WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

15-19 January 2018

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 --- During the last week, three tropical cyclones were traveled across the waters of the South Indian Ocean:
Cyclone Irving, which had become a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale over the previous weekend, continued to travel toward the southwest across the waters of the South Indian Ocean to the southeast of Diego Garcia at the start of last week. By midweek, Irving had turned to move toward the west-southwest and then south as it weakened to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression. By this time, Tropical Depression Irving was located to the east-southeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. Additional information and satellite imagery for Cyclone Irving can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
A tropical depression formed at midweek over the waters of the eastern South Indian Ocean offshore of Cape Leveque, Western Australia. Traveling toward the northwest and then west, this tropical depression intensified to become Tropical Cyclone Joyce. Turning toward the south and southwest, Joyce hugged the coast of Western Australia before making landfall near the end of the week on the Pilbara Coast of Western Australia. By then, Joyce had been downgraded to a remnant low as it moved on to land, reaching to a position nearly 50 miles east of Port Hedland, Western Australia. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Cyclone Joyce.
Tropical Storm Berguitta formed over the waters of the South Indian Ocean to east-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius at the beginning of this past weekend. Berguitta intensified as it traveled toward the west-southwest. By early Monday (local time), Berguitta was located approximately to the east -northeast of east-northeast of Port Louis. Current forecasts indicate that Berguitta should become a category 1 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it was projected to pass close to Mauritius and then La Reunion by midweek.
Seismic sensors can record hurricane intensity -- Researchers from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Princeton University and Italy's University of Bologna have discovered a nearly persistent signature of tropical cyclones in "ambient seismic noise" being recorded on seismic sensors. The team analyzed 13 years of tropical cyclones in the northwest Pacific Ocean, using data obtained from seven seismometers stationed in eastern Asia and on islands in the Pacific. The researchers found that these signatures in the ambient noise, which originate in the ocean waves generated by tropical cyclones, can be used to estimate the strength of hurricanes and typhoons. Ultimately, long-term seismic records could be used to estimate the strength of past hurricanes and to reveal possible long-term changes in the severity and frequency of these storms. [NOAA Climate Program Office News]
Report made on U.S. deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems -- At the end of last year, NOAA Fisheries released a 467-page report entitled "The State of Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Ecosystems of the United States" written by leading U.S. researchers that explains advances in deep-sea coral research over the past decade and how this new information is shaping deep-sea conservation. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Reef aid recovery efforts are assessed following Hurricane Irma -- Officials from NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries Program and partners from other federal agencies, Florida governmental agencies, higher educational institutions and non-profit organizations have been rapidly assessing sections of the reef tract along the Florida Keys following the passing of Hurricane Irma across the Middle and Lower Keys in early September 2017. In addition to assessment, coral rescue and stabilization are being conducted. [NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries News]
Monetary grants are made to restore healthy habitats in the Great Lakes -- NOAA Fisheries officials recently announced that up to $3 million was being made available in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant funding for restoration projects in 2018 for habitat restoration in the Great Lakes region, supporting healthy ecosystems and resilient coastal communities in Great Lakes states. These grants would be available to institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, commercial (for profit) organizations, and governments of U.S. territories, states, and local municipalities, as well as Native American tribal governments. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Global ocean and coastal waters are experiencing a decline in oxygen -- An international team of 22 scientists from the United States and ten other countries have reported that oxygen concentrations in both the open ocean and coastal waters around the globe have been declining since at least the 1950s. Analyses of direct oxygen measurements at sites around the world indicate that oxygen-minimum zones in the open ocean have expanded by several million square kilometers and that hundreds of coastal sites now have sufficiently low oxygen concentrations to limit the distribution and abundance of animal populations and alter the cycling of important nutrients. This oxygen loss (or deoxygenation) appears to be one of the most important changes occurring in an ocean increasingly modified by human activities that have raised air and water temperatures, carbon dioxide levels and nutrient inputs. The decline of oxygen can cause major changes in ocean productivity, biodiversity, and biogeochemical cycles. [NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science News]
Updated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion & El Niño advisory outlook released -- Late last week forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) released their monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion. As of early January, La Niña conditions had continued, with below-average sea surface temperatures (SST) found across the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean during the previous month. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies values across these sections of the equatorial Pacific ranged between 0.5 and one Celsius degree below normal. In addition to the pattern of sea surface temperature anomalies, the atmosphere patterns were also consistent with a La Niña event in terms of the location of atmospheric convection and the low-level winds. Nearly all the prediction models used by IRI/CPC suggest La Niña conditions will persist for the next several months. Consequently, the forecasters maintained their La Niña advisory, since the current La Niña conditions had a high likelihood (approximately 85 to 95%) of continuing through Northern Hemisphere winter, with a possible transition to ENSO-neutral conditions in spring. (ENSO-neutral means that neither El Niño or La Niña conditions would be anticipated.)
[NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
A blog written by a contractor scientist from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center describing the La Niña conditions that have been found across the tropical Pacific over the last month. Attention was also paid to winter (December-February) temperature patterns across the nation for strong, moderate and weak La Niña events since 1950. The maps for the 21 selected winters were displayed as temperature anomalies (or differences between observed and 1981-2010 average temperatures). [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Satellite documents ice cover on Lake Erie -- Images were made of North America's Great Lakes from data collected by the MODIS sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite in early January. One image was a natural-color image that shows clouds, snow-covered land and the open lake waters in the visible portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. The other image was a false-color image made from a combination of infrared and visible light that permits better differentiation between snow and ice (blue) and clouds (white). These two images can be used to see how the extensive ice cover that had formed on Lake Erie has reduced the cloud streets that developed across the Great Lakes as cold air flows across the relatively warm lake surfaces. [NASA Earth Observatory] Note: A link is provided to NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory for current ice cover conditions and historic ice cover graphics.
Arctic air behind early January nor'easter creates icy waters along East Coast -- A series of images obtained at the start of last week from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite shows the ice that formed on North Carolina's Albemarle Sound, Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay in the Middle Atlantic States and Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound in New England. Some of these rivers, bays, and estuaries along the coast rarely have ice. Arctic air circulating around the western side of the major nor'easter storm that crippled the East Coast on the first weekend of January brought air temperatures to near zero degrees Fahrenheit in many coastal locations, which resulted in the ice formation on the coastal waters. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Satellites see South Atlantic is abloom -- Natural-color images obtained from data collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite and the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite during the last week of December show swirls of milky blue and green in the near surface waters of the South Atlantic Ocean near the Falkland Islands. These swirls reveal the presence of dense blooms of phytoplankton, or plant-like marine micro-organisms, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. [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]

