WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

6-10 June 2016

DataStreme Ocean 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.

Items of Interest:

• World Ocean Day is celebrated -- World Ocean Day or a "Celebration of the Sea" will be celebrated Wednesday, 8 June 2016 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 Healthy oceans, healthy planet. A partial listing is provided for events across the US and other nations that will celebrate World Ocean Day. [The Ocean Project]
• Celebrating National Ocean Month -- A Presidential Proclamation has designated June as National Ocean Month. NOAA's National Ocean Service and the US Geological Survey have web portals that provide links to a variety of websites containing facts, images and video designed to highlight both the beauty and importance of the nation's oceans and marine environment. [NOAA National Ocean Service] and [US Geological Survey]
• Cascadia Rising 2016 disaster response simulation is scheduled -- Emergency operations and coordination centers at all levels of federal, state and local governments across the Pacific Northwest together with the private sector will conduct a simulated field response operation during this week (7-10 June 2016) designed to address a complex tsunami disaster that could happen if a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which would generate a tsunami. [FEMA Cascadia Rising 2016]
• "Break the Grip of the Rip®" -- NOAA, the United States Lifesaving Association and the National Park Service have designated this upcoming week of 5-11 June 2016 as national Rip Current Awareness Week and National Beach Safety 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.
• Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2016 Campaign is underway -- The sixth in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2016 will continue through Tuesday, 7 June. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program designed to encourage citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of their night sky by matching the appearance of a constellation (Bootes in the Northern Hemisphere and Crux in the Southern Hemisphere) with the seven magnitude/star charts of progressively fainter stars. Activity guides are also available. The GLOBE at night program is intended to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. The next series in the 2016 campaign is scheduled for 27 June-6 July 2016. [GLOBE at Night]
• Investigating link between climate change and the phenology of plants and animals -- Michigan State University's W.K. Kellogg Biological Station has a GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project that has developed a classroom activity to help K-12 students understand the link between changing climate and phenology such as bird migrations or the flowering times of plants. A lesson plan for this activity entitled "Why Fly South?", a student worksheet and other educational material are available on their web site. This project was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation's GK-12 (Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12) Education Program. [Kellogg Biological Station GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- Tropical cyclone activity was again limited to the North Atlantic basin last week. Tropical Storm Bonnie, the second named named tropical cyclone of the 2016, had weakened to tropical depression over the previous weekend as it reached the South Carolina coast by that Sunday morning. After meandering along the South Carolina coast near Charleston on Sunday and early Monday, Bonnie became a post-tropical cyclone to the north-northeast of Charleston by midday Monday. During the week, this remnant low drifted to the east-northeast along the coast before re-developing into Tropical Depression Bonnie on Thursday morning approximately 25 miles to the east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, NC. By late Friday afternoon Bonnie had strengthened to become a tropical storm as maximum sustained surface winds reached 40 mph as it traveled to the east, away from North Carolina's Outer Banks. Eventually, Bonnie weakened to a tropical depression and then a remnant low on Saturday as it continued travels toward the east. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Bonnie can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page .
  Early this past Sunday a tropical depression formed over the waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico approximately 125 miles to the north of Cozumel, Mexico. Traveling northward, this tropical depression quickly formed into Tropical Storm Colin, the third named tropical cyclone of 2016 in the North Atlantic basin, as an Air Force Reserve Unit Hurricane Hunter aircraft reported maximum near-surface sustained winds of 40 mph by late Sunday afternoon. As of Sunday evening, Colin was continuing to move north and was approximately 460 miles to the southwest of Tampa, FL. Heavy rains associated with Colin were continuing to spread northward toward Florida. According to current forecasts, Tropical Storm Colin could strengthen as its center was forecast to approach the coast of the Florida Big Bend area on Monday afternoon.
• New forecasts from National Hurricane Center will have storm surge intensity guidance -- Two weeks ago NOAA's National Weather Service announced that it was rolling out an improved weather warning system from its National Hurricane Center that contains the "Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map," which would pinpoint the reach and intensity of a storm surge from an approaching hurricane or tropical storm days prior to the occurrence of potential flooding. [USA Today]
