WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

16-20 December 2013

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 20 January 2014. 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:

Happy Winter Solstice!
Endangered Species Act marks 40th anniversary -- NOAA Fisheries will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) at the end of this year. President Nixon signed the ESA into law as a means designed to protect critically imperiled animal species deemed endangered or threatened from extinction. As a consequence of ESA populations of many listed species in the ocean have increased. [NOAA Fisheries News] However, scientists remain concerned with how changing climate will affect federally protected marine species [University of Washington News]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclone activity was limited to the North Indian Ocean basin during the last week. At the start of the week, Cyclone Madi traveled toward the north across the Bay of Bengal as a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. By midweek, this cyclone had weakened to a tropical storm and then made a dramatic change in direction, traveling toward the southwest. Continuing to weaken, Madi made landfall along the southeastern coast of India near Tamil Nadu. Consult the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite images on Cyclone Madi.
Initial outlook for 2014 Atlantic hurricane season issued -- Last week Philip J. Klotzbach, his mentor Professor Bill Gray, and other colleagues at Colorado State University issued a qualitative discussion of what they foresee as factors that will determine next year's Atlantic basin hurricane activity. While they expect that typical conditions associated with a positive Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO) and strong thermohaline circulation (THC) should continue, they note that one of the big uncertainties for the 2014 Atlantic basin hurricane season will be whether or not an El Niño event will develop. Until last year, the team usually released their initial quantitative forecast of the tropical cyclone activity for the forthcoming hurricane season in the North Atlantic Basin during the first week of December. However, they have elected to discontinue this quantitative forecast in 2012 and provide a qualitative discussion. They will issue their first quantitative forecast in early April 2014, provided that sufficient funding is available for continuation of their work. Details of their initial qualitative assessment appear in the report issued by the Tropical Meteorology Project. [Colorado State University Report]
Annual Arctic Report Card released -- Last week, NOAA's Climate Program Office released its 2013 annual update of the "Arctic Report Card," a peer-reviewed report of the state of the air, ocean and ice in the Arctic basin prepared by an international team of 147 scientists from 14 countries, including those from NOAA. These experts have found air and water temperatures across the central Arctic Ocean, Greenland and northern Canada during the summer of 2013 were slightly lower than in previous years. These lower temperatures helped moderate sea ice loss and melting of the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, both of which had occurred at a record pace during 2012. Though not as extreme as the previous year, the Arctic continued to warm and to show evidence of a shift toward a greener state as vegetation has been expanding and having greater productivity because of warmer conditions and a longer growing season. More freshwater was found in the Beaufort Gyre north of Alaska and Canada. Several species of fish have migrated into the warmer Arctic Ocean that has less summer sea ice. [NOAA News]
A map of the August 2013 sea surface temperatures in the waters of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas and straits generated from data collected from a sensor onboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows that the surface waters poleward of the Arctic Circle generally were warmer than the long-term average (1982-2006) for the summer of 2013. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Regional center for NOAA dedicated in Honolulu -- This Monday NOAA will dedicate the new NOAA Daniel K. Inouye Regional Center located on Ford Island in Honolulu, HI that will house 15 NOAA offices with more than 700 staff, and most of the NOAA assets in Hawaii. This center is named for the late Senator Inouye who was a friend of NOAA and an advocate of protecting the nation's natural resources. [NOAA Fisheries News]
New NASA satellite should help answer questions on the Earth's carbon cycle -- A new satellite identified as NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission is scheduled to be launched in the summer 2014 with the goal of measuring the levels of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere with increased resolution. Recently, the OCO-2 mission's Deputy Project Scientist, Dr. Annmarie Eldering of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was interviewed and answered five questions concerning carbon dioxide and NASA's OCO-2 mission. [NASA Global Climate Change]
Lake effect snow clouds seen from space -- An image generated by data collected last Wednesday by the VIIRS instrument onboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite shows numerous streamers of stratocumulus clouds that developed across Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron as cold air was being transported across these Lakes on northwesterly winds. The orientation of the cloud streamers provides an indication of the general near surface wind flow across the region. Skies are clear along the upwind side of the Lakes where the cold dry air blows out over the relatively warm water surfaces. During the travel over the Lakes, the near surface air is warmed and humidified sufficiently to produce convection, cloud formation and ultimately, lake effect snow that fell on the downwind shores of the Lakes, such as across the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and western Lower Michigan. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Arctic cyclones are not that uncommon -- Scientists at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center and Russia's Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University have determined that between the years 2000 and 20010, approximately 1900 cyclones (atmospheric low pressure systems) developed over and traveled across the Arctic basin. The counts of storms were obtained from a variety of historical weather data, together with statistics and computer models. This number of Arctic storms is approximately 40 percent greater than previously thought, since hundreds of the smaller storms had previously escaped detection. The Arctic storms leave warm water and air in their wakes, which helps cause melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. [Ohio State University Research News]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

16 December 1897...The Argonaut, the first US submarine with an internal combustion engine, was demonstrated on the Patapsco River. Simon Lake invented and patented the engine. (Today in Science History)
16-17 December 1997...Torrential rain from Super Typhoon Paka fell on Guam with nearly 21 inches of rain observed at Tiyan before instrumentation failed two hours before Paka's eye passed to the south. Winds gusted to 171 mph before wind instruments failed. However, unofficial sources at Andersen Air Force Base believed that wind gusts may have reached 236.7 mph during the height of the storm. This super typhoon left major damage to 60 percent of the homes on Guam and caused 500 million dollars in damage. Fortunately, no one was killed and only two injuries were reported. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
17-18 December 1832...The HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin onboard rounded Cape San Diego at Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of South America) then sailed through the Strait of Le Maire, to anchor at Good Success Bay and visit Vurland.
17-18 December 1944...A typhoon with wind gusts to 142 mph in the Philippine Sea devastated Task Force 38 of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet northeast of Samar. Approximately 800 men were lost, the destroyers USS Hull, USS Monaghan and USS Spence sank, while 21 other ships were damaged, along with loss of 147 aircraft. The wind and sea tore life vests from the backs of some survivors. (Naval Historical Center) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
19 December 1551...The Dutch west coast was hit by a hurricane.
19 December 1741...Vitus J Bering, Dutch navigator/explorer, died on this date.
19-21 December 1835...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin approached New Zealand and sailed into the Bay of Islands.
20 December 1987...Worst peacetime shipping disaster occurred as the Dona Paz, a Philippine ferry, sank after collision with oil tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion. As many as 1749 confirmed deaths, but the death toll was probably closer to 3000.
21 December 1163...A hurricane hit villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods.
21 December 1872...The HMS Challenger set sail from Portsmouth, England on the 4-year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography. (Wikipedia)
21 December 1936...Ice breaking operations in channels and harbors by the US Coast Guard was authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Executive Order No. 7521. (USCG Historian's Office)
22 December 1832...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reached the Barnevelts Islands
22 December 1837...Congress authorized the President "to cause any suitable number of public vessels, adapted to the purpose, to cruise upon the coast, in the severe portion of the season, and to afford aid to distressed navigators." This statute was the first authorizing activities in the field of maritime safety, thereby interjecting the national government into the field of lifesaving for the first time. Although revenue cutters were specifically mentioned, the performance of this duty was imposed primarily upon the Revenue Marine Service and quickly became one of its major activities. (USCG Historian's Office)
22 December 1894...The Dutch coast was hit by a hurricane.