Historical Events

15 January 1833...HMS Beagle anchored at Goeree Tierra del Fuego.
15 January 1961...A powerful storm passed directly over one of the manned radar platforms in the western Atlantic that the U.S. Air Force had built throwing it into the sea and killing all 28 men on board. These platforms, built approximately 85 miles offshore, resembled oil rigs found in the Gulf of Mexico. (National Weather Service).
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)
18-27 January 1980...Tropical Cyclone Hyacinthe produced 223.5 inches of rainfall over the 10-day period at Cratère Commerson, on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean to set the global mark for rainfall from a tropical cyclone during a 10-day period. The same storm dumped 127.6 inches of rain in just 72 hours at Grand-Ilet, La Reunion Island. (The Weather Doctor) (National Weather Service files)
19 January 1840...LT Charles Wilkes, USN was the first American to sight the eastern Antarctic coast, claiming this portion of the continent for the United States. The group that he led explored a 1500-mile stretch of the coast of eastern Antarctica, which later became known as Wilkes Land. (Naval Historical Center)
19 January 1883: The steamers of Cimbria and Sultan collided in the North Sea due to heavy fog. This collision resulted in the death of 357 people. (National Weather Service files)
19 January 1946...Staged jointly by the USCG and USN, the first public demonstration of LORAN was held at Floyd Bennett Field in New York. (USCG Historian's Office)
19 January 1996...The tug Scandia and its barge, the North Cape, ran aground on the shore of Rhode Island, spilling 828,000 gallons of oil, the worst spill in that state's history. The Coast Guard rescued the entire crew, pumped off 1.5 million gallons of oil and conducted skimming operations. (USCG Historian's Office)
20 January 1606...As many as 2000 people died around the Severn Estuary in England as the result of severe flooding. (The Weather Doctor)
20 January 1850...The Investigator, which was the first ship to effect a Northwest Passage, left England.
20 January 1914...The International Ice Patrol Convention was signed. (USCG Historian's Office)
20 January 1986...The United Kingdom and France announced plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, a railway tunnel underneath the English Channel, also known as the "Chunnel." (Wikipedia)
21 January 1881...The light was first shown at Tillamook Lighthouse, located 19 miles south of the Columbia River entrance on the Oregon coast. (USCG Historian's Office)
21 January 1941...The first commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater was made at Freeport, TX.
21 January 1954...The first nuclear powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched on the Thames River in Groton, CT, representing a landmark in the history of naval engineering and submersible craft. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower christened the vessel, which sailed beneath the Arctic ice pack to the North Pole in 1958. (Today in Science History)