  The National Weather Service has provided additional details and web links to various subscribers and partners on the National Hurricane Center's "Experimental Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map." [National Weather Service Headquarters]
• New models designed to predict storm effects on beaches -- The US Geological Survey (USGS) has developed computer models that can be used by weather forecasters, emergency managers and coastal residents to predict where beach erosion and beach front flooding could occur when tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms) and midlatitude storms (such as nor'easters) approach the coast. These coastal change forecasts will be made publicly available online for beaches within a hurricane's predicted strike zone approximately 36 hours before the storm makes landfall. In a pilot program commencing during the 2016 hurricane season, emergency managers and forecasters in selected sections of coastal Florida, North Carolina and Massachusetts will have access to hour-by-hour predictions of potential beach front changes caused by hurricanes and Nor'easters. [USGS Newsroom]
• NOAA's 2016 hurricane research mission focuses on improving hurricane track and intensity predictions -- Scientists with NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research will use a variety of unmanned aircraft, including NASA's Global Hawk and NOAA's smaller Coyote, during this upcoming hurricane season to study hurricane behavior as they collaborate with NASA through a program called Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT). In addition, a new Doppler Wind Lidar system is being developed by NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. The high resolution data collected by these high-tech instruments will help the National Weather Service as it continues to upgrade its operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecast system (HWRF) with the goal of improving forecasts of hurricane track and intensity. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
• New collection of hurricane science animations released -- At the start of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center released an updated collection of scientific animations generated from data collected by NASA satellites that are intended to provide scientists and other interested parties the ability to look inside hurricanes. The 50-minute "Hurricane Resource Reel" is available online at the website for Scientific Visualization Studio of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. [PRNewswire] [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• Hurricane season outlook is updated -- At the start of June Philip Klotzbach and fellow hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, issued their updated June forecast for the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season that contained changes to their April forecast to reflect the inclusion of Hurricane Alex in January and Tropical Storm Bonnie in May. They continued to foresee a season that would have near average activity due to the anticipated transition from the weakening El Niño to ENSO neutral and then weak La Niña conditions by the typical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season in September. Their new forecast calls for fourteen named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms with sustained surface winds of at least 39 mph), along with six hurricanes (maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or higher). Of these hurricanes, the forecasters foresee two major hurricanes, reaching category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. They also anticipate a near-average probability of a major Atlantic hurricane making landfall along the coast of the contiguous US and in the Caribbean. [The Tropical Storm Project]
  One week ago scientists with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center released their outlook for the Atlantic hurricane season that indicates a 70-percent chance of a near-normal hurricane season in 2016, with 10 to 16 named tropical cyclones, including four to eight hurricanes . As many as four of these hurricanes could become major hurricanes [NOAA News]
• High Tide Bulletin contains June Outlook -- NOAA's National Ocean Service has issued the first of a new series of seasonal bulletins that will inform the public of when higher than normal high tides can be anticipated. The June 2016 Bulletin notes that higher than normal tides could be expected from the Northeast to the Middle Atlantic Region and along the West Coast during the five-day span of 3-7 June 2016 due to a perigean spring tide accompanying a new moon (on 4 June) when the Moon was relatively close to Earth. The causes and impacts of these high tides are also enumerated with graphics. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
• Largest sponge on record discovered in deep sea waters off Hawaii -- A sponge that is roughly the size of a minivan was found at a depth of approximately 7000 feet in the waters of the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii's Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument during the summer of 2015. This sponge has been determined to the largest sponge on record. [NOAA News]
• Coral gardens in central equatorial Pacific Ocean becoming a graveyard due to warming ocean waters -- Scientists from NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Rutgers University recently released a report showing that approximately 95 percent of the coral colonies at Jarvis Island in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument have died following a massive coral bleaching event. The island is on the Equator roughly 1500 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands. The recent intense El Niño event was responsible for the ocean waters to become extremely warm, resulting in the coral bleaching. [NOAA News]
