WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

16-20 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:

Celebrate Sea Turtle Week 2014 -- This upcoming week (16-20 June 2014) has been declared Sea Turtle Week. In addition, World Sea Turtle Day is on Monday, 16 June. [NOAA Fisheries]
"Our Ocean" Conference to be hosted by State Department -- The US Department of State will host the "Our Ocean" Conference at the beginning of this week 16-17 June 2014 in Washington, DC. This conference is to focus on sustainable fisheries, marine pollution and ocean acidification. [US Department of State]
Happy Summer Solstice! The summer solstice will occur early Saturday morning (officially, 21 June 2014 at 1051 Z, or 6:51 AM EDT, 5:51 AM CDT, etc.). At that time, the earth's spin axis is oriented such that the sun appears to be the farthest north in the local sky of most earth-bound observers. While most of us consider this event to be the start of astronomical summer, the British call the day the "Midsummer Day", as the apparent sun will begin its southward descent again. For essentially all locations in the northern hemisphere, daylight on Saturday will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Sunday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 21 December 2014 at 2303 Z. However, because the sun is not as perfect a time-keeper as a clock, the latest sunsets of the year at many mid-latitude locations will continue through about the first week of July -- a consequence of the Earth being near aphelion (during the evening of 3 July 2014) and the apparent sun moving across the sky well to the north of the celestial equator.
World Hydrography Day celebration -- The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) will celebrate its annual World Hydrography Day on Saturday, 21 June 2014, the 93rd-anniversary date on which the IHO was created in 1921. The theme for this year's celebration is "Hydrography -- much more than just nautical charts." This year's theme was selected because hydrography is an activity involving numerous disciplines including the weather, ocean and climate sciences that helps maintain the so-called "global blue economy." [International Federation of Hydrographic Societies]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity began to increase across the ocean basins in the Northern Hemisphere last week.

In the eastern North Pacific basin, the third named tropical cyclone of 2014 formed from a tropical depression off the coast of southern Mexico early last week. This system became Tropical Storm Cristina and then by midweek the second hurricane of the season as it traveled toward the west. By late in the week, Hurricane Cristina had intensified to become a major category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as maximum sustained surface winds reached 150 mph. At this time, Cristina began to travel toward the west-northwest, remaining well off the Mexican coast. By this past weekend, Cristina had weaken to a tropical storm and finally a tropical depression as of Sunday morning. Cristina was expected to dissipate early this week as it continues to travel toward the west-northwest well off the coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. Additional information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Cristina are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the North Indian Ocean Basin, Tropical Storm Nanauk (also known as 02A) formed over the waters of the Arabian Sea nearly 600 miles south of Karachi, Pakistan early last week. This tropical storm traveled to the northwest and then to the north through the remainder of the week. Over this past weekend, Tropical Storm Nanauk dissipated well offshore. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on this tropical storm.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Hagibis formed over the waters of the South China Sea over this past weekend. Hagibis traveled to the north toward the southeastern coast of China. By early Monday (local time), this tropical storm was approximately 170 miles to the east-northeast of Hong Kong and was expected to make landfall along the Chinese coast during the day.

Hurricane season outlook is updated -- At the start of June Philip Klotzbach and William Gray, hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, issued their updated June forecast for the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season. They foresee a season that would have below-average activity, as the tropical Atlantic Ocean remains slightly cooler than average and an El Niño event was beginning to develop. Therefore, they modified their April forecast slightly, now calling for 10 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), with four potentially becoming hurricanes. At least one of these hurricanes could become severe, reaching category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. They also anticipate a below-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]
Process for nominating new national marine sanctuaries announced -- As part of Capitol Hill Ocean Week, NOAA officials announced that the public is now able to nominate nationally significant marine and Great Lakes areas as potential new national marine sanctuaries. Currently, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as trustee for a system of 14 marine protected areas covering in excess of 170,000 square miles of the nation's coastal waters. [NOAA News]
Public opinion sought on National Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Policy -- NOAA Fisheries is seeking public opinion through this summer on developing an agency-wide saltwater recreational fisheries policy. This policy that is to be creates will involve key principles of recreational fishing designed to guide future agency actions and decisions. [NOAA Fisheries]
New "FishAlert!" mobile app designed to help anglers -- A new app (applications software program) called "FishAlert!" that permits users to accurately pinpoint their location relative to marine protected area boundaries has been recently been made available for free download for all iOS and Android devices. [NOAA Fisheries]
Use of mosquito control pesticide in coastal areas poses low risk for shellfish -- NOAA Fisheries scientists claim that their research indicates that four of the most common mosquito pesticides used along the nation's East and Gulf coasts appear to show little risk to juvenile hard clams and oysters. However, the scientists warn that climate stressors such as hypoxia (lower oxygen levels in the water) and increased acidification actually increased the toxicity of several of these pesticides. [NOAA News]
Ice lingers on Lake Superior -- Images obtained from sensors onboard the nation's fleet of orbiting environmental satellites continued to detect ice floating in the surface waters of Lake Superior into early June. An image obtained early in the second week of June from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite show some remnant ice in the Lake Superior waters off Ashland, WI. The remaining ice makes this past ice season on the upper Great Lakes the longest since satellite records began nearly 40 years ago. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Monitoring a rapid retreat of Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier from space -- Comparison of images of West Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae (or Glacier) made by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the NASA Landsat 8 satellite in early May and again in early June shows that several kilometers of ice were shed from the front of this glacier through the calving process. [NASA Earth Observatory]
NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Satellite retired after 13 years of service -- During the last week, NOAA officials announced that they had shutdown the sensors on the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) after more than 13 years of collecting data from the Earth's atmosphere and serving as a link that saved lives in search and rescue operations. Launched in 2000, NOAA-16 was one of the agency's NOAA's longest operating spacecraft. The Suomi NPP is now NOAA's primary operational polar satellite. [NOAA News] or [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Assessing how extreme events are affected by climate change -- NOAA recently released a new fact sheet entitled "Interpreting How Climate Change Affects Extreme Events" that is designed to provides a good background on how climate science addresses this issue through the use of observations and a variety of models. As an example, the expectations that heat waves and excessive rainfall events will continue to increase in frequency with climate change are addressed. [NOAA]
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:

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)
17 June 1579...During his "Famous Voyage," Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, claimed San Francisco Bay for England, calling the region along the northern California coast "Nova Albion" (meaning, New England). (Wikipedia)
16-18 June 1972...The greatest three-day rainfall in Hong Kong since 1889 produced 25.68 inches and resulted in disastrous landslides and building collapses. More than 100 people died, while thousands were made homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18 June 1903...Alaska's first coastal lighthouse, Scotch Cap Lighthouse, was lit. This light, which was also the first major lighthouse built by the U.S. outside the 48 coterminous states, was located near the west end of Unimak Island on the Pacific side of Unimak Pass, the main passage through the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Sea. This light in an octagonal wooden tower was replaced by a concrete lighthouse in 1940, which was destroyed by a tsunami in 1946, with the loss of the five crewmen stationed there. (USCG Historian's Office)
18 June 1875...A severe coastal storm (or possible hurricane) struck the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. Eastport, ME reported wind gusts to 57 mph. (David Ludlum)
19 June 240 BC...On the summer solstice, Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
19-26 June 1972...Hurricane Agnes (a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) moved onshore along the Florida Panhandle near Cape San Blas and Apalachicola with wind gusts to 80 mph, and eventually exited Maine on the 26^th. This hurricane moved northeast and joined with an upper level disturbance, producing from 10 to 20 inches of rain along its path along the Eastern Seaboard. In the Middle Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, 24 hour rainfall amounts were generally 8 to 12 inches, with up to 19 inches in extreme southwestern Schuylkill County. At Wilkes-Barre, PA the dike was breached destroying much of the town. Agnes was responsible for 125 deaths, mainly due to flooding from North Carolina to New York State, and total damage was estimated at more than $3 billion. Torrential rains from Hurricane Agnes resulted in one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history. Agnes caused more damage than all other tropical cyclones in the previous six years combined (which included Celia and Camille). (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
20 June 1597...Willem Barents, the Dutch explorer who tried to search for the Northeast Passage, died in the Arctic off the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya when his ship became trapped in ice. (Wikipedia)
20 June 1819...The 320-ton paddle-wheel SS Savannah arrived in Liverpool, England to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, having left the port of Savannah, GA on 22 May. (InfoPlease Daily Almanac)
20 June 1940...The first successful west to east navigation of the Northwest Passage began at Vancouver, BC. (Wikipedia)
21 June 1791...A hurricane, called El Temporal de Barreto - the storm of Barreto, generated a monster ocean wave that carried off the coffin of a rich, but hated, count as he lay in state in his mansion near Havana, Cuba. (The Weather Doctor)
21 June 1886...A destructive hurricane hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida on the summer solstice. Extensive damage was done in Florida and throughout the southeast by this storm, which was the first hurricane of the year. Damage was due mainly to extremely high tides. (Intellicast)
21 June 1961...The first practical plant for the conversion of seawater to drinking water at Freeport, TX was dedicated when President John Kennedy pressed a switch installed in his Washington, DC office. The plant was capable of producing about a million gallons of water a day, supplying fresh water to Freeport at a cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons. The large-scale evaporation method used then has now been replaced by reverse osmosis as special polymers are now used as filtering membranes. (Today in Science History)
22 June 1675...The Royal Greenwich Observatory was created by Royal Warrant in England by Charles II, with its practical astronomy serving as its primary mission, including navigation, timekeeping and the determination of star positions. In 1767 the observatory began publishing The Nautical Almanac, which established the longitude of Greenwich as a baseline for time calculations. The almanac's popularity among navigators led in part to the adoption (1884) of the Greenwich meridian as the Earth's prime meridian (0 degrees longitude) and the international time zones. (Today in Science History)
22 June 1948...Congress enacted Public Law 738, which authorized the operation of floating ocean stations for the purpose of providing search and rescue communication and air-navigation facilities, and meteorological services in such ocean areas as are regularly traversed by aircraft of the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)