WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

12-16 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.

Items of Interest:

Approaching coldest time of the year -- This upcoming week is the third week of January, which for many locations across the nation typically marks the coldest week of the year, as indicated by the daily normal high and low temperatures. Usually, those stations located away from the moderating influences of the oceans reach their lowest temperatures during the third week of January, or a roughly one month after the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere receives the fewest hours of daylight and the smallest amounts of solar radiation. During that month, temperatures continue to fall to their lowest typical values as cooling continues. However, the increased length of daylight and increased sunshine during this month begins to warm the ground and overlying atmosphere as normal daily temperatures begin to rise toward their highest levels in mid to late July.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- Only one organized tropical cyclone formed across the major ocean basins of either the Northern or Southern Hemispheres during the last week. Tropical Storm 5S formed over the South Indian Ocean on this past Sunday several hundred miles north of Saint-Denis de la Réunion. This tropical storm could intensify to become a category 1 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale during the early part of this week as it was projected to travel to the east-southeast.
New lionfish web portal launched for Gulf and Caribbean fisheries --During the last week, the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute and NOAA Fisheries have unveiled a new "Invasive Lionfish Web Portal" that will provide information on the invasion of lionfish in the tropical and subtropical waters of the western North Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This website is intended to be a new tool that should help managers, researchers and the public fight the aggressive and invasive lionfish that are in the Atlantic Ocean and that are becoming an issue along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the Southeastern States and across the Caribbean as they become more numerous than some native reef fish. Education and outreach material are available on this site. [NOAA News]
Two sites in Southeast and Caribbean selected as new Habitat Focus Areas -- NOAA officials recently announced that a site in south Florida and one in Puerto Rico have chosen to the next Habitat Focus Areas under NOAA's Habitat Blueprint, which is designed to maintain healthy marine fisheries, habitats, and biodiversity that are sustained within healthy and productive ecosystems.. The Florida site is in Biscayne Bay, while the site in Puerto Rico covers the Commonwealth's Northeast Reserves and Culebra Island. [NOAA Habitat Blueprint]
Updated El Niño outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion in which they still maintained their El Niño watch as above-average sea surface temperatures persisted across the equatorial Pacific Ocean in December How they lowered the odds of an El Niño event during the remainder of this upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter (Jan through February) to between 50 and 60 percent. The forecasters envisioned that ENSO-neutral conditions would be favored during the following three months (March-May 2015), which constitutes Northern Hemisphere spring. An ENSO-neutral (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) event means that neither an El Niño or La Niña event would occur. A description of the forecasters' reasoning for the slightly reduced probability levels is provided. [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]A blog entitled "January ENSO update: The little engine that couldn't quite" written by scientists from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center provide background information as to why the potential El Niño event is having a difficult time developing. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
New toolkit helps make coastal communities more resilient -- During the last week NOAA's National Sea Grant program unveiled the "National Sea Grant Resilience Toolkit," which represents an online portal to the various tools and resources that have been developed by the Sea Grant Network. This compilation of over 100 tools is designed to assist coastal communities across the nation become more resilient to a variety of natural hazards, water quality challenges, severe weather, and the effects of climate change. [NOAA Sea Grant News]
"Sturgeon thunder" may help an ancient fish species survive -- Researchers with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Program report that sounds emitted by lake sturgeon in the waters of the Great Lakes States appear to help this species of fish survive for the last 150 million years. The researchers deployed audio equipment to record infrasonic sounds made by the sturgeon during the times of spawning. The sturgeon, which are some of the largest fish in the Great Lakes, can reach weights of at least 200 pounds and have lengths exceeding eight feet. [NOAA Sea Grant News]
New instrument on Space Station displays recent wind chill event off East Coast -- A map was produced last week of the region of relatively low wind chills that developed off the Middle Atlantic Coast as an arctic air mass along with strong winds followed a cold front as it moved off the coast. The map was generated from wind data collected from NASA's International Space Station (ISS)-RapidScat instrument. Surface winds over the ocean were determined by this instrument to range from 33 to 45 mph. With ambient air temperatures estimated to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, wind chill temperatures across this region were estimated to have fallen to near zero degrees Fahrenheit. [NASA Space Flight Center]
Fossils on tropical island reveal changes in polar ice -- Researchers from the University of Florida and other research institutions have found evidence from fossil corals on the Seychelles, a tropical island group in the Indian Ocean, indicating global mean sea level being 20 to 30 feet higher approximately 125,000 years ago than at present. The average global temperatures during the last interglacial period was slightly above current levels. The researchers concluded that a rapid retreat of an unstable part of the Antarctic ice sheet may have been a major contributor to sea-level rise during these earlier times. They also warn that a partial collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet in the future could result in an increase in sea level. [University of Florida 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.

Historical Events:

12 January 1836...Charles Darwin onboard the HMS Beagle reached Sydney, Australia.
12 January 1937...A plow for laying submarine cable was issued an U.S. patent. Designed to feed a cable at the same time that it would dig a trench in the ocean bed, the device could be used at depths up to one half mile. The first transatlantic cable of high-speed permalloy was buried on 14 June 1938. The inventors were Chester S. Lawton of Ridgewood, NJ and Capt. Melville H. Bloomer of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Today in Science History).
12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
13 January 1840...The 207-ft long side-wheel steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound four miles off the northern coast of New York State's Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. Only four people survived. (Wikipedia)
15 January 1833...HMS Beagle anchored at Goeree Tierra del Fuego.
17 January 1773...HMS Resolution, commanded by English explorer Captain James Cook, became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle (66 deg 33 min S). (Wikipedia)
17 January 1779...The English explorer Captain James Cook made his last notation in ship's log Discovery. He was killed less than one month later on Hawaii's Big Island.
18 January 1778...The English explorer Captain James Cook sailed past the island of Oahu, thereby becoming the first European to see the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands." (The History Channel)
18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)