Weekly Ocean News

BREAK WEEK: 6-10 October 2014

This is Break Week for the Fall 2014 offering of the DataStreme Ocean course. This Weekly Ocean News contains new information items and historical data, but the Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 5.

Items of Interest

Celebrate National Seafood Month -- The US Department of Commerce, along with one of its agencies, NOAA Fisheries, is celebrating this month of October 2014 as National Seafood Month. According to statistics compiled by this agency the seafood industry supports 1.2 million jobs nationwide and added $55 billion to the nation's GDP in 2011. [US Department of Commerce]
Ms. Eileen Sobeck, Head of NOAA Fisheries, issued a message last week celebrating seafood, sustainability and stewardship of the nation's fisheries. [NOAA Fisheries]
Light in the oceans -- If you would like information on the distribution of sunlight in the upper levels of the ocean has an impact upon the distribution of marine life and various processes such as photosynthesis in these layers, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week, tropical cyclone activity continued in Pacific basins of the Northern Hemisphere:

In the eastern North Pacific basin, Hurricane Rachel traveled to the west-northwest away from the western coast of Mexico as a category-1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) at the start of last week. However, Rachel weakened to a tropical storm, then a tropical depression and finally a remnant low just before midweek, approximately 500 miles west of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. See the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm or Hurricane Rachel.
Tropical Storm Simon formed late last week from a tropical depression that was approximately 200 miles off the southwestern coast of Mexico. By the weekend, Simon became the fourteenth hurricane of the 2014 eastern Pacific hurricane season. On this past Saturday, Hurricane Simon intensified rapidly to become a major category 4 hurricane as maximum sustained surface winds had reached more than 130 mph as it traveled toward the northwest off the coast of the Baja California Peninsula. On Sunday, Simon began weakening as it began curving toward the north. Forecasts indicate that Simon should weaken to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression during the first half of this new week as it continues to curve toward the northeast. Simon could make landfall along the northern Baja California Peninsula. Some of the torrential rain accompanying Hurricane Simon could eventually reach the deserts of the Southwestern United States. Additional information on Hurricane Simon and satellite images are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Kammuri weakened as it traveled toward the northeast off the southeastern coast of Japan at the start of last week. Kammuri became a midlatitude storm several hundred miles off Japan. Satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Kammuri are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
A tropical depression formed over the waters of western North Pacific to the east-southeast of Saipan early last week and intensified to become Tropical Storm Phanfone. Traveling toward the northwest over this past weekend, Phanfone became a super typhoon or equivalently, a category-4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as maximum sustained surface winds reached 150 mph. Passing close to Okinawa, Phanfone generated high seas that washed three US airmen out to sea from Kadena Air Base, with at least one fatality. Phanfone was forecast to curve toward the northeast and come close to the southern coast of at the start of this new week as it expected to come close to or make landfall on the southern coast of Japan. Forecasts indicate that Tokyo could have 80-mph sustained winds, which would be a record for Japan's capital city. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Super typhoon Phanfone.
Another tropical depression formed over the waters nearly 1000 miles to the east-southeast of Saipan late last week and became a tropical storm. By the weekend this tropical storm intensified to become Typhoon Vongfong, a category-2 typhoon, as it traveled toward the west-northwest, passing approximately 50 miles to the north of Guam. Forecasts suggest that Typhoon Vongfong could intensify into a super typhoon by midweek as it would track toward the west-northwest. Additional information and satellite images on Typhoon Vongfong are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.

Major progress on Gulf of Mexico restoration announced -- Late last week a formal Record of Decision to implement a Gulf of Mexico restoration plan was signed by NOAA officials and Natural Resource Damage Assessment trusties in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This restoration plan, which would involve 44 projects and total an estimated $627 million, will restore barrier islands, shorelines, dunes, underwater grasses and oyster beds that were damaged by the 2010 oil spill in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. [NOAA News]
Satellite images of phytoplankton help trace ocean currents off Australia -- Images made by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite during the last two months detected chlorophyll associated with phytoplankton in the waters off the northwestern coast of Australia. The swirls of these phytoplankton seen on the satellite images serve as tracers of two major ocean currents: the Indonesian Throughflow (or South Equatorial Current) and the Leeuwin Current. [NASA Earth Observatory]
New map exposes thousands of undetected seamounts on ocean floor -- Researchers from California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and their colleagues from other research institutions have produce a high resolution map of the world's seafloor that shows thousands of previously uncharted seamounts or mountains rising from the seafloor. Their new map was based upon existing data and improved remote sensing instruments, including data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) CryoSat-2 satellite. [National Science Foundation News]
Determining coral reef winners and losers -- The University of California Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis recently reported on their evaluation of the ability of coral reefs to survive over various time scales increasing natural and human-caused stressors. The results show that while winners and losers will be found among the various coral species, a somewhat brighter picture of how corals may fare is seen as some species may be able to populate the world's oceans even as water temperatures rise with future global climate change. [The University of California Santa Barbara Current]
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.

This Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 6.

Concept of the Week: The Ocean and the Global Radiation Budget

The ocean is an important player in the radiational heating and cooling of Planet Earth. For one, covering about 71% of Earth's surface, the ocean is a primary control of how much solar radiation is absorbed (converted to heat) at the Earth's surface. Also, the ocean is the main source of the most important greenhouse gas (water vapor) and is a major regulator of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), another greenhouse gas.

