WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

13-17 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:

• Celebrate World Sea Turtle Day 2016 -- This upcoming Thursday (16 June 2016) has been declared World Sea Turtle Day. [Marine Science Today]
• Views of the National Parks from space and over time -- In recognition of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the National Park System (NPS), the staff of NASA's Earth Observatory mission has assembled a collection of three-dozen images made of selected national parks from data collected by NASA's fleet of orbiting satellites. For several of the units administered by NPS, several images are provided to permit comparison of how the landscape of the park has changed over time. In addition, a feature article titled "Natural Beauty at Risk: Preparing for Climate Change in National Parks" describes how projected changes in temperature, precipitation and concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with a changing climate could affect the land cover in the national parks. [NASA Earth Observatory]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- During the last week, tropical cyclone activity was found in the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins:
• In the North Atlantic basin, Tropical Storm Colin, the basin's third named tropical cyclone of 2016, traveled to the north and north-northeast across the Gulf of Mexico at the start of last week, before making landfall along the Big Bend area of northern Florida late Monday night.
  During the early morning hours of Tuesday, Colin continued moving to the northeast, crossing northern Florida and southeastern Georgia and then exiting off Georgia's Atlantic coast by dawn on Tuesday morning. Continuing to the northeast during the morning this tropical depression turned into a post-tropical cyclone as it traveled offshore of the coast of the Carolinas. As much as eleven inches of rain that accompanied Colin fell from northern Florida to the North Carolina Outer Banks. By early Tuesday evening when the National Hurricane Center issued its last public advisory on post-Tropical Cyclone Colin, this remnant low had traveled approximately 200 miles to the east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, NC. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Colin.
• In the eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Depression 1E formed near the start of last week off the coast of southern Mexico, approximately 185 miles southwest of Salina Cruz, Mexico. This tropical depression, the first of 2016 in the eastern Pacific, traveled generally toward the northeast before making landfall along the coast of the Gulf of Tehuantepec on Wednesday morning. Upon making landfall to the east-northeast of Salina Cruz, Tropical Depression 1E dissipated rapidly. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Depression 1E are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• El Niño Advisory ends while La Niña Watch continues -- Forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) recently announced that the El Niño has essentially dissipated across the equatorial Pacific during May 2016, leaving ENSO-neutral conditions as sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies dropped to near zero or slightly negative (observed SSTs slightly lower than long-term average SSTs). Consequently, the forecasters have given their last El Niño Advisory. At the same time, they continued their La Niña watch as they envision a La Niña event developing during the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2016, with a a 75 percent chance of La Niña conditions during fall and the 2016-17 winter. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
  An ENSO blog was written by a CPC researcher detailing the demise of the 2015-16 El Niño event during the last several months after peaking late last year. A comparison was made between this recent El Niño and the major 1997-98 event. Discussion was also made of the long-range forecasts running through early 2017, focusing upon the anticipated development of a La Niña event during the next several months. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
• Hurricane outlooks issued for the eastern and central North Pacific -- Recently, NOAA released its outlooks for the upcoming 2016 hurricane seasons in the eastern and central Pacific Basins:
• For the Eastern North Pacific basin (east of 140 degrees West longitude), the outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center suggests the likelihood of a near-normal hurricane season, with a 40-percent chance of a near-normal season, as compared with a 30-percent chance of an above-normal season and 30-percent chance of a below normal season. This outlook would call for a 70-percent chance of the formation of between 13 and 20 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes or tropical storms), with six to eleven hurricanes. Between three and six major hurricanes (category 3 or higher) were also envisioned. These anticipated numbers compare with the 45-year average of 15 named tropical cyclones per year that include eight hurricanes and as many as four major hurricanes. The forecasters indicate that the dissipation of the recent El Niño event and a transition to a La Niña event along with global patterns of sea surface temperature anomalies (or departures of the observed sea surface temperatures from the long-term averages) were important factors that influenced their forecasts. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
• For the Central North Pacific basin (between 180 degrees and 140 degrees West longitude), forecasters at NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center in collaboration with their colleagues at the Climate Prediction Center expect that the upcoming hurricane season could range from near- to above-average. They called for a 40-percent chance of near average normal activity, a 40-percent chance of above-average activity, with only a 20-percent change of a below-normal season. The forecasters foresee that four to seven tropical cyclones could affect the central North Pacific in 2016, either forming with in the basin or entering it from the Eastern Pacific. On average, four to five tropical cyclones (including tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes) travel across the basin that stretches from 140 degrees west longitude to the International Dateline.  The forecasters voiced some uncertainty in their outlooks, due to anticipated transition to La Niña conditions that would tend to suppress tropical cyclones across the basin, while changes in global sea surface temperatures across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans appear to be causing a shift to a more active decadal cycle in the central Pacific basin. . [NOAA Central Hurricane Center]
• NOAA takes control of new global ocean satellite as hurricane season starts -- As the Atlantic and eastern Pacific hurricane seasons officially began last week, NOAA officially assumed operational control of the Jason-3 satellite from NASA. This low-altitude orbiting satellite, which was launched last January, measures the surface height of the global ocean, monitors the rate of sea-level rise and provides data needed by forecasters with NOAA's National Weather Service to accurately forecast the strength of tropical cyclones that could threaten the nation's coasts. [NOAA News]
• Port State Measures Agreement is implemented -- On Sunday, 5 June 2016, the Port State Measures Agreement or the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing went into effect internationally. NOAA Fisheries and the Office of Law Enforcement are involved with implementing and enforcing this Agreement. [NOAA Fisheries Law Enforcement]
• Ask the "Sea Turtle DNA Detectives" -- The public is invited to ask Dr. Peter Dutton, the head of the NOAA Marine Turtle Genetics Program, questions about sea turtle genomics and conservation between 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, 16 June as part of the Reddit "Ask Me Anything" series. As a sea turtle biologist for the NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center, he has been involved with sea turtle conservation and genetics for more than 30 years. [NOAA Fisheries Feature Stories]
• Investment made to improve ocean observations for weather and climate prediction -- Last week NOAA's Climate Program Office announced $4.5 million would be invested in four projects to test technology designed to improve the Tropical Pacific Observing System (TOPOS 2020). This TOPOS 2020) Project, consisting of an array of buoys in the tropical Pacific, would be used to better understand El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), how it develops, and how it affects Earth's weather and climate. The four new projects consist of i) enhanced ocean boundary layer observations; ii) new rainfall, wind speed, and biogeochemical sensors; iii) autonomous surface vessels as low-cost observing platforms and iv) new sensors to measure wind stress. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
• Autonomous sailing vessels deployed to study marine animals -- NOAA Research and NOAA Fisheries are collaborating with academic and private sector partners to test innovative technologies that could be used to gather information on ocean conditions and marine species in remote areas of the ocean considered to be costly to reach and difficult to study. Two autonomous, wind-powered vessels resembling windsurfers have been deployed recently in the Bering Sea to serve as research platforms. [NOAA Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research News]
• An average "dead zone" in Gulf of Mexico is predicted for this summer -- Scientists with NOAA, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and their partners at several university research centers have recently forecast the size of this year's "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, which is a hypoxia region in the waters of the Gulf with either low or no dissolved oxygen, should be as close to the average size over the last several years. This new ensemble outlook has incorporated the output guidance from four separate hypoxia models, for only the second year. [USGS Newsroom]
• Importance of the human dimension stressed in maintaining healthy ecosystems -- Social scientists with NOAA Fisheries and the Sea Grant program are stressing the need for the inclusion of the human well-being aspect in the effective ecosystem management decisions. People need to be encouraged to consider their place in the "natural world." Human well-being encompasses many characteristics of a functional society, including basic needs, access to social services, health, education, social connectedness, planning and management, safety, environmental conditions, economic security, and population demographics. [NOAA Fisheries Feature Stories]
• NASA's IceBridge Arctic Spring field campaign concludes -- On 21 May, the five-week field campaign of NASA's Operation IceBridge in the Arctic was concluded for spring. This campaign was the eighth Arctic deployment, where researchers used research aircraft on sixteen research flights out of Thule Air Base in Greenland and Fairbanks, AK to collect data on Arctic sea and land ice. Operation IceBridge's mission is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice and maintain continuity of measurements between the original ICESat spacecraft mission that ended in 2009 and the next mission, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2018. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
• 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]

