WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

19-23 June 2017

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2017 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 21 August 2017. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

Celebrating National Ocean Month -- As part of National Ocean Month, this week is designated as Week 3: Ocean Science according to the web portal maintained by NOAA's National Ocean Service. This web portal provides 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]
Happy Summer Solstice! The summer solstice will occur early Wednesday morning or late Tuesday night (officially, 21 June 2017 at 0424 Z, or 12:24 AM EDT on the 21st, 11:24 PM CDT on the 20th, 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 Sunday will be the longest and the night will be the shortest of the year. Starting Wednesday, the length of darkness will begin to increase as we head toward the winter solstice on 21 December 2017 at 1628 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 (on 3 July 2017) 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 Wednesday, 21 June 2017, the 96th-anniversary date on which the IHO was created in 1921. The theme for this year's celebration is "Mapping our seas, oceans and waterways - more important than ever," which is intended to focus the public's attention upon the importance of hydrography and the knowledge gained of the shape, nature and depth of the seafloor for the safe and sustainable use of the global oceans and other waterways. [International Hydrographic Organization]
Higher than normal ocean tides anticipated this coming week along nation's coasts -- According to the NOAA National Ocean Service's High Tide Bulletin for Summer 2017, higher than average tides are expected between 22 and 26 June for most of the Pacific Coast of the US, stretching southward from Alaska to California and along the nation's Atlantic Coast, running from Maine southward to Florida's East Coast. Higher than average tides also can be expected surrounding Hawaii and the US Pacific Islands . A new moon occurring on Friday, 23 June, coupled with lunar perigee (when the Moon is closest to Earth) occurring earlier in the day later is responsible for the perigean spring tide that creates higher than normal high tides. Furthermore, tides tend to increase around the time of the Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice (late Monday), due to the position of the sun relative to the Earth's equator. [NOAA National Ocean Service News]
Counting down to this summer's total solar eclipse -- A large section of the nation should have the opportunity of viewing a historic total solar eclipse on Monday 21 August 2017 as the Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun, resulting in a shadow that will cross 14 states running from western Oregon to the South Carolina coast. Those people who are positioned along the track of the eclipse of the nation should be able to experience up to two minutes of darkness during the midday. This total solar eclipse will be the first time since 1918 (or 99 years) that a solar eclipse has tracked from coast to coast; the 8 June 1918 solar eclipse ran from western Washington state to northern Florida. Preparations have been underway for more than one year in anticipation of this historic event:

NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information has posted a site that includes an indication of the likelihood of favorable eclipse viewing conditions along the path of the eclipse. A cloud climatology map is provided that shows the average cloudiness across the nation for 21 August. An interactive map shows the "viewability percentage" for numerous sites across the nation, which represents the likelihood of skies being sufficiently clear for the eclipse to be visible. [NOAA NCEI News]
NASA has a https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/ website that provides links to a variety of eclipse related events, activities and educational materials. On this Wednesday (21 June) NASA along with other federal agencies and science organizations will be holding a nationally-televised live "Two Months To The Eclipse" Press Conference between 1:00 and 3:30 PM, Eastern Time, live from the Newseum in Washington, DC. This press conference, which can be seen on NASA TV or on www.nasa.gov will cover a variety of topics intended to help the public prepare for and safely experience this historic event through the eyes of NASA

Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2017 Campaign is underway -- The sixth in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2017 will continue through Sunday, 25 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 (Hercules in the Northern Hemisphere and Scorpius 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 2017 campaign is scheduled for 15-24 July 2017. [GLOBE at Night]
Watching marine layer fog move into the Strait of Juan de Fuca from space -- A series of visible images obtained last month from the sensors onboard the nation's new NOAA GOES 16 satellite shows the advancement of fog from the eastern North Pacific through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the channel separating Washington's Olympic Peninsula and British Columbia's Vancouver Island. [NASA Earth Observatory] (Editor's note: The detailed features of the fog layer appearing on these images reveal the improved spatial and temporal resolution of GOES-16 imagery, the result of newer onboard sensors.EJH)

