Weekly Ocean News

WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

WEEK SIX: 13-17 October 2014

For Your Information

Celebrate Earth Science Week 2014 -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the National Weather Service, along with NASA, the US Geological Survey and several professional scientific organizations such as the American Geological Institute have recognized next week (12-18 October 2014) as Earth Science Week 2014 to help the public gain a better understanding and appreciation for the earth sciences and to encourage stewardship of the Earth. This year's theme for the 17th annual Earth Science Week is "Earth's Connected Systems,” which is designed to engage "young people and others in exploring the ways that geoscience illuminates natural change processes." [American Geological Institute]
In celebration of Earth Science Week, NASA invites the public, including school children, to view the sky and help scientists who study Earth's clouds by participating in he agency's #SkyScience. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory #SkyScience]
Free NOAA online teaching tools and earth science curricula available for teachers -- NOAA Office of Education's collections portal, http://www.education.noaa.gov/about.html, is available to teachers, providing them access to NOAA earth science teaching tools and materials from one easy-to-use location. These resources are designed to educate students about the Earth's ocean, atmosphere and climate systems. The curricula series are based on the Third National Climate Assessment Report released in May 2014. [NOAA Features]
Biomixing in ocean motion -- If you would like information on recent findings that indicate marine organisms contribute to motion in the ocean, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.
Portrait of Earth and Mars from lunar orbit -- An image obtained last May from the sensors onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in orbit around the Moon shows both planets Earth and Mars. While Mars appears as a dot, cloud patterns along with Africa and the Atlantic Ocean are clearly visible on Earth. [NASA Earth Observatory]

Ocean in the News

Eye on the Tropics --Several named tropical cyclones developed across the ocean basins of the Northern Hemisphere during the last week:

In the North Atlantic basin, the sixth named tropical cyclone of 2014 called Tropical Storm Fay developed from a subtropical storm late in the week to the south-southeast of Bermuda. Moving toward the north-northwest, Fay brushed by Bermuda late Saturday and early Sunday, bringing strong and damaging winds, rain and some high surf. By late Sunday afternoon, Fay intensified to become a minimal hurricane, the fifth Atlantic hurricane of 2014, after moving away from Bermuda. Forecasts indicate that Fay should weaken as it would curve toward the northeast and then east early this week. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Fay.
Over this past weekend, Tropical Storm Gonzalo formed to the east of the Leeward Islands. This new tropical storm was moving toward the west toward the islands by early Monday before curving to the northwest as it would travel across the northern Caribbean toward Puerto Rico.
In the eastern North Pacific basin, Hurricane Simon weakened to tropical storm status as it traveled to the north-northeast off the coast of the Mexico's Baja California Peninsula at the start of last week. By midweek, Simon had weakened to a tropical depression before becoming a remnant low after making landfall along the northern Baja. Rain from Simon spread northward and eastward across northern Mexico and 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, former Super typhoon Phanfone made landfall along the coast of Japan to the south of Tokyo at the start of last week. Locally heavy rain and strong winds spread across the main Japanese islands. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Super typhoon Phanfone.
Typhoon Vongfong intensified to become a super typhoon that was equivalent to a category-5 typhoon, as it began curving toward the northwest across the western North Pacific to the east of Luzon in the Philippines by midweek. During the later part of the week, Vongfong traveled northward and passed across Okinawa at the start of this past weekend, accompanied by damaging winds, heavy rain and high wind-driven seas. Vongfong was forecast to curve toward the northeast and weaken only slightly before hitting some of the other southern Japanese islands early this week. Additional information and satellite images on Super typhoon Vongfong are available from the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the northern Indian basin, Tropical Cyclone Hudhud formed over the southern Bay of Bengal at the midpoint of last week. By this past weekend, Hudhud had intensified to become a major category 4 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as traveled to the west-northwest toward the southeastern coast of India. By late in the weekend, Hudhud had made landfall along the coast near Visakhapatnam, India, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to east-central India. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for further details on Cyclone Hudhud.

