WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

2-6 December 2019

Items of Interest:

Help celebrate Corals Week 2019 -- NOAA's National Ocean Service is celebrating Corals Week 2019 this week (2-6 December 2019) on the agency's social media channels. The public is invited to join NOAA on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Look for #CoralsWeek. [NOAA National Oceans Service News]
United Nations climate change conference to convene -- The twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention to Combat Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place under the Presidency of the Government of Chile and will be held with logistical support from the Government of Spain in Madrid, Spain, convening on Monday (2 December 2019) and running through Friday, 13 December. In addition, this will be the 51st meetings of the UNFCCC subsidiary bodies - the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 51) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 51). The key objective of this COP 25 to resolve several outstanding issues in the Climate Package, and to discuss a number of issues relevant to the World Health Organization's work on climate change and human health. [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP 25]
SKYWARN™ recognition -- This Saturday 7 December 2019 (starting at 00Z or 7:00 EST PM on Friday night) has been declared SKYWARN™ Recognition Day, a day in which the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League celebrate the contributions made by volunteer SKYWARN™ radio operators during the past year's Severe Weather Operations.
Exploring ENSO patterns on a global scale -- An activity was created by a geology professor at Earlham College that allows high school and college students who have become familiar with ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) to explore the reality of ocean surface temperature (SST) data. Students analyze a time series of SST anomaly maps for a 14-year interval to create an ENSO timeline. [NOAA Climate.gov Teaching]
Distinguishing between "global warming" and "climate change" -- The question is often asked: "What's the difference between global warming and climate change?" A blog was written several years ago explaining that "global warming" refers only to the Earth's rising surface temperature, while "climate change" includes warming and the side effects of warming. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Role of weather in the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941 -- Although the weather at Pearl Harbor on the leeward side of Hawaii's Island of Oahu on the morning of Sunday, 7 December 1941 was relatively pleasant when the US Navy base was attacked by Japanese aircraft and submarines, the weather did play a role during the days preceding the attack. Six Japanese aircraft carriers left Japan's Kure Naval Base in late November 1941 and travelled essentially undetected across the western North Pacific under the cover of unsettled weather associated with several large storms moving across the Aleutians and the Bering Sea that had cold fronts trailing to the southwest across the North Pacific. One of the storms did scatter the ships over several hundred miles, but they did regroup with minimal use of radio communication. As the fleet neared Oahu, the Japanese attack commander heard a Honolulu weather report stating "clouds mostly over the mountains. Visibility good." The Japanese carrier fleet came to a staging point within 275 miles north of Hawaii, where they launched their attack aircraft early Sunday morning. When the two waves of more than 350 aircraft took off from the carriers in the predawn darkness, strong winds were helping produce rough seas. These aircraft flew through and above a thick deck of low clouds until reaching the leeward side of Oahu, where the skies cleared because of the light northeasterly trade winds descending the slopes of the mountain range. The pilots used the local radio stations as navigation aids.
The weather also played a role in the planning, as the Japanese government sent codes to their overseas diplomats using bogus weather reports involving wind directions to announce which countries with which it was cutting diplomatic ties.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- During the past week, several tropical cyclones were reported over the tropical waters of the western Pacific in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres:
In the western North Pacific basin (extending from the International Dateline westward to the Asian continent) --

A tropical depression formed at the start of last week over the waters to the southeast of Guam. By Tuesday (local time) this tropical depression had strengthened to become Tropical Storm Kammuri. This tropical storm traveled west and passed to the south of Guam on Wednesday. By Thursday, Kammuri had intensified to become a typhoon as maximum sustained surface winds reached 75 mph. Over this past weekend, Typhoon Kammuri continued its trek to the west toward the Philippine Islands. As of Monday, Kammuri strengthened to a category 2 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) with 105-mph maximum sustained winds. At that time, Kammuri was located approximately 385 mph to the east-southeast of the Philippine capital city of Manila. Kammuri was forecast to continue to travel toward the west, crossing southern sections of Luzon in the Philippines by Wednesday. Eventually, this typhoon should move out over the South China Sea and weaken. The NASA Hurricane Blog has additional information and satellite images on Typhoon Kammuri.

