WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

17-21 July 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:

Hurricane awareness week in New England -- During week of 17-21 July 2017, several coastal New England states will observe New England Hurricane Awareness Week. On Wednesday (19 July), Vermont will conduct its Hurricane; Inland Flood Dangers Awareness Day.
Worldwide GLOBE at Night 2017 Campaign is underway -- The seventh in the series of GLOBE at Night citizen-science campaigns for 2017 will continue through Monday, 24 July. 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 14-23 August 2017. [GLOBE at Night]
Zenithal Sun -- Residents of Honolulu will experience a noontime sun that would be directly overhead during this past weekend and at the start of this week (15-17 July). This occurrence of a zenithal sun is one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents of Honolulu and the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The other time when Oahu experienced a zenithal sun was in late May. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]
Shark Week 2017 starts next weekend --The Discovery Channel's Shark Week 2017, a week-long series of feature television programs dedicated to sharks, starts next Sunday evening, 23 July. The week is also promoted on social media networks. Shark Week was first run in July 1987 in an effort to raise public awareness and respect for sharks. Discovery has announced that Michael Phelps, an American former competitive swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, will have a role in Shark Week 2017. [The Discovery Channel]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Several named tropical cyclones developed over the North Pacific Ocean during the last week:

In the eastern North Pacific basin, Hurricane Eugene was traveling to the northwest across the waters off the western coast of Mexico at the beginning of last week. As it traveled, Eugene was weakening from a major category 3 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) to a category 1 hurricane by early Monday morning, when it was located approximately 900 miles to the west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. By Monday evening, Hurricane Eugene had weakened to a tropical storm and by Wednesday morning to a tropical depression. On Wednesday afternoon Tropical Depression Eugene had become a remnant low pressure center that eventually dissipated approximately 525 miles to the west-southwest of Punta Eugenia, Mexico. High surf generated by the strong winds surrounding Eugene was reaching the coasts of Baja California and southern California. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and more information on Hurricane Eugene.
A second named tropical cyclone during this past week formed in the eastern Pacific. A tropical depression became Tropical Storm Fernanda last Wednesday morning approximately 760 miles to the south of Baja California. Traveling toward the west away from the western coast of Mexico, Fernanda intensified rapidly to become the third hurricane of the season in the eastern Pacific on Thursday afternoon and then to a major category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale by Friday afternoon as maximum sustained surface winds reached 145 mph. Although the winds surrounding this hurricane had weakened slightly, Fernanda remained a category 4 into Sunday morning as it continued traveling toward the west-northwest. By Sunday afternoon, Fernanda had become a category 3 hurricane as it was approximately 1400 miles to the west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas. Current forecasts suggest that Fernanda would begin a gradual weakening beginning Monday as it would continue its track toward the west-northwest, well to the east-southeast of the Hawaiian Islands. Satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Fernanda can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Talas formed over this past weekend from a tropical depression that was moving to the northwest across the South China Sea approximately 200 miles off the coast of central Vietnam. Over the weekend, Talas began to curve toward the west-northwest. By early Sunday, Tropical Storm Talas traveled across the southern sections of China's Hainan Island, accompanied by strong winds and torrential rains. As of late Sunday night, Talas was moving into the Gulf of Tonkin, positioned approximately 190 miles to the north-northwest of Da Nang, Vietnam. Current forecasts indicate that Tropical Storm Talas should make landfall along the coast of Vietnam's central and northern provinces on Monday, bringing locally heavy rain to as far north as the capital city of Hanoi. Weakening quickly as this tropical storm moves into the mountainous area of Vietnam, a remnant low that had been Talas could reach Laos before dissipating.