Projects designed to build resilient coastal communities receive monetary awards -- During the last week NOAA Sea Grant announced that over 300 projects around the nation will receive monetary grants designed to help build resilient coastal communities and economies. The grants from NOAA Sea Grant will total $15.9 million, which will be supplemented by an additional $7.9 million in non-federal matching funds for a total of $23.8 million. [NOAA News]
Prototype system initiated to gauge national marine biodiversity -- NOAA, NASA and the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have recently collaborated in supporting three demonstration projects in Florida, California and Alaska intended to establish the foundation for the first national network that is designed to monitor marine biodiversity at scales ranging from microbes to whales. These projects, which are to be funded over the next five years, will demonstrate how a national operational marine biodiversity observation network could be developed to serve as a marine resource management tool to conserve existing biodiversity and enhance national biosecurity against threats such as invasive species and infectious agents.[NOAA News]
Preservation of history World War I shipwreck involves NOAA and US Coast Guard -- In September a formal agreement was signed by officials of NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the Coast Guard's Historian's Office designed to preserve and protect the historic wreck of Diamond Shoal Lightship No. 71, the only American lightship that was sunk by enemy action during World War I. This lightship was sunk by a German U-Boat in 180 feet of water off Cape Hatteras on the North Carolina coast. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Press Release]
Sea-surface wind data collected from newly installed instrument on Space Station -- The first science data on wind speeds and direction just above the world's oceans has been collected the NASA's International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat, that was installed recently on the International Space Station's Columbus module. Once the two-week calibration/validation period is completed, the two-year science mission will commence. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]
An image showing the surface wind field around Hurricane Simon in the eastern North Pacific was generated from data collected by the ISS-RapidScat instrument within two days of its installation outside the International Space Station. [NASA Earth Observatory]
New record size of Antarctic sea ice reached -- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Snow and Ice Data Center recently reported that during the third week of September 2014 the size of the sea ice covering the oceans surrounding Antarctica reached its largest size (more than 20 million square kilometers) since satellite surveillance began in 1979. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the single-day maximum Antarctic sea ice extent for this year was reached on 21 September 2014 when the sea ice covered 7.78 million square miles (20.14 million square kilometers). Researchers are attempting to explain the increase of Antarctic sea ice in recent decades, during a time when the summer sea ice cover in the Arctic has shrunk to near record low extent. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
Above average temperatures detected across most of Northern Hemisphere oceans -- A recent image generated from data collected from NOAA satellites shows that sea surface temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere in September 2014 were well above the 1981-2010 average. Specifically, 60 percent of the Northern Hemisphere ocean surface was at least 0.5 degrees Celsius above this average, while only 5 percent of the Northern Hemisphere ocean surface was at least -0.5 degrees Celsius below normal. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Earth's ocean depths have not warmed during last decade -- Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have analyzed satellite and direct ocean temperature data from 2005 to 2013 and they report finding the deep ocean "abyss" at depths exceeding 1.24 miles (1,995 meters) below the surface has not warmed measurably during this period, although the near surface waters have warmed. The data the scientists used were from NASA's Jason-1, Jason-2 and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites along with the ARGO profiling floats. [NASA Headquarters]
An oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and an oceanographer at NOAA's cooperative institute with the University of Hawaii have recently published an essay describing how a new international program called "Deep Argo" that is being developed that they believe will provide new information about the heat in the deep ocean. "Deep Argo" will employ a global array of robotic floats that measure temperature and salinity from the surface to an ocean depth of almost 1.25 miles (or 2 kilometers) throughout the year and worldwide. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
Excretions from migratory marine animals affect ocean chemistry -- Scientists at the University of Washington have found that the diurnal movement of small animals from feeding areas at the surface of the open ocean downward to hiding places at sunless depths several hundred meters below the surface produce a significant role in marine chemistry, especially in low-oxygen zones. During daylight hours when these animals, such as tiny zooplankton, crustaceans (krill) and fish (lanternfish) are hiding below the surface they excrete ammonia. [NOAA 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] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Abyssal Storms

Until recently, ocean scientists thought of the deep ocean abyss as a dark and cold, but serene place where small particles rained gently onto the ocean floor. However, instruments lowered to the sea floor to measure ocean motion or currents and resulting mobilization of bottom sediments detected a much more active environment. Scientists found that bottom currents and abyssal storms occasionally scour the ocean bottom, generating moving clouds of suspended sediment. A surface current of 5 knots (250 cm/sec) is considered relatively strong. A bottom current of 1 knot (50 cm/sec) is ripping. Although this may be called an abyssal storm, the water motion pales by comparison to wind speeds in atmospheric storms.