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- Tropical cyclones were reported in the western and eastern sections of the North Pacific Ocean Basin this past week:
- In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Merbok traveled to the north-northwest across the waters of the South China Sea toward the coast of southeastern China at the start of last week. By late Monday (local time), Merbok made landfall to the east of Hong Kong, accompanied by torrential rains that fell over southeastern China. After making landfall, Merbok quickly weakened and then dissipated. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Merbok are available on the NASA Hurricane Page
- In the eastern North Pacific basin, a tropical depression developed at the end of last weekend over ocean waters approximately 120 miles to the south of Salina Cruz, Mexico. After taking an erratic track to the north toward the Mexican coast, this tropical depression intensified to become Tropical Storm Calvin, the third named tropical cyclone for 2017 in that basin, late Monday afternoon. By early Monday evening Tropical Storm Calvin had made landfall along the Mexican coast approximately 50 miles to the east-northeast of Puerto Angel, Mexico. Calvin weakened to tropical depression status by early Tuesday as it continued to travel toward the west-northwest across the mountainous sections of southeastern Mexico. As of midmorning on Tuesday, Calvin had dissipated over the southern Mexico, approximately 55 miles to the north of Puerto Angel. However, torrential rains associated with the remnants of Calvin continued across southeastern Mexico and Guatemala, producing potentially life-threatening flash floods and mudslides. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Calvin.
Hurricane outlook issued for the eastern North Pacific -- Recently, NOAA released its outlook for the upcoming 2017 hurricane season in 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 or above-normal season, with a 40-percent chance of a near-normal season, as compared with a 40-percent chance of an above-normal season and 20-percent chance of a below normal season. This outlook would call for a 70-percent chance of the formation of between 14 and 20 named tropical cyclones (hurricanes or tropical storms), with six to eleven hurricanes. Between three and seven major hurricanes (category 3 or higher) were also envisioned. These anticipated numbers compare with the 30-year (1981-2010) averages of 15 named tropical cyclones per year that include eight hurricanes and as many as four major hurricanes. The forecasters base their outlook upon three main factors that would be operative during the peak of the hurricane season: 1.) either ENSO-neutral or weak El Niño conditions over the tropical Pacific Ocean; 2.) near- or above-average sea-surface temperatures in the main hurricane formation region; and 3.) near-average or weaker-than-average vertical wind shear in that same region. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
Report made on recurrent "nuisance"coastal flooding across nation during 2016 -- Scientists from NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services and from NCEI recently prepared an annual report entitled "2016 State of U.S. High Tide Flooding and a 2017 Outlook" that provides a review of the state of recurrent coastal tidal flooding considered "nuisance flooding." Nuisance flooding is defined as when a water level measured at a NOAA water level gauge exceeds the local elevation threshold for minor impacts. The report indicates that in the year running from May 2016 to April 2017 nuisance tidal flooding among most of the cities studied, flooding trends increased by 130 percent on average since the mid-1990s. Three all‐time records for annual‐flood days were either tied (Key West, FL) or broken (Charleston, SC; Savannah, GA) during 2016. The frequency of daily flooding was expected to increase during the next twelve months that end in April 2018. [NOAA/NCEI State of the Climate]
Vulnerability of Bangladesh to tropical cyclones is examined -- In the wake of the landfall of Tropical Cyclone Mora along the Bangladesh coast two weeks ago, a meteorologist with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center has written an Event Tracker Blog for Climate.gov that describes how low-lying and populous coast sections of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar can be impacted by tropical cyclones that travel across the northern Bay of Bengal to this coastal region. He reviewed the cyclone history of Bangladesh, noting that as many as eight of the top ten deadliest cyclones on record have occurred in the Bay of Bengal that borders that nation. [NOAA Clmate.gov News]
A larger than average "dead zone" in Chesapeake Bay 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 hypoxic or "dead zone" in Chesapeake Bay should be greater than the average size over the last several years. This dead zone is a hypoxia region in the waters of the Bay with either low or no dissolved oxygen. The Bay outlook, which is based on models developed by NOAA-sponsored researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the University of Michigan, rely upon nutrient loading estimates from the US Geological Survey (USGS). [NOAA News] or [USGS News]
Tsunami preparedness helped by buoy data archives -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information has been compiling a "Global Historical Tsunami Database" that is an archive of oceanographic data collected from instrumented buoys, coastal tide gauge stations and other sensors that can be used by researchers to develop models designed to improve tsunami modeling and prediction efforts. This database on tsunami events runs from 2000 B.C. to the present in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans; and the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas. Of particular interest to tsunami researchers, NCEI has been archiving data from a fleet of 39 DART® (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) buoys since 2001. DART® buoys, which represent the centerpiece of the nation's tsunami detection effort, are equipped with bottom pressure recorders that monitor pressure changes associated with wave changes caused by underwater earthquakes, landslides or volcanoes, often resulting in a tsunami. [NOAA NCEI News]
A review describes the scientific contributions made on cruise by NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown -- The assistant administrator for NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research recently posted a blog that provides a review of the impressive list of accomplishments that the crew of the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown following its return to the home port of Charleston, SC after being at sea for 797 days (3 years and 9 months). The ship's crew, which consisted of NOAA Corps officers, professional civilian mariners and scientists, surveyed the ocean floor in the remote Pacific and took scientific measurements of the ocean as part of two research projects designed to help improve predictions of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. [NOAA News]
A changing climate causes cancellation of large Canadian Arctic climate change project -- Early last week, the Science Team of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen decided to cancel the first leg of a research expedition on the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen because of too much hazardous Arctic sea ice that had migrated southward from northern sections of the Arctic Ocean. The 2017 Arctic Expedition was part of the four-year Hudson Bay System Study (BaySys) involving 40 scientists from five Canadian universities. The researchers from the University of Manitoba claim that climate change is not only reducing the total area of sea ice in the Canadian Arctic, but it is also driving ice to positions farther south where it creates navigation hazards. [University of Manitoba News]
Polar bears are put on a faster moving "treadmill" by increased sea ice drift -- Researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of Wyoming have discovered that ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas is drifting to the west at increasing rates. This increased westward ice drift requires polar bears to expend more energy walking eastward on a faster moving "treadmill" of sea ice. Consequently, the physiological stress upon the polar bears may be increased due to reduced foraging opportunity. [USGS News]
Satellite monitor penguin populations using guano markings -- Researchers at Stony Brook University have used natural-color images obtained by sensors onboard NASA's Landsat 7 satellite to detect penguin guano markings on some of the remote islands offshore of the Antarctic Peninsula. From the size of these markings, the researchers have discovered several previously unknown penguin colonies and to estimate changes in population over time. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Offshore wind turbines found to be vulnerable to wind gusts from category 5 hurricanes -- A study conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the University of Colorado at Boulder and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Research found that offshore wind turbines built according to current design standards may not be able to withstand the wind gusts of a category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). Using uniquely high-resolution computer simulations, mean wind speeds near the eyewall of Category 5 hurricane reached 90 meters-per-second (201 mph), well in excess of the 50 meters-per-second (112 mph) threshold set by current standards that are governed by the International Electrotechnical Commission. [NCAR/UCAR AtmosNews]
Efficiency of oceans as a heat sink and atmospheric gases sponge evaluated -- Researchers from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted studies to estimate the amount and the speed at which the ocean absorbs atmospheric gases and heat. The researchers used several ocean circulation models to study the role played by the ocean's Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the uptake and sequestration of transient tracers. They found that gases are more easily absorbed over time than heat energy. In addition, they determined that in cases where the ocean current slows due to the addition of heat, the ocean absorbs less of both atmospheric gases and heat, though its ability to absorb heat is more greatly reduced. [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies News]
World Ocean Database is a treasure trove of information on the oceans -- NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) through its Ocean Climate Laboratory is a major player in the development and maintenance of the World Ocean Database (WOD) that contains records about the ocean as far back as the ship logs and records of British Naval explorer Capt. James Cook 1772. The archived digital data that can be accessed from WOD provide a good source of quality-controlled historical ocean profile data to the public as well as researchers in oceanography, meteorology, and climatology. The most recent version of this database, identified as the World Ocean Database 2013 (WOD13), contains a full set of quality controlled data that was used to create World Ocean Atlas 2013 (WOA13) and all updates to the database (April 2013 to present) with only initial quality control. The data, archived by NCEI, provide records of temperature, salinity, nutrients, plankton, pH, and oxygen data, as well as several other ocean variables. [NOAA NCEI 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:

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)
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)
23 June 1501...The Portuguese navigator, Pedro Alvares Cabral, returned to Portugal after a voyage during which he claimed Brazil for Portugal and then journeyed to India in search of pepper and spices. (Wikipedia)
23 June 1611...English navigator Henry Hudson was set adrift along with his son and seven loyal crew members in an open boat in Hudson Bay by mutineers on his ship Discovery; they were never seen again. He was on his fourth voyage and he had become famous for attempting to find a route from Europe to Asia via the Arctic Ocean. (Wikipedia)
23 June 1716...The Province of Massachusetts authorized erection of first lighthouse in America on Great Brewster Island, Boston Harbor. (USCG Historian's Office)
23 June 1938...The first "oceanarium" opened at Marineland in St. Augustine, FL. (Today in Science History)
24 June 1497...The Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni (John) Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland, claiming the continent for England. (Wikipedia)
25 June 1957...Hurricane Audrey moved northward, slowly strengthening until the 26th. At that time, a strong upper level trough led to its acceleration and the hurricane deepened rapidly on its final approach to the Texas/Louisiana border. Audrey became the strongest hurricane on record for the month of June upon landfall, as it reached category four strength. Its acceleration was unanticipated, and despite hurricane warnings in place, 418 people perished in the storm, mainly across southwest Louisiana. (National Weather Service files)
25 June 2012...Tropical Storm Debby dropped colossal amounts of rain on northern and central Florida. Curtis Mill, in the Panhandle near Tallahassee, received 28.78" of rain in about two days! (National Weather Service files)