In the western South Pacific basin (located off eastern coast of Australia, running from a longitude of 160 degrees East eastward to the 120-degrees West meridian) --

Tropical Cyclone Rita was traveling to the south-southeast near the Santa Cruz Islands, a part of the large Solomon Islands group, at the start of last week. As it headed toward the south-southeast, Rita strengthened to become the first category 1 tropical cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) of the basin's 2019-20 season, as maximum sustained surface winds reached 75 mph. By Tuesday, Rita was beginning to curve and take a direction toward the south-southwest. By Wednesday, Rita was heading into a harsh environment due to wind shear and cool, dry air, causing its eventual demise. Rita was downgraded to a remnant low as its was slowly heading toward the west-southwest approximately 200 miles to the north of Port Vila, Vanuatu. Additional information and satellite images for Tropical Cyclone Rita can be found on the NASA Hurricane Blog.

Early assessments of 2019 hurricane season in North Atlantic basins -- With the end of the official 2019 hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin last Saturday (30 November 2019), NOAA scientists issued their preliminary assessment of this hurricane season in the Atlantic basin. They reported that 2019 season in the Atlantic basin was relatively active, especially between mid-August through October. This season marks the fourth consecutive above-normal Atlantic hurricane season. A total of 18 named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes) were reported, with six hurricanes that included three major hurricanes (category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). Forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center in their pre-season outlook published in late May predicted ten to seventeen named cyclones, five to nine hurricanes and two to four major hurricanes; therefore, the forecasters felt that they had accurately predicted overall activity. The above average activity was attributed to several factors including: the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation that has been in a warm phase since 1995, a stronger West African monsoon, warm Atlantic waters and weak vertical wind shear across the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The scientists also noted that the observational data collected by NOAA and U.S. Air Force Reserve "hurricane hunter" aircraft, along with 30 autonomous ocean glider missions that helped in the forecasting efforts. [NOAA News]
The Tropical Meteorology Project team at Colorado State University headed by Dr. Philip Klotzbach also made an assessment of the 2019 Atlantic season and a verification of the seasonal outlooks they made beginning last April. They also found that this season was slightly more active than average in terms of the number of tropical cyclones and that it had a little more activity than what their June through August outlooks would have suggested. The months of September and October were active. [Tropical Meteorological Project]
New technologies used in tropical cyclone observations -- A team of scientists, led NOAA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), has written a paper demonstrating how observations of the near surface winds within a tropical cyclone by a new type of disposable drone can improve the performance of hurricane models used by forecasters. These drones are making atmospheric measurements to an altitude of approximately 360 feet above the water surface with winds to 194 mph, in an environment deemed too hazardous for research aircraft. [NCAR & UCAR News]
Warming of the Indo-Pacific Ocean is affecting global precipitation patterns -- Researchers from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and a visiting scientist from India recently reported that the warming of the Indo-Pacific Ocean appears to be responsible for altering global precipitation patterns, ranging from the tropics to the United States. These changes are contributing to declines in rainfall on the West and East coasts of the U.S., north India, east Africa and the Yangtze basin in China. Conversely, the researchers found an increase in rainfall over northern Australia, the Amazon basin, southwest Africa and Southeast Asia. The Indo-Pacific warm pool, which is currently the warmest part of the global ocean, is a pool of warm water spanning the western Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean. It has doubled in size in recent years, expanding at an annual rate roughly equivalent to the areal size of California. The expansion is changing the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO), a key weather and climate feature characterized by a pulse of rain clouds that moves eastward across the tropical Indian Ocean from near the Seychelles off Africa to the tropical Pacific Ocean. [NOAA Research News]
Online portal allows for viewing of tagged marine organisms worldwide -- The multi-agency U.S. Animal Telemetry Network (ATN) has recently made its online portal operational, permitting the public to easily view movement and behavior of tagged marine organisms worldwide. Animal telemetry involves collecting information on these organisms using animal-borne sensors, or tags, with the collected data transmitted either to the orbiting NOAA/French Space Agency Argos satellite system or to underwater acoustic receivers, whereupon the data are transmitted to researchers. [NOAA National Ocean Service]
More violent swings in El Niño seen during the Industrial Age -- In a recent study, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and their colleagues at other research institutions found evidence that El Niño events in the Pacific Ocean have been very intense in the last 50 years, leading to stronger storms, drought, and coral bleaching during El Niño years. The researchers compared temperature-dependent chemical deposits from present-day corals with those of older coral records representing relevant sea surface temperature patterns from the past 7000 years. They found frequent swings from the heating and cooling of equatorial Pacific waters in the current record that spurred a rapid sequence of strong El Niño and La Niña events. These industrial age ENSO swings were 25 percent stronger than in the pre-industrial records. They claim that their findings represent compelling evidence that the current stronger El Niño events in the Pacific are part of a climate pattern that is unique to the industrial age with human-induced climate change. [Georgia Tech News]
The winner of the 2019 Sea to Shining Sea Award is announced -- NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries recently announced that Nicole Uibel, volunteer coordinator at Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, was selected for the Sea to Shining Sea award for her leadership and dedication to developing the Blue Star Fishing Guides Program. This program recognizes guides and operators that are committed to promoting responsible and sustainable fishing practices that reduce the impact of these activities on the resources of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries News]
Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations reach new record levels in 2018 -- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently released its "WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin No. 15: The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Based on Global Observations through 2018." This report describes the state of the heat-absorbing atmospheric greenhouse gases for carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) based upon global observations through 2018. Carbon dioxide levels reached 407.8 parts per million (ppm) in 2018, which is 147 percent of pre-industrial levels. In addition, concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide also rose, with CH₄ reaching 1869 parts per billion (ppb) and N₂O at 331 ppb.
The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO₂ was 3-5 million years ago, when global temperatures were approximately 2 to 3 Celsius degrees higher and sea levels were 10 to 20 meters higher than at present. WMO foresees no sign of a reversal in these trends, which are driving long-term climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification and more extreme weather. [World Meteorological Organization Media Centre]
Editor's Note: This eight-page issue of the Bulletin No. 15 with graphs and tables is available. EJH
Greenhouse gas emissions target could be missed -- The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) issued its annual "Emissions Gap Report 2019" that indicates greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise in 2018. The authors of the report claim that global emissions of these gases are not estimated to peak by 2030, a decade later than earlier planned. They warn that unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 per cent each year between 2020 and 2030, the opportunity to get on track toward the 1.5-Celsius degree temperature increase goal of the 2016 Paris Agreement will be missed. Even if all current unconditional commitments under the Paris Agreement are implemented, temperatures are expected to rise by 3.2 Celsius degrees. [World Meteorological Organization Media Centre]
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]

Historical Events:

2 December 1755...The second Eddystone Lighthouse near Plymouth, England was destroyed by fire. This light had replaced an earlier light that had been destroyed in the "Great 1703 Storm." The current structure is the fourth light to be constructed at that site. (Wikipedia)
3 December 1905...On this date the U.S. Weather Bureau received its first weather report from a ship at sea via wireless. (National Weather Service files)
3 December 1952...A remarkable display of sea smoke was seen in Hong Kong harbor. The sea-smoke, induced by a strong surge of arctic air, poured from the water of Kowloon Bay from 8 AM to 9:30 AM. The air temperature near the sea wall was 44 degrees F. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
3 December 1992...The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea carrying 80,000 tons of crude oil ran aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, spilling much of its cargo. (Wikipedia)
3 December 1999...After rowing for 81 days and 2962 miles, Tori Murden became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reached Guadeloupe after departing from the Canary Islands. (Wikipedia)
4 December 1786...The first of two great early December storms began. The storm produced high seas at Nantucket that did great damage. (David Ludlum)
4 December 1887...Tropical storms and hurricanes are very rare in December in the Atlantic. However, on this date not one but two tropical systems existed. One was dissipating after having been a Category 1 hurricane over the eastern Bahamas between 29 and 30 November. The other was just being born and would become a Category 1 hurricane over the open North Atlantic on 7 and 8 December. (National Weather Service files)
4-13 December 1991...Tropical Cyclone Val with gusts to 150 mph caused $700 million damage. Seventeen deaths were reported in American and Western Samoa, with 95 percent of the houses in Savaii either destroyed or badly damaged. Savaii was essentially hit twice by Val as the system completed a loop on the 8^th. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
4 December 2003...A tropical depression became Tropical Storm Odette in the Caribbean well south of Kingston, Jamaica, becoming the first December tropical storm of record to form in the Caribbean Sea. Odette made landfall on near Cabo Falso, Dominican Republic on 6 December, causing eight deaths and destroying 35 percent of the banana crop. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
5 December 1872...A British brigantine, the DeGratia, discovered the American ship Mary Celeste derelict and boarded her. The Mary Celeste, a brigantine had set sail from New York harbor for Genoa, Italy, on 5 November 1872. Everyone aboard the Mary Celeste had vanished-her captain, his family, and its 14-man crew. The ship, which appeared to have been abandoned for approximately nine days, was in perfect order with ample supplies and there was no sign of violence or trouble. The fate of the crew remains unknown. (Infoplease.com) (Wikipedia)
5 December 1492...The explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, which now contains the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. (Wikipedia)
5 December 1949...A typhoon struck fishing fleet off Korea; several thousand men reported dead. (Infoplease.com)
5 December 1999...Denmark saw its worst storm on record as 109-mph winds tore through the country and local sea levels rose almost 17 feet above normal, ending in over $134 million in damages. Six people were killed. (National Weather Service files)
6 December 1830...The US Naval Observatory, the first U.S. national observatory, established as the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, DC, under commander of Lieutenant Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough. Its primary mission was to care for the U.S. Navy's chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment. (Naval Historical Center)
6 December 2003...Tropical Storm Odette made a rare appearance after the official end of hurricane season, releasing 7 inches of rain on the Dominican Republic and doing 8 million dollars in damage. (National Weather Service files)
7-8 December 1703...A monstrous storm raked southern England and adjacent waters with winds in excess of 100 mph. Approximately 8000 deaths were the result of this storm, mostly at sea. Many naval and supply ships were anchored in harbors or in the English Channel. The Eddystone Lighthouse disappeared. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
7 December 1872...An expedition put to sea from Sheerness aboard the corvette H.M.S. Challenger under the command of Captain George Nares on a 3 1/2-year world oceanographic cruise. During the 68,890-nautical mile cruise that ended on 24 May 1876, the ship traversed the North and South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, traveled north of the limits of drift ice in the North Atlantic polar seas and south of the Antarctic Circle. The scientists onboard the Challenger sounded the ocean bottom to a depth of 26,850-ft, found many new species, and provided collections for scores of biologists. (Today in Science History)
7 December 1932...The first gyro-stabilized vessel to cross the Atlantic, the Conte di Savoia of the Italian Line, arrived in New York City. The ship had 48,502 gross tons, an overall length 814.6 ft by beam 96.1 ft, two funnels, two masts, four screws and a speed of 27 knots. As one of the first ships to be fitted with gyrostabilizers, it was claimed that rolling was limited to a maximum of three degrees. The maiden voyage began from Genoa to Villefranche and New York on 30 November 1932. (Today in Science History)
8 December 1777...Captain James Cook left the Society Islands (French Polynesia).
8 December 1866...The first transpacific side-wheeler steamship launched in the U.S. was the Celestial Empire (later named China) with capacity for 1,300 passengers. The builder, William H. Webb of New York, introduced many features of naval architecture in this liner, since in common use. (Today in Science History)
8 December 1993...The U.S. Secretary of Defense declared that the Global Positioning System (GPS), accurate within 100 meters, had 24 GPS satellites operating in their assigned orbits, available for navigation use at Standard Positioning Service (SPS) levels for civil users. This worldwide satellite-based radionavigation system used as the Defense Department's primary radionavigation system provided authorized users encrypted Precise Positioning Service accurate to at least 22 meters. (Today in Science History)
8 December 2002...Super-typhoon Pongsona hit Guam with sustained winds of 144 mph and gusts to 173 mph, along with a storm surge to 20 feet. The 40-mile wide diameter eye was over Anderson AFB for 2 hours. One indirect death and 193 injuries were attributed to the typhoon. Some bridge pavement was "scrapped off" by wind and wave action. Damage was estimated at $700 million. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)