oil. (Information Please) (USCG Historian's Office)
8 June 1992...The first World Ocean Day was celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikipedia)
8 June 1937...Observation of the total eclipse of the sun was made by a U.S. Navy detachment commanded by Captain J. F. Hellweg, USN, which was participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expedition. (Naval Historical Center)
8-9 June 1990...The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX, the result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Two crew members were killed. Coast Guard units fought the resulting fires and recovered spilled oil. (Information Please) (USCG Historian's Office)
8 June 1992...The first World Ocean Day was celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikipedia)