WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

29 December 2014-2 January 2015

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2015 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 19 January 2015. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sincerely,

Ed Hopkins and the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff

Items of Interest:

It's Sure Dark in the morning! -- Have you noticed that if you are an early riser, that mornings remain dark and somewhat dreary although local sunsets are becoming noticeably later during the last week? During the last week of December and the first week of January, many locations throughout the country will experience their latest sunrise times of the year, even though the winter solstice occurred more than one week ago on Sunday, 21 December 2014. The exact day for the latest sunrise depends upon the latitude, so you may want to check the date in your locale from the sunrise tables appearing in an on-line, interactive service available for the entire year at most cities in the United States. The reason for the late sunrise now rather than on the winter solstice is because the sun is not as precise a timekeeper as our watches. Because of a combination of factors involved with Earth's elliptical orbit about the sun and the tilt of Earth's spin axis with respect to the plane of the ecliptic, the sun appeared to "run fast" by as much as 15 minutes as compared with clock time in November. In early December, most locations experienced their earliest sunsets. However, with the approach of the winter solstice and perihelion (the smallest earth-sun distance during the early morning of 4 January 2015), the apparent sun slows during December and finally lags the clock by 12 minutes in February. Consequently, a noticeable and welcome trend toward later sunsets can be detected by the end of December, especially by those residents in the northern part of the country. However, the latest sunrises occur at most locales in early January, meaning a continuation of the dark and dreary mornings for another week or two.
No "leap second" will lengthen 2014 -- The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) has determined that no "leap second" would be inserted to lengthen the calendar year of 2014. Since 1972, "leap seconds" have been inserted on the last day of December 15 times, with the most recent occurrence on 31 December 2008 when the service's atomic clocks were stopped for one second just before midnight (2359Z, or 6:59 PM EST, 5:59 PM CST, etc) to readjust the time scale based on the atomic clock to the time scale based upon the rotation of the Earth with respect to the sun. At the time, tidal friction and other natural phenomena had slowed the Earth's rotation rate by approximately two milliseconds per day. In addition, a "leap second" has been inserted ten times at the end of June, with the most recent one added on 30 June 2012. [US Naval Observatory]
In Close --

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity across the global ocean basins was relatively sparse during the last week. In the Southern Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Storm Kate developed near Australia's Cocos Keeling Islands Traveling to the southwest, Kate intensified to a category 3 cyclone on the Saffir Simpson Scale by the start of this past weekend as maximum sustained surface winds reached at least 120 mph. By the end of the weekend, Cyclone Kate had weakened and could become a tropical storm by early this week as it would continue to travel toward the southwest. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Cyclone Kate.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Depression 23-W formed on Sunday (local time) over the waters of the Philippine Sea approximately 650 miles to the southeast of Manila in the Philippines. This tropical depression was traveling westward and could strengthen to become a tropical storm before making landfall along the northern coast of Mindanao by early Monday.
Deadly Indian Ocean tsunami remembered on 10th anniversary -- Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) recently reflected upon the tenth anniversary of the deadly tsunami that radiated out across the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004 following the powerful magnitude 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake. More than 200,000 lives were lost along the rim of the Indian Ocean due to the tsunami. Improved tsunami monitoring and forecasting efforts have occurred in the aftermath of this tragedy. Research into tsunamis has been accelerated. [ USGS Science Features]
Rescuing sea turtles from the cold -- NOAA Fisheries produced a podcast featuring interviews with several of the agency's personnel who have been helping rescue sea turtles along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts that had been "cold-stunned" during the unseasonably cold month of November 2014. More than 1200 sea turtles were washed up along the beaches of the Northeastern States because they were stunned by the cold water before they could migrate southward. [NOAA Fisheries]
Monitoring the endangered Steller sea lion populations -- NOAA Fisheries recently produced a 5-minute video entitled "Investigation an Endangered Species: The Steller Sea Lion" that documents the differences between two populations of the Steller sea lion. The Eastern population (in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska east of Prince William Sound and along the Pacific coasts of Canada and the US) has increased and has fully recovered as of 2013, while the Western population (along the western Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutians and the surrounding waters of the North Pacific and the Bering Sea) continue to experience a decline. [NOAA Fisheries News]
NOAA Fisheries' 14 most popular stories from 2014 -- Scientists and officials with NOAA Fisheries recently posted the most popular top 14 features that had appeared on their website during the 2014 calendar year. This assortment of features included podcasts, a climate portal and video depicting a healthy marine habitat, research on large marine fish, sea turtles and sharks. [NOAA Fisheries]
Update on NOAA's educational games -- During the last week an updated interview with the NOAA National Ocean Service's educational director was posted that focuses upon NOAA's Planet Arcade, an online portal to a collection of educational games designed to help teach school-age children selected topics in the earth sciences using fun gaming experiences. Some of the topics include estuaries and sea turtles. [NOAA News Features]
Relative sea level changes along Pacific Northwest Coast complicated by plate tectonics and global sea-level rise -- Researchers with the Washington Sea Grant Program, the US Geological Survey, the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group and Adaptation International have been probing into how coastal communities in western Washington State could be impacted by the complicated relationship between plate tectonics and sea-level rise. Vertical land movement (VLM) along this section of the West Coast has been caused by plate tectonics offshore where the Pacific and North American plates collide. The researchers are attempting to develop better VLM estimates for improved forecasts of future changes in relative sea level along the coast that can be used by community planners and others. [NOAA Sea Grant News]
Expanded ocean acidification monitoring program along Pacific Coast gets funding -- NOAA recently announced that it was providing a $1.4 million grant designed to help shellfish growers and the scientific community expand ocean acidification monitoring of coastal waters of the North Pacific along the West Coast over the next three years. [NOAA Ocean Acidification Program]
Alaskans are familiar with ocean acidification, but unaware of the risks to state fisheries -- In a public opinion poll conducted by researchers with NOAA and the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2013, many residents of Alaska appear to be familiar with ocean acidification, but few are aware of the direct risks that ocean acidification would have upon the state's fisheries. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
Space age monitoring of giant kelp forests in global oceans -- NASA Earth Observatory recently produced a feature that highlights the large forests of kelp floating near the ocean surface at many locations. These giant kelp forests, which contain kelp (Macrocystis) growing to over 100 feet in length, are among Earth's most productive habitats as they contain a great diversity of plant and animal species that support many fisheries around the world. This feature includes images obtained from NASA satellites of the giant kelp forests off the coasts of California and Tasmania, Australia. Background information is also provided of the research being conducted by the Floating Forests Project and the University of California, Santa Barbara. [NASA Earth Observatory]
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.

Historical Events:

29 December 1897...Congress prohibited the killing of fur seals in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
1 January 1850...The lamp was lit at the first iron pile lighthouse in the U.S. built on Minot's Ledge, just outside the Boston (MA) Harbor. The Minot's Ledge Light, the first lighthouse in the U.S. to be exposed to the ocean's full fury, was swept away in a great gale on 16 April 1851. (Today in Science History)
1 January 1903...The first message telegraphed on the transpacific cable was sent from Honolulu, Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC. The Cable Ship Silvertown began laying the 2620-mile long cable on 14 December 1902 when it left San Francisco, CA and it completed the project following its arrival at Oahu's Waikiki on 26 December. The cable now lies abandoned on the bottom of the Pacific after being abandoned in November 1951. (Today in Science History)
1 January 1954...The "Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1948" commonly known as the "Revised International Rules of the Road" became law. These were a result of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
1 January 1958...The U.S. Coast Guard ceased listening continuously for distress calls on 2670 kilohertz. Although the countries of the world had agreed at the Atlantic City Convention of the International Telecommunication Union in 1947 to use 2182 kilohertz for international maritime mobile radiotelephone calling and distress, the U.S. Coast Guard had continued listening on the old frequency until the public had had sufficient time to change to the new one. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
1 January 1959...The U.S. Naval Observatory introduced the system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures. (Naval Historical Center)
1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
2 January 1993...Cyclone Kina battered Fiji with wind gusts to 130 mph and heavy rain. Up to 21.65 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, resulting in the worst flooding in 60 years. Twenty-three people were killed and damage was estimated to be in excess of 547 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
2 January 1998...Tropical Cyclone Ron (the Southwest Pacific's counterpart of a hurricane) destroyed most of the structures on Swains Island in American Samoa. The island's 49 residents sought safety in a concrete structure, which withstood the cyclone's 90-mph sustained winds. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
3 January 2006...The record 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season extended into the new year, as Tropical Storm Zeta reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph for the second time; the previous occurrence was on 1 January 2006. Never a threat to land as it traveled across the central North Atlantic, Tropical Storm Zeta was the 27th named tropical cyclone (including both tropical storms and hurricanes) of the season. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
4 January 1493...The explorer, Christopher Columbus, began his return to Spain and completed his first journey to the New World. (Wikipedia)