On an annual average, the ocean absorbs about 92% of the solar radiation striking its surface; the balance is reflected to space. Most of this absorption takes place within about 200 m (650 ft) of the surface with the depth of penetration of sunlight limited by the amount of suspended particles and discoloration caused by dissolved substances. On the other hand, at high latitudes multi-year pack ice greatly reduces the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the ocean. The snow-covered surface of sea ice absorbs only about 15% of incident solar radiation and reflects away the rest. At present, multi-year pack ice covers about 7% of the ocean surface with greater coverage in the Arctic Ocean than the Southern Ocean (mostly in Antarctica's Weddell Sea).

The atmosphere is nearly transparent to incoming solar radiation but much less transparent to outgoing infrared (heat) radiation. This differential transparency with wavelength is the basis of the greenhouse effect. Certain trace gases in the atmosphere absorb outgoing infrared and radiate some of this energy to Earth's surface, thereby significantly elevating the planet's surface temperature. Most water vapor, the principal greenhouse gas, enters the atmosphere via evaporation of seawater. Carbon dioxide, a lesser greenhouse gas, cycles into and out of the ocean depending on the sea surface temperature and photosynthesis/respiration by marine organisms in surface waters. Cold water can dissolve more carbon dioxide than warm water so that carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere where surface waters are chilled (at high latitudes and upwelling zones) and released to the atmosphere where surface waters are heated (at low latitudes). Photosynthetic organisms take up carbon dioxide and all organisms release carbon dioxide via cellular respiration.

Concept of the Week: Questions

If the ocean's pack ice cover were to shrink, the ocean would absorb [(more)(less)] solar radiation.
All other factors being equal, if sea surface temperatures were to rise, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolved in surface ocean waters would likely [(increase) (decrease)].

Historical Events

7 October 1737...A furious cyclone in the Bay of Bengal caused a major disaster at the mouth of the Hoogby River near Calcutta, India. As many as 300,000 people were killed, mainly as the result of the storm's forty foot high surge. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
9 October 1873...LT Charles Belknap called a meeting at the Naval Academy to establish the U.S. Naval Institute for the purpose of disseminating scientific and professional knowledge throughout the U.S. Navy. (Navy Historical Center)
9 October 1967...A cyclone of relatively small dimension with a surface width of only 31 miles, hit India's coast at Orissa and moved to the northeast along the coast for 75 miles. As many as 1000 people and 50,000 head of cattle died. A surge in the storm's wake penetrated 16 miles inland. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
10 October 1845...Naval School, renamed the U.S. Naval Academy, opened in Annapolis, MD with 50 midshipmen students and seven faculty. (Navy Historical Center)
10 October 1861...Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer, oceanographer, statesman, and humanitarian was born. Nansen led a number of expeditions to the Arctic (1888, 1893, 1895-96) and oceanographic expeditions in the North Atlantic (1900, 1910-14). He wrote The Oceanography of the North Polar Basin (1902). For his relief work after World War I, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1922. (Today in Science History)
10 October 1913...President Woodrow Wilson with the aid of a telegraph signal sent from Washington, DC triggered the demolition of the Gamboa Dike, allowing water to fill the Culebra Cut and create Lake Gatun, at 85 ft above sea level, the largest man-made lake at that time. This act signaled the completion of construction of the Panama Canal, which would eventually open to ship traffic between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on 14 August 1914. (Wikipedia, Today in Science History)
11 October 1737...A deadly cyclone and storm surge of 42 ft raced up the Hooghly River in India and through the city of Calcutta destroying an estimated 40,000 boats and drowning as many as 300,000 people. (The Weather Doctor)
11 October 1846...A very intense hurricane caused great destruction in the Florida Keys. Key West was virtually destroyed with 5 feet of water reported in the city. Fort Taylor was reduced to ruins. (Intellicast)
11 October 1897...Property saved at Cape Hatteras, NC. During a severe storm, the surf threatened to wash away a fish house, with valuable nets and other gear. Surfmen saved the property and took it to a place of safety. They also assisted a lighthouse keeper by removing lenses from the beacon to a secure place. The lighthouse was in danger of being washed away by the sea. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
12 October 1492...Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sighted and landed on an island (possibly Watling Island) in the Bahamas during his travels westward across the Atlantic Ocean in search of an ocean route to eastern Asia. Apparently he underestimated the size of the world and assumed that he had reached East Asia after setting sail with three ships from Palos, Spain on 3 August 1492. During this expedition, which was the first known European expedition to the Americas since the 10^th century Viking colonies in Newfoundland, he sighted Cuba and landed on Hispaniola. (The History Channel)
12 October 1886...A hurricane made landfall between Sabine Pass, TX and Johnson's Bayou, LA. Waves were said to be as high as 2-story buildings. The surge extended 20 mi inland, with 150 people killed. Survivors clung to trees or floated on mattresses. Only two of 100 homes in Sabine Pass were reparable. (Accord Weather Calendar)
12 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel pounded Haiti and the island of Hispaniola with winds of 125 mph. Many villages were reported totally destroyed and more than 1000 Haitians died. (The Weather Doctor)
12 October 1965...End of Project Sealab II where teams of naval divers and scientists spent 15 days in Sealab moored 205 feet below surface near La Jolla, CA. (Navy Historical Center)
12 October 1979...The lowest observed sea-level barometric pressure (870 millibars or 25.69 inches of mercury) was recorded near Guam in the western Pacific Ocean at the center of Typhoon Tip. (The Weather Doctor)