• Taking a virtual fish trawl survey cruise aboard a NOAA ship -- NOAA Fisheries assembled a series of photographs showing how fisheries survey data are collected for scientists and fisheries managers in trawl operations conducted by NOAA research vessels. [NOAA News]
• Proposed rules designating critical habitat for Atlantic sturgeon issued -- Last week NOAA Fisheries announced two proposed rules that would designate critical habitat for five distinct population segments of federally listed endangered Atlantic sturgeon. One of the proposed rules involves the threatened Gulf of Maine population segment and the endangered population segments of the New York Bight and Chesapeake Bay, while the other rule involves the Carolina and South Atlantic population segments. These proposed rules are open for public comment. [NOAA Fisheries News]
• NOAA Ocean Noise Strategy roadmap drafted -- NOAA has been developing an agency-wide Ocean Noise Strategy that has designed to comprehensively address noise impacts to aquatic species and their habitat over the next 10 years. A document called the "NOAA Ocean Noise Strategy Roadmap" has been prepared that solicits public comment supporting implementation of this strategy. [NOAA Cetacean & Sound Mapping]
• Cool surface waters in eastern tropical Pacific emerge as El Niño weakens -- The managing editor of NOAA Climate.gov News & Features, Rebecca Lindsey, has written an article that describes how the sea surface waters across the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean have cooled over the last several months. She provides a map of the sea surface temperature anomalies (or differences in monthly temperature for May 2016 and 1981-2010 average May temperatures) across the region, noting a region of water along the Equator that has cooled since the height of the El Niño event at the end of calendar year 2015. This observed cooling appears to be signaling the dwindling of the El Niño event and the possible development of a La Niña episode by late summer in the Northern Hemisphere. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
• Sea ice loss not a likely factor cold Northern Hemisphere winters -- Scientists at the NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder claim that melting sea ice is probably not a factor behind recent cold winters in parts of Europe, Asia, and eastern North America, refuting earlier suggestions made by several other scientists who claimed that large areas of open water in the Arctic Ocean were in part responsible for the atmospheric circulation pattern that created the unseasonably cold winters of recent times. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
• Remembering the "Year without a summer" 200 years later -- An interesting article was recently posted that describes how the eruption of several large volcanoes such as Indonesia's Tambora Volcano in April 1815 produced a haze in the stratosphere sufficiently thick as to reduce the incoming solar radiation causing a marked change in the climate across the Northern Hemisphere. Since this change in climate during the subsequent year was characterized by reduced air temperatures, a short growing season and snow even in summer, 1816 has been frequently dubbed the "Year without a summer." According to some reports, the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 contained the largest quantity of ejecta in recorded human history. [USA TODAY]
• 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] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 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)
• 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)
• 9 June 1534...The French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the river that he named the St. Lawrence in present-day Quebec, Canada. (The History Channel)
• 9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle near Alligator Point during the evening-- the earliest land-falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. Peak sustained winds were near 90 mph. Highest winds reached 125 mph and lowest pressure 970.2 millibars (28.65 inches of mercury) were reported at the Dry Tortugas on the 8th. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 inches of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 inches established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
• 10 June 1909...The International Distress Call (SOS distress signal) was used for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue.
• 11 June 1644...The Florentine scientist, Evangelista Torricelli described in a letter the invention of a barometer, or "torricellian tube." (Today in Science History)
• 11 June 1764...The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 11 June 1770...The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia when he ran aground. (Information Please)
• 11 June 1847...The English naval officer and an Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to locate the Northwest Passage.
• 12 June 1925...Lake Huron Lightship radio fog signal was placed in commission, the first signal of this kind on the Great Lakes. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 12 June 1991...On the same day that Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines awakened from its 635-year slumber, Typhoon Yunya crossed Luzon province. Mudslides and flooding caused many deaths and when added to the impacts of Pinatubo left more than a million homeless. (The Weather Doctor)

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Prepared by DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D.,
email hopkins@aos.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2016, The American Meteorological Society.