Updated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion is released -- Forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion late last week. They reported an ENSO-neutral situation continued through June 2017, with above-average sea surface temperatures (SST) found across the east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean, while slightly below- or near-average SSTs were reported in the eastern Pacific. In addition, the atmospheric system remained close to average, suggestive of the continuation of an ENSO-neutral situation with neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions prevailing. While some of the prediction models used by the forecasters indicate an onset of an El Niño during Northern Hemisphere summer (June, July and August), other models appear to favor continuation of ENSO-neutral conditions into boreal autumn (September through November). Therefore, forecasters give ENSO-neutral conditions a 50 to 55 percent chance of continuing into the Northern Hemisphere's 2017-2018 winter season., while a 35 to 45 percent chance is given for development of El Niño conditions. Therefore, the CPC's ENSO Alert System Status remained non activate. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center] Note: The criteria used for CPC's ENSO Alert System is available.
An ENSO blog was written by a researcher with NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory that explains why CPC and IRI forecasters are claiming that ENSO-neutral conditions are continuing despite above-average temperatures in a region of the central equatorial Pacific (called Niño3.4) used as a standard to determine the occurrence of an El Niño or La Niña. Discussion is alsos made of how the various prediction models used by CPC and IRI indicate a weak El Niño developing before returning to ENSO-neutral conditions. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
An El Niño forecast from Down Under -- Forecasters with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology recently issued an updated ENSO forecast, in which they reported continuation of ENSO-neutral conditions. Since they foresee a continuation of these neutral conditions through the remainder of the calendar year of 2017, the Bureau's ENSO Outlook status remains "Inactive." [Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology]
Significant harmful algal bloom is predicted this summer for western Lake Erie -- Late last week scientists from NOAA and the partner institutions of Ohio Sea Grant, Ohio State University, Ohio's Heidelberg University and University of Michigan predict a harmful algal bloom in western Lake Erie for summer 2017 that would be smaller than the record 2015 bloom, but at levels found in 2013 and 2014. This final version of the 2017 seasonal forecast involves the generation of a severity index, based upon the amount of the bloom's biomass, from numerical models that involve assessing and predicting the nutrient runoff. The anticipated significant algal bloom is due to recent above average runoff into western Lake Erie and from coastal water color obtained from the European Sentinel-3 satellite. [NOAA News]
Sailing drones deployed this summer to explore the oceans -- Beginning this month and running for the next four months, NOAA scientists will be launching and operating unmanned ocean surface vehicles, called Saildrones, across the waters surrounding Alaska southward to the tropical Pacific Ocean. Resembling a sailboat, these Saildrones are wind and solar-powered research vehicles that are designed to measure air/sea interactions including surface energy fluxes and carbon fluxes. Onboard instruments make measurements of temperature, humidity, pressure, sunlight and wind speed/direction in the atmosphere; wave height and period, skin temperature and partial pressure of carbon dioxide gas at the ocean surface; and ocean currents, water temperatures, salinity and dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in the ocean sub-surface layer. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
Massive iceberg broke off from Antarctic Ice Shelf -- Project MIDAS, an Antarctic research project based at the United Kingdom's Swansea University, reported that early last week an iceberg broke away from the West Antarctica Larson C Ice Shelf and is now floating in the waters of the Wendell Sea. This iceberg is approximately the size of the state of Delaware and is estimated to weigh over a trillion tons. A false-color image made by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite and a day-night band image from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite show the new iceberg last Wednesday. The new iceberg is expected to occasional get stuck on the bottom of the Wendell Sea over the next months and years. [NASA Earth Observatory] [BBC News]
NOAA Fisheries remains committed to saltwater recreational fisheries -- Early this week the National Policy Advisor for Recreational Fisheries, Russell Dunn, meet with saltwater recreational constituents and partners at the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST) in Orlando, Florida. He announced plans for a 2018 National Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Summit slated for the Washington, D.C. area in late March 2018. He also released the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Snapshots, a series of informational factsheets that highlight the opportunities and economic impacts of recreational fisheries in each of eight fishery management council regions plus an additional factsheet covering Atlantic highly migratory species. During this week, NOAA Fisheries Deputy Assistant Administrator Sam Rauch will present an overview of US recreational fisheries management at the World Recreational Fisheries Conference in Victoria, British Columbia. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Monetary award made for Gulf of Mexico research -- During the last week the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that NOAA has issued awards totaling $16.7 million from its RESTORE Act Science Program to support efforts to protect fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. The projects that will receive these awards will be conducting research into bluefin tuna, blue crabs, Mississippi oyster farmers and other parts of the Gulf ecosystem. The RESTORE Act was developed by NOAA in consultation by the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies (RESTORE) of the Gulf States Act of 2012. [NOAA News]
Warm winter events in Arctic are becoming more frequent and last longer -- An international team of researchers have found that Arctic winter warming events, identified as the winter days with maximum temperatures of at least 10 degrees below zero Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) have become more frequent and are lasting longer than they did in the 1980s. This discovery was made based upon data collected from field campaigns, drifting weather stations and buoys across the Arctic Ocean from 1893 to 2017, along with a global atmospheric reanalysis provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK, from 1979 to 2016. The more frequent and longer lasting warm winter events would appear to affect Arctic sea ice growth and thickness. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Feature]
Rate of coastal wetland loss in Louisiana slows -- Scientists with the US Geological Survey (USGS) have analyzed the reports of coastal wetland loss in Louisiana between 1932 and 2016, finding the long-term rate of coastal wetland loss has continued to slow since peaking in the 1970s. Historical surveys, aerial imagery and satellite data were used to track these changes in the coastal landscape over time. These researchers conclude that the lack of major hurricanes reaching the coast since 2008 may be a likely main reason for this slowing of the rate of land loss. [USGS Newsroom]
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:

17 July 1858...The U.S. sloop Niagara departed Queenstown, Ireland to assist in laying the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. (Naval Historical Center)
17 July 1994...The Polar Sea departed from Victoria, BC on operation Arctic Ocean Section 1994 and became the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole. She then transited the Arctic Ocean back to her home port in Seattle, WA. (USCG Historian's Office)
17 July 1998...A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroyed 10 villages in Papua, New Guinea killing an estimated 1500 people, leaving 2000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless. (Wikipedia)
18 July 1986...Videotapes, taken by the deep-sea Alvin submersible, showing SS Titanic's remains were released. Looking like huge stalagmites, rusticles ("rust icicles") are a byproduct of the bacteria slowly converting the iron in the hull. The colony of iron-eating bacteria flourishes in the anaerobic (without oxygen) environment inside the hollow multi-layered rusticles while on the outside, porous layers support oxygen-dependent bacteria. In this eerie way, there is still life on the Titanic as the ship lies deep on the ocean floor. (Today in Science History)
18-19 July 1979...A 30-foot high tsunami wave leveled four Indonesian villages on the Sunda Islands during the night. The wave swept 1500 feet inland, causing 589 deaths among the sleeping villagers. A landslide from Mount Werung (Lomblen Island) caused the tsunami. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
18-22 July 1997...Hurricane Danny, the only hurricane that made landfall in the continental US in 1997, moved inland into coastal Alabama at a snails pace. Radar storm total estimates of 43 inches over Mobile Bay. A torrential 32.52 inches of rain fell on 19-20 July at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, establishing a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for Alabama. (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
19 July 1843...The first all-metal liner, the SS Great Britain, was launched from Bristol, England. Designed by I. K. Brunel, the SS Great Britain was the first of the great steamships. She was the world's first screw-propeller driven (and first iron-hulled) steamship to cross the Atlantic (1845). The six-masted, single-screw, 3,270-ton vessel is 322 feet in length overall and carried a crew of 130 including 30 stewards for her 360-seat dining room. As the world's biggest ship of the time, she embarked on a varied career, first as a luxury liner carrying passengers to New York and Melbourne, then as a ferry carrying troops to the Crimea and India, and finally as a cargo ship, before being abandoned in the Falkland Islands in 1886. She was brought back to Bristol on this day in 1970, where she is now being restored by volunteers to her original appearance at the Great Western Dock in which she was built. (Today in Science History)
19 July 1886...A hurricane from the Gulf of Mexico crossed Florida causing great damage from Cedar Keys to Jacksonville. This was the third hurricane in one month to cross the Florida peninsula. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
19 July 1897...LT Robert E. Peary, USN, departed on a year long Arctic Expedition that made many important discoveries, including one of largest meteorites, Cape York. (Naval Historical Center)
19 July 1994...Hurricane Emilia was the first of three Category-5 hurricanes to develop in the Central Pacific in 1994 as unusually warm sea temperatures prevailed south of Hawaii. Sustained winds reached 160 mph. (Intellicast)
20 July 1964...Four Navy divers entered Project SEALAB I capsule moored 192 feet on the ocean floor off Bermuda for an 11-day experiment. On the 22^nd they submerged and then surfaced on 31 July 1964. (Naval Historical Center)
20 July 1985...Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank approximately 40 miles off the coast of Key West, FL, in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots. (InfoPlease.com)
22 July 1986...Hurricane Estelle passed 120 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands creating a ten to twenty-foot surf. The large swells resulted from a combination of high tides, a full moon, and 50-mph winds. The hurricane also deluged Oahu Island with as much as 6.86 inches of rain on the 24th and 25th of the month. (Storm Data)
22-23 July 1996...A strong storm system centered south of Tahiti in the South Pacific was responsible for eight-foot surf along the south shores of Hawaii's Oahu Island. Water safety personnel rescued 95 people from the high surf. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
23 July 1715...Boston Light, the first lighthouse in America was authorized by the Boston Light Bill for construction at Little Brewster Island, MA. This light, located on Little Brewster Island to mark the entrance to Boston harbor, has guided ships since its lantern was first lighted just before sunset, on 14 Sep 1716. In the 1600s, treacherous rocks caused countless loss of lives. False signal fires lit in the wrong places by "wreckers" lured ships aground to plunder. Boston Light was blown up by the British in 1776, but rebuilt in 1783 by Governor John Hancock. The lighthouse was also the last remaining staffed station in the U.S. (Today in Science History)
23 July 1788...A weather diary kept by George Washington recorded that the center of a hurricane passed directly over his Mount Vernon home. The hurricane crossed eastern North Carolina and Virginia before moving into the Central Appalachians. Norfolk, VA reported houses destroyed, trees uprooted, and crops leveled to the ground. (David Ludlum)
23 July 1958...USS Nautilus (SSN-571) departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for the first submerged transit of the North Pole. (Naval Historical Center)
23 July 1982...The International Whaling Commission decided to end commercial whaling by 1985-86. (Wikipedia)