• 13 June 1415...Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa.
• 13 June 1881...The steamer USS Jeannette was crushed in Arctic ice pack north of Siberia as the 1879-1881 Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong, USN, attempted to reach the North Pole by ship. (Naval Historical Center)
• 13 June 1972...Severe weather conditions over the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico begin to converge and form a tropical depression that would become Hurricane Agnes over the next two weeks. This hurricane affected most of the eastern United States with the northeast being the hardest hit with heavy rainfall. (National Weather Service files)
• 13 June 1977...A tropical cyclone crossed the Arabian Sea from near the Laccadive Islands off southwest India and slammed into the island of Masirah, sultanate of Oman. Winds reached at least 104 mph and the 24-hour rainfall total was 16.95 inches. About 99% of buildings were damaged. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14 June 1834...The first US patent for a practical underwater diving suit was issued to Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, ME. One month earlier, he tested his suit, an airtight leather outfit with a brass helmet connected via a rubber hose to an air bellows pump on a boat, in the Webb River. (Today in Science History)
• 15 June 1744...British Admiral George Anson returned to England after circumnavigating the globe in an expedition that lasted nearly four years.
• 15 June 1990...The first use of bioremediation in open waters was to treat an oil slick from the supertanker Mega Borg following an explosion and fire on 8 June 1990 approximately 70 miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX. The 3-day bioremediation tests were conducted using oil-metabolizing bacteria and nutrients. The results of the tests were inconclusive. (Today in Science History)
• 16 June 1896...A tsunami ravages the coast of Japan killing between 22,000 and 27,000 people. (National Weather Service files)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 17 June 1971...Hurricane Bridget sunk the flagship of the Admiral of the Mexican Navy as it passed off the coast of Mexico near Acapulco. (National Weather Service files)
• 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 June 1588...A powerful storm heavily damaged the Spanish Armada off the northwest tip of Spain. The Armada would continue to be weakened by storms, as well as attacks from the English, and would crumble before the end of the year. (National Weather Service files)
• 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)

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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.