WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS
9-13 May 2015
DataStreme Earth Climate System will return for Fall 2016 with
new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 22 August 2016. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.
Item of Interest:
- Use satellites to safely view Mercury's transit of the Sun -- The planet Mercury will "transit" the Sun on this Monday (9 May) morning as the planet passes between the Sun and planet Earth between 7:12 AM and 2:42 PM EDT in a relatively rare occurrence that occurs only 13 times in a century. Instruments onboard three NASA satellites are expected to collect data that should be able to generate images of the relatively small planet passing across the bright solar disk on a near-live feed. Since observing the passage of the relatively small Mercury across the Sun would require safe magnification, the public is encouraged to view the seven and a half hour transit event on a NASA Goddard Space Center website. The three satellites are: the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO (jointly operated by NASA and ESA, the European Space Agency), NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, and the Hinode solar mission, a collaboration between the space agencies of Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Caution Do not look at the Sun without adequate eye protection! [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature]
- Land of the Midnight Sun -- Barring clouds, the sun should rise at Barrow, AK early next Tuesday morning (2:47 AM AKDT on 10 May 2016) after spending 48 minutes below the horizon. The sun should then remain above the local horizon for the next 12 weeks, before going below the horizon for 30 minutes on 1 August 2016 (at 2:19 AM AKDT).
[US Naval Observatory]
- 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 18-19 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]
- Hurricane season to begin in the eastern North
Pacific -- The 2016 hurricane season in the eastern North
Pacific Ocean basin begins next Sunday, 15 May 2016. 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 2016. NOAA has
declared the week of 15-21 May 2016 to be Hurricane Awareness
Week across the nation.
Ocean in the News:
- Eye on the tropics --- No tropical cyclone activity was detected across any of the ocean basins in either the Northern or Southern Hemispheres last week.
- Regional Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Policy Implementation Plans are released -- In response to NOAA Fisheries' new agency policy concerning recreational saltwater fishing, six Regional Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Policy Implementation Plans have been released by the agency's regional offices and science centers that identify specific activities that they will undertake in 2016 and 2017. The new NOAA Fisheries policy is meant to better serve the nation's 11 million recreational saltwater anglers and the communities that rely on them. [NOAA Fisheries News]
- Responsible recreation encouraged in marine sanctuaries -- NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries has recently released suggested guidelines to people who will be visiting the national marine sanctuaries and other ocean locations on how to approach and view marine wildlife such as seals, sea lines and whales. These suggested guidelines are meant to protect the wildlife and the human visitor. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries News]
- Space agency helps serve as "Bay Watch" along Southern California beaches -- Following the temporary shutdown of a Los Angeles water treatment discharge pipe last fall, which necessitated releasing the discharge of treated wastewater closer to the coast of Southern California, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) provided measurements related to the effluent plume and algal growth from five of its satellite instruments. JPL is one of the local research institutions that comprise the the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS) that collect scientific data along the coastline to inform decision-makers on the changing conditions in Santa Monica Bay due to the change in where the treated wastewater was released. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]
- Carbon uptake in Southeast US influenced by hurricane activity -- An environmental engineer from Duke University claims that tropical cyclones moving close to the Southeastern United States can have a beneficial effect by increasing photosynthesis and growth in the region's forests, which would result in increases in carbon uptake, exceeding and counteracting the carbon emissions by all of the nation's vehicles each year. Her findings follow previous research that she made showing landfalling tropical cyclones add to the regional water supply and help mitigate drought conditions. [Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering News]
- Many islands around the world could experience freshwater stress due to changing climate -- A team of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Arizona recently reported that in addition to the threat of rising sea levels associated with higher global temperatures, many island nations could experience decreased precipitation through the end of the 21st century, which would result in increased freshwater stress, compounded by population growth. Nearly three-quarters of the 80 island groups around the world that were examined could experience more arid conditions and increased water stress. Some of the nations that appear to be at a particularly high risk due to drying and population growth include the Bahamas and Lesser Antilles in North Atlantic; French Polynesia, the Solomons, American Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu in the Pacific and Comoros in the Indian Ocean. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
- Ecology of nation's deepest lake could be altered by warming climate -- A recently released US Geological Survey (USGS) report warns that projected increases in air temperature across the global over the next several decades would change water temperature and mixing with the water column in Oregon's Crater Lake, which would potentially impact the clarity and health of the nation's deepest lake. The scientists who wrote the report used a computer model to predict mixing events through 2100 in Crater Lake, a caldera lake in the Oregon Cascade Mountains, using six different climate scenarios. [USGS Newsroom]
- Estimates of contributions by groundwater extraction to sea level rise are downsized -- Researchers from the United States, Taiwan and Singapore recently reported that water extracted from the ground along with other land water contributes approximately three times less to sea level rise than previously estimated. These results could help improve future models of sea level rise. [International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis News]
- An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on
current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical
weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and
floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
- Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com]
Historical Events:
- 9 May 1502...The explorer Christopher Columbus left Spain
for his fourth and final journey to the "New World". (Wikipedia)
- 9 May 1926...The Baden-Baden, a ship
propelled by two 50-ft high cylindrical rotors arrived in New York
having left Hamburg on 2 April 1926, and completed a transatlantic
crossing from Germany. Utilizing the aerodynamic power of the Magnus
Effect (discovered in 1852), which builds air pressure behind a
rotating cylinder, these rotors drove 45-hp electric motors that
powered the ship. Although a theoretical success, it was not
sufficiently effective for commercial application. (Today in Science)
- 9 May 1980...A blinding squall, followed by dense fog,
reduced visibility to near zero at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over
Tampa Bay in Florida. The Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hit the bridge piling, causing a 1200-foot section of the bridge to
fall 150 feet into the bay. Several vehicles, including a bus, drove
off the edge of the span, resulting in 35 deaths. (Accord's Weather
Guide Calendar) (Wikipedia).
- 9 May 1990...A category 4 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale hit the southeast coast of
India, killing 1000 people, even though 400,000 people evacuated
because of early warning of the storm. More than 100 miles of coast
were devastated as winds reached 125 mph and a storm surge measured at
22 feet flooded inland as far as 22 miles. Over 100,000 animals also died in the cyclone with the total cost of damages to crops estimated at over $600 million (1990 USD). (National Weather Service files) (The Weather Doctor)
(Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
- 10 May 1497...The Italian cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
allegedly left the Spanish coastal city of Cádiz for his first voyage
to the New World. (Wikipedia)
- 10 May 1503...Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman
Islands and named them Las Tortugas after the
numerous sea turtles that he found there. (Wikipedia)
- 10 May 1960...The submarine, USS Triton (SSRN-586), completed a submerged circumnavigation of world in 84 days
following many of the routes taken by Magellan and cruising 46,000
miles. (Naval Historical Center)
- 11 May 1833...The ship Lady of the Lake struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic while bound from England to
Quebec, resulting in the loss of 215 lives. (Accord's Weather Guide
Calendar)
- 11-12 May 1965...The first of two cyclones that struck East
Pakistan (now called Bangladesh) during the year made landfall. This
system, along with the one on 1-2 June, killed about 47,000 people.
- 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)
Return to DataStreme Ocean's RealTime Ocean Portal
Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins,
Ph.D.,
email hopkins@aos.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2016, The American Meteorological Society.