Abyssal currents and storms apparently derive their energy from surface ocean currents. Wind-driven surface ocean currents flow about the margins of the ocean basins as gyres centered near 30 degrees latitude. (Refer to Figure 6.6, page 152, in your textbook.) Viewed from above, these subtropical gyres rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. For reasons given in Chapter 6 of your textbook and this week's Supplemental Information, surface currents flow faster, are narrower, and extend to greater depths on the western arm of the gyres. These are known as western boundary currents and include, for example, the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic basin. Abyssal currents are also most vigorous on the western side of the ocean basins, moving along the base of the continental rise, which is on the order of several kilometers deep.

Abyssal storms may be linked to or may actually be eddies (rings) that occasionally break off from the main current of the Gulf Stream (and other western boundary currents). During an abyssal storm, the eddy or ring may actually reach to the bottom of the ocean where the velocity of a bottom current increases ten-fold to about 1.5 km (1 mi) per hr. While that is an unimpressive wind speed, water is much denser than air so that its erosive and sediment-transport capacity is significant even at 1.5 km per hr. At this higher speed, the suspended sediment load in the bottom current increases by a factor of ten. Abyssal storms scour the sea floor leaving behind long furrows in the sediment. After a few days to a few weeks, the current weakens or the eddy (ring) is reabsorbed into the main surface circulation and the suspended load settles to the ocean floor. In this way, abyssal storms can transport tons of sediment long distances, disrupting the orderly sequence of layers of deep-sea sediments. Scientists must take this disruption into account when interpreting the environmental significance of deep-sea sediment cores.

Concept of the Week: Questions

In the subtropical ocean gyres, boundary currents flow faster on the [(western)(eastern)] side of an ocean basin.
Currents in an abyssal storm erode, transport, and redeposit sediments that have accumulated on the [(continental shelf)(deep ocean bottom)].

Historical Events

13 October 1775...Birthday of U.S. Navy. The Continental Congress established the Continental Navy, later the U.S. Navy. (Naval Historical Center)
13 October 1884...The longitude that passes through the principal Transit Instrument at the Observatory in Greenwich, England was selected as the single universal meridian at the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, DC. A universal day was also selected. (Today in Science History)
15 October 1947...A hurricane made a hairpin turn off the Georgia coast after being seeded with dry ice. The storm passed over Savannah and tracked inland through Georgia. (Intellicast)
15 October 1954...Hurricane Hazel struck the Carolina coastline near Cape Fear, NC. The hurricane (category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) demolished every pier along a 170-mile stretch from Myrtle Beach, SC to Cedar Island, NC, and obliterated rows of beach homes. At Long Beach, 300 homes vanished; no debris remained. Hurricane Hazel also destroyed 1500 homes as it made landfall with 17-ft tides. Winds between Myrtle Beach, SC and Cape Fear, NC gusted to 150 mph. Later, the remnants of Hazel moved northward into Ontario and became the most remembered storm in Canadian history. Winds gusted to 75 mph and as much as 7.2 inches of rain fell. Eighty people died, mostly from flooding in the Toronto area (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel) (The Weather Doctor)
15 October 1999...A waterspout (a tornado over water) moved onshore at Fort Lauderdale Beach, FL and blew out a plate glass window in a bar, injuring 8 patrons. The waterspout also overturned a vehicle and caused other significant damage on Los Olas Blvd. (Accord Weather Calendar)
16 October 1877...Bjørn Helland-Hansen, the Norwegian pioneer of modern oceanography, was born on this date. His studies of the physical structure and dynamics of the ocean were instrumental in transforming oceanography from a descriptive science to one based on the principles of physics and chemistry. (Today in Science History)
18 October 1910...Northeasterly winds as high as 70 mph (from a hurricane moving northward up the Florida peninsula) carried water out of Tampa Bay and the Hillsboro River. The water level lowered to nine feet below mean low water. Forty ships were grounded. (The Weather Channel)
19 October 1843...Captain Robert Stockton of the Princeton, the first screw propelled naval steamer, challenged the British merchant ship Great Western to a race off New York, which Princeton won easily. (Naval Historical Center)
20 October 1892...After ten years of difficult and costly construction, the St. George Reef Lighthouse, built on a rock lying six miles off the northern coast of California, midway between Capes Mendocino and Blanco, was first lighted. (USCG Historian's Office)
20 October 1956...A German physician, Dr. Hannes Lindemann, began a voyage on which he would become the first person to cross the Atlantic in the smallest craft. Using a double-seat folding kayak that was 17 feet in length and outfitted with an outrigger and sail, he made the trip from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands in 72 days. He had made a prior crossing in a 23-foot African dugout canoe. He later wrote a book, Alone at Sea, describing his experiences. (Today in Science History)