WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

THANKSGIVING WEEK: 24-28 November 2014

This week is Thanksgiving Break 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 11.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Week from the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Ed Hopkins!

Items of Interest

End of a season -- With the end of November on Sunday, 30 November 2014, the autumn meteorological season in the Northern Hemisphere will end, followed by the start of the meteorological winter season on Monday (1 December). Recall that climatologists and meteorologists have elected to use a standard three-month grouping to identify each meteorological season. Hence, September, October and November are considered the autumn or fall meteorological season, while the months of December, January and February are the winter season. You will note that the winter solstice, marking the day where the length of daylight is least in the Northern Hemisphere is still three weeks away, falling on Sunday, 21 December 2014. Since the lowest temperatures typically fall in mid to late January, the meteorological winter tends to be centered on the coldest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
In addition, the end of November also marks the end of the official hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, along with the eastern and central North Pacific basins.
Species dominance and ocean properties -- Discover how variations in both the physical and chemical properties of ocean waters can be accompanied by changes in the dominance of the various species of marine life in this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity across the world's tropical ocean basins was limited to the South Indian Ocean basin. Tropical Storm Adjali formed at the start of last week approximately over 300 miles southeast of Diego Garcia as the first named tropical cyclone of the 2014-2015 cyclone season in the Southern Indian Ocean. Over the next three days Adjali traveled toward the southeast, dissipating approximately 460 miles to the south-southwest of Diego Garcia. Satellite imagery and additional information are available on the NASA Hurricane Page for Tropical Storm Adjali.
New Habitat Focus Area selected in Alaska's Kachemak Bay -- NOAA recently chose Kachemak Bay along the southwestern coast of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula as the next Habitat Focus Area under NOAA's Habitat Blueprint. Kachemak Bay was selected because it has a fertile environment for both fish and shellfish and it supports important recreational, subsistence, and commercial fishing, marine transportation, tourism, and threatened and endangered species. [NOAA Habitat Blueprint]
Satellite views of last week's major lake effect snows across the Great Lakes -- A satellite imagery animation generated from data collected by the NOAA GOES-East satellite shows the clouds that were associated with the large lake-effect snow event last week that resulted in some locations in the Buffalo (NY) metropolitan area receiving over seven feet of snow. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center] A natural-color image and a false-color image obtained from data collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite show cloud streets spreading across the Great Lakes early last week as cold air traveled across the relatively warm lake waters. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Real-time ocean acidification data made available to Pacific coast shellfish growers -- NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program recently unveiled an online website called "the IOOS Pacific Region Ocean Acidification Data Portal" that provides fisheries interests with real-time, online ocean acidification data through the Integrated Ocean Observation System (IOOS). This website, which is the product of a NOAA-led national-regional partnership, will contain data ranging from carbon dioxide concentrations to salinity and water temperatures. Operators of shellfish farms and hatcheries along the Pacific US coast from California to Alaska would be some of the targeted user groups. [NOAA News]
Review of October 2014 global temperatures -- Preliminary data analyzed by scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center indicated that the global combined land and ocean average surface temperature for the October 2014 was 1.33 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century average (1901-2000) for the month. Therefore, last month's global combined temperature was the record highest October temperature since global temperature records began in 1880. When considered separately, the monthly average temperature over the global oceans for October 2014 also was the highest October ocean temperature in 135 years. However, the monthly average temperature of the land surface for this recently concluded month was the fifth highest October land surface temperature on record. Curiously, the record high global sea surface temperature occurred in the absence of an El Niño event, a large-scale warming of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Furthermore, when considering the combined land-ocean global temperature for the year to date (January-October 2014), the temperature was the highest ten-month global temperature since 1880. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for October 2014 is available from NCDC.
According to satellite data collected by National Snow and Ice Data Center, the sea ice over the Arctic Ocean during October 2014 had the sixth smallest areal extent for any October since satellite-derived ice records began in 1979. However, the sea ice around Antarctica was the second largest October ice extent on record. [NOAA/NCDC Global Snow & Ice]
Salinity changes have a strong influence on regional sea level changes -- Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have found that long-term salinity changes appear to have a stronger influence on regional sea level changes than previously thought. They based their conclusions on ocean observations of temperature and salinity and large set of climate models. A long-term (1950-2008) pattern was found in halosteric (salinity-driven) sea level changes in the global ocean, with sea level increases occurring in the Pacific Ocean and sea level decreases in the Atlantic. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory News]
Bleaching from warming oceans could impair long-term coral reproduction -- A biologist at Florida State University and colleagues with the Smithsonian have discovered that bleaching events caused by rising ocean temperatures appear to be having a detrimental long-term impact on coral by affecting the fertility of the coral. [Florida State University 24/7 News]
Global warming may be slowed by small volcanic eruptions -- An international team of scientists report that relatively minor volcanic eruptions appear to have contributed to the recent slowdown in the increase in global temperatures over the last several decades. Using data collected from ground-, air- and satellite-instruments between 2000 and 2013, the researchers found that the aerosols produced by small volcanic eruptions reflected nearly double the amount of solar radiation as previously estimated. This reduction in the incident solar radiation could have been responsible for a decrease in global temperatures by 0.09 to 0.22 Fahrenheit degrees since 2001. [American Geophysical Union Newsroom]
Helping build a resilient nation with a new online toolkit -- Early last week the Obama Administration launched the first phase of the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, a website developed by NOAA and other agencies designed to help state and local decision makers take action to boost the climate resilience of their communities using data-driven tools, information, and subject-matter expertise to make smarter decisions. This Toolkit is part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan. [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.

This Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 11.

Concept of the Week: Living Coral and El Niño

El Niño episodes of 1982-83 and 1997-1998, the most intense of the century, confirmed the connection between higher than average ocean temperatures and bleaching of hermatypic corals. (Hermatypic corals live in warm shallow water and build large reefs.) Water temperatures higher than 29°C (the normal maximum sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific) can trigger expulsion of zooxanthellae, microscopic dinoflagellates whose symbiotic relationship with coral polyps is essential for the long-term survival of coral. Without zooxanthellae, coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral's white skeleton, a condition known as coral bleaching. If maximum temperatures are not too high for too long, corals can recover, but prolonged warming associated with an intense El Niño (that may persist for 12 to 18 months) can be lethal to coral. Most hermatypic corals thrive when the water temperature is 27 °C, but do not grow when the water becomes too cold. Although the ideal temperature varies with species and from one location to another, the temperature range for optimal growth is quite narrow--only a few Celsius degrees. This sensitivity to relatively small changes in water temperature is an important source of information on past climates as fossil coral is a significant component of many limestones. Evidence of bleaching episodes in fossil corals may yield important clues to past changes in the world's tropical ocean.

Coral, sometimes referred to as "the rainforests of the ocean," provides a base for local ecosystems and have many benefits (e.g., fisheries, tourism) that are important in many parts of the globe. Hence, vulnerability to El Niño-associated warming is an object of considerable scientific interest. During the 1997-98 Niño, NOAA charted significant coral bleaching from portions of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia, French Polynesia in the south Pacific, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, and around the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Closer to home, coral bleaching was reported in the Florida Keys, the Cayman Islands, and off the Pacific coast of Panama and Baja California. Fortunately damage from the 1997-98 El Niño warming was less drastic than the 1983-84 El Niño when up to 95% of the corals in some locations died. Many of the corals damaged in the late 1990s have at least partially recovered including important reefs in the Florida Keys. For additional information on coral status, go to the NOAA website http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Most hermatypic corals thrive at an ocean water temperature of [(10) (27)] °C.
Corals [(can) (cannot)] recover from bleaching if high ocean water temperatures are not long lasting.

Historical Events:

24 November 1982...Hurricane Iwa lashed the Hawaiian Islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu with high winds and surf. Winds gusting to 120 mph caused extensive shoreline damage. Winds at Honolulu gusted to 81 mph. Damage totaled 150 million dollars on Kauai, and fifty million dollars on Oahu. The peak storm surge on the south shore was six to eight feet. It marked the first time in 25 years that Hawaii had been affected by a hurricane. (The Weather Channel)
26 November 1703...Bristol England was damaged by a hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
26 November 1778...Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy became the first European to discover Maui in the Sandwich Islands (later renamed the Hawaiian Islands). (Wikipedia)
26 November 1847...LT William Lynch, USN, sailed from New York to Haifa on USS Supply for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area. (Naval Historical Center)
26 November 1888...A late season hurricane brushed the East Coast with heavy rain and gale force winds. The hurricane passed inside Nantucket and over Cape Cod, then crossed Nova Scotia. (David Ludlum)
26 November 1966...The world's first tidal power station was opened at Rance estuary in the French province of Brittany. This power plant, fitted with reversible turbines, generates 500 million kilowatt-hours annually. (Today in Science History)
26-28 November 1898...The "Portland" storm raged across New England producing gale force winds along the coast and heavy snow inland. A foot of snow blanketed Boston, MA, and 27 inches fell at New London, CT. Winds at Boston gusted to 72 mph, and wind gusts to 98 mph were estimated at Block Island, RI. A passenger ship, the S.S. Portland, sank off Cape Cod with the loss of all 191 persons aboard, and Boston Harbor was filled with wrecked ships. The storm wrecked 56 vessels resulting in a total of 456 casualties. (26^th- 28^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
27 November 1703...The first Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of Devon, England (approximately 14 miles southwest of Plymouth) was destroyed in the "Great Storm," and killed its builder Henry Winstanley. This first light was in an octagonal wooden structure built in 1698. The "Great Storm" is reported to have killed more than 8000 people. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
27-28 November 1905...Heavy snow and wind blasted the western Great Lakes with as much as seven inches of snow in northwestern Wisconsin and sustained winds of 42 mph recorded at Duluth, MN for 29 straight hours and 65 mph winds for 13 continuous hours. Severe drifting resulted. Eighteen ships were destroyed or disabled on Lake Superior. The ship Mataafa was grounded and broke in two in Duluth harbor. Nine of the fifteen crew of the Mataafa froze to death despite running aground within 100 yards of the shore. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
28 November 1520...Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the treacherous South American strait that now bears his name in a 38-day passage. He was the first European to sail into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic to the east. (The History Channel)
28 November 1960...A severe storm produced waves 20 to 40 feet high on Lake Superior. Duluth, MN was buried under a foot of snow, and clocked wind gusts to 73 mph. The northern shore of Lake Superior was flooded, and property along the shore was battered. Thousands of cords of pulpwood were washed into Lake Superior, and up to three feet of water flooded the main street of Grand Marais. Thunder accompanied the "nor'easter". (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)