WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

18-22 August 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:

Climate resources for educators -- Experts in climate science education associated with NOAA, the NCAnet Education Affinity Group and the CLEAN Network recently published a series of guides designed to help educators use the regional chapters of the 2014 National Climate Assessment Report for teaching and learning. These guides aim to identify key messages for each of the 10 regions and point to high-quality teaching resources that support the messages. This new set of resources also shows how content in the National Climate Assessment is useful and relevant for integrating the Next Generation Science Standards and their emphasis on engineering design into science education; the overview on this topic gives specific examples for both Middle School and High School standards. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Field experiment reveals a vast ocean teeming with life -- A team of researchers that participated in the recent 2014 Ship-Aircraft Bio-Optical Research (SABOR) experiment posted a blog of their three weeks of experiences onboard the R/V Endeavor. They were impressed by the expanse of the ocean and the amount of marine life. These researchers were exploring how different aspects of the ocean environment (light, nutrients, grazing pressure) affect the ability of the phytoplankton to photosynthesize and grow. [NASA Earth Observatory Blog]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week the weather across the tropical North Atlantic basin was relatively quiet with no organized tropical cyclone activity, while several tropical cyclones were moving across the central and eastern sections of the North Pacific:

In the central North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Iselle weakened to a tropical depression and then dissipated at the start of last week as it moved westward across the waters to the south of the western end of the Hawaiian Island chain after making landfall earlier on the Big Island. The NASA Hurricane Page has more information on former Hurricane Iselle.
Hurricane Julio continued traveling toward the northwest well to the north of the Hawaiian Islands at the start of last week. By late in the week Julio weakened to a tropical storm and then to a tropical depression before dissipating to the north of the islands. More information along with satellite images on former Hurricane Julio are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the eastern North Pacific, the eleventh named tropical cyclone of 2014 developed from a tropical depression off the southwestern coast of Mexico. Named Tropical Storm Karina, this system intensified to become the seventh hurricane in the eastern North Pacific by midweek as it traveled westward away from Mexico. However, Karina weakened to a tropical storm after remaining a minimal hurricane for less than 24 hours. As of Sunday afternoon, forecasts indicated that Tropical Storm Karina should continue to travel westward before dissipating near the boundary with the central North Pacific basin. Satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Karina appear on the NASA Hurricane Page

Marine debris may be costing California residents millions of dollars -- A new NOAA-funded Marine Debris Program economics study reports that Southern California residents lose millions of dollars each year by avoiding local beaches that are littered and choosing to go to more distant beaches that are cleaner. The report notes that a 25-percent reduction in marine debris along the beaches in and near California's Orange County could save residents roughly $32 million during three months in the summer by not having to travel longer distances to other beaches. [NOAA News]
Monitoring surface winds over oceans by watching surface waves from space -- Instruments called scatterometers that collect data used to describe the state of the sea surface and hence the near surface winds over the oceans are described. A time line shows the use of scatterometers on NASA's satellites beginning in the 1970s through the newest version called NASA's ISS-RapidScat that will be placed on the International Space Station this fall. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
Exploring why some La Niña events linger -- Researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Hawaii have been conducting a modeling study with the NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM4) designed to identify the process that apparently determines why La Niña events may often last twice as long as typical El Niño events. Apparently, the depth of the thermocline in the central Pacific appears related to the duration of a subsequent La Niña event. Their research may have major implications for seasonal predictions with lead times extending more than a year into the future. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]
Snow cover on Arctic sea ice has thinned substantially in last 50 years -- Researchers from NASA and several academic research institutions including the University of Washington recently reported that springtime snow on sea ice in the Arctic has thinned significantly in the last 50 years, by approximately 30 percent in the Western Hemisphere and by nearly 50 percent near Alaska. They base their conclusions on measurements of snow depth obtained from instrumented buoys and ice floes staffed by Soviet scientists from the 1950s through the 1990s along with more recent data obtained from NASA's Bromide, Ozone, and Mercury Experiment (BROMEX) field campaign, NASA's Operation IceBridge flights. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
Ocean sediments reveal a climate surprise -- Geochemists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and colleagues from other academic institutions have found that projected warmer future climates may not degrade oxygen supplies in some parts of the oceans as previously thought. Analyzing sediment cores collected in the eastern North Pacific, these researchers found that despite warming of ocean waters during the 20th century, dissolved oxygen has increased along the coasts, especially off southern California and northern Mexico. Apparently the warming has weakened the trade winds, which stirred fewer nutrients from deep waters up toward the surface and reduced the growth of oxygen-consuming algae. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory 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:

18 August 1904...The Belle Isle Aquarium opened in Detroit, MI. This facility is the oldest, continuously running aquarium in America. Several other institutions opened earlier but since have closed or moved to multiple different buildings. Belle Isle Aquarium is still in its original building and site as the one in which it opened. (Today in Science History)
18 August 1983...Hurricane Alicia (a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) ravaged southeastern Texas. The hurricane caused more than three billion dollars property damage, making it one of the costliest hurricanes in the history of the U.S. Just thirteen persons were killed, but 1800 others were injured. The hurricane packed winds to 130 mph as it crossed Galveston Island, created a storm surge of 12 feet and spawned twenty-two tornadoes in less than 24 hours as it made landfall. (The Weather Channel) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
19 August 1559...First recorded U.S. hurricane drove five Spanish ships ashore in Pensacola Harbor along the Florida coast. (Intellicast)
19 August 1788...A small but powerful hurricane inflicted great havoc upon forests along a narrow track from Delaware Bay northeastward across New Jersey along the coast to Maine. A similar storm track today would cause extreme disaster in the now populated area. (David Ludlum)
19-20 August 1969...'Never say die' Camille, an exceptionally strong hurricane that had weakened to a tropical depression as it drifted slowly across the mid-Atlantic states, let loose a cloudburst in Virginia resulting in flash floods and landslides that killed 151 persons and caused 140 million dollars damage. Massies Hill in Nelson County, Virginia received an estimated 27 inches of rain in 24 hours. This amount is an unofficial record for the state, while the official 24-hour maximum precipitation record is 14.28 inches at Williamsburg on 16 September 1999. It was said to rain so hard that birds drowned while perched on tree branches. The James and York River basins in Virginia were especially hard hit. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum) (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
19 August 1991...Hurricane Bob slammed into New England with 90 mph sustained winds and gusts of 125 mph (at Block Island, RI) and 105 mph (at Newport, RI). It made landfall first at Newport, RI and then final US landfall as a tropical storm at Rockland, ME. A storm surge of 15 feet occurred in Upper Buzzards Bay. Portland, ME had a 24-hour record rainfall of 7.83 inches. Total damage exceeded $1.5 billion dollars and 17 people were killed. This was the worst Hurricane in the Northeast since Donna in 1960. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
20 August 1886...The town of Indianola, TX was completely destroyed by a hurricane, and never rebuilt. (David Ludlum)
21 August 1997...High winds and torrential rains from one of the worst typhoons to batter China in a decade caused the death of at least 140 at Zhejiang and Jiangsu. (The Weather Doctor)
22 August 1770...James Cook's expedition landed on the east coast of Australia. (Wikipedia)
22 August 1787...Inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates of the Continental Congress. Its top speed was 3 mph. These tests were completed years before Fulton built his steamboat. (Today in Science History)
22 August 1780...HMS Resolution, Captain James Cook's ship, returned to England; Cook had been killed on Hawaii during the voyage. (Wikipedia)
22 August 1962...The 506-ft long NS Savannah, the world's first civilian nuclear-powered ship, completed its maiden voyage from Yorktown, VA to Savannah, GA; the ship was named for the SS Savannah, the first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic in 1819. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
22 August 1994...The USCG icebreaker Polar Sea and the CCCS Louis S. Ste Laurent became the first "North American surface ships" to reach the North Pole. (USCG Historian's Office)
23 August 1540...The French explorer Jacques Cartier landed near Quebec in his voyage to Canada. (Wikipedia)
23 August 1889...The first wireless message from a ship to the shore "Sherman is sighted", was received in the US. The US Lightship No. 70, San Francisco, announced the arrival of the U.S. Army troopship Sherman to the crowd assembled at the Cliff House. Reporters from the San Francisco Call relayed this information to a city awaiting the return of its hometown regiment from the battlefields of the Spanish-American War. The lightship, miles out at sea in deep fog, relayed this message via wireless telegraphy (later known as radio) through the fog to the Cliff House. This was the first 19th-century working use of wireless telegraphy outside of England. The method was still primitive, using sparks to emit intermittent radio waves and code messages. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
23 August 1933...The Chesapeake-Potomac hurricane made landfall over Nag's Head, NC and moved over Norfolk, VA, Chesapeake Bay and Washington, DC. Winds gusted to 88 mph at Norfolk, VA. A tide seven feet above normal flooded businesses in Norfolk, and damage in Maryland was estimated at $17 million. Sixty percent of Atlantic City, NJ was flooded as was 10 square miles of southwest Philadelphia, PA. Forty seven people were killed and damage was estimated at $47 million (in depression-era dollars) (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
23-24 August 1992...Hurricane Andrew on its way to Florida with winds of 150 mph, struck northern Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. The storm surge reached 23 feet. Total damage on the islands topped $250 million. At about 5 AM on the 24th, Andrew made landfall near Homestead, FL with a central pressure of 922 mb (27.22 in.). Fowey Rocks coastal marine buoy recorded maximum sustained winds of 141 mph and a peak gust of 169 mph and the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables had sustained winds of 115 mph with a peak gust of 164 mph. A record storm surge of 16.7 feet occurred in Biscayne Bay. Homestead AFB was practically wiped out. More than 120,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, leaving 250,000 homeless. Forty-one people died and property damage exceeded $25 billion, making Andrew by far the most costly hurricane in U.S. history. Andrew was the third most intense hurricane to strike the mainland behind Camille (1969) and the Labor Day Hurricane (1935) (Intellicast)
23-24 August 1998...Almost 18 inches of rain deluged Del Rio, TX between 8 AM on the 23rd and 6 AM on the 24th because of stalled remnants of Tropical Storm Charley. Violent flash flooding from San Felipe Creek left residential lots swept bare of homes, with asphalt streets gone. Nine people were killed and 150 injured. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
24-29 August 1785...Hurricane ravaged the Eastern Caribbean Sea from St. Croix, Virgin Islands to Cuba during the last week of August. Over 142 people were reported dead from the storm's impact. (The Weather Doctor)
24 August 1912...The US Congress gave effect to the convention between United States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia prohibiting taking of fur seals and sea otters in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea by authorizing the President "to cause a guard or patrol to be maintained in the waters frequented by the seal herd or herds of seal otter." (USCG Historian's Office)
24 August 1988...A tropical depression drenched the Cabo Rojo area of southwestern Puerto Rico with up to ten inches of rain. San Juan received 5.35 inches of rain. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)