23-27 April 2012

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2012. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Item of Interest:

• National Science Bowl set for next weekend -- The US Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl®, a nationwide academic competition for middle and high school students will be held this coming weekend (26-30 April 2012) in Washington, DC. This event will test students' knowledge in all areas of science and is meant to encourage high school students to excel in science and math and to pursue careers in those fields. [DOE Office of Science]
• National Park Week -- The US Department of the Interior's National Park Service has designated the week commencing on this coming week (21-29 April 2012) as National Park Week. The focus for this year's observance is "Picture Yourself in a National Park." In observance of this event, free entry can be made to any of the 397 national parks in the system. [National Park Service Fee Free Days]

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- No organized tropical cyclones developed over the tropical waters of either the Northern or Southern Hemispheres during the last week.
• Explore the Gulf of Mexico virtually and live from the seafloor -- NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research is inviting the public to watch live undersea video and listen to ocean explorers during the upcoming week as part of the 2012 Gulf expedition involving the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Satellite and high-speed Internet communications will be used to display images and listen to the scientists describe what they are observing, such as marine species and gas seeps on the seafloor of the northern Gulf of Mexico. used between ship and shore. [NOAA News]
• New views of Earth's ocean floor available online -- Last week, NOAA officials announced that numerous sea floor maps and other data obtained from the world's coasts, continental shelves and deep ocean have been made available online to the public on from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center website. [NOAA News]
• Special navigation charts issued for the War of 1812 bicentennial -- NOAA's Office of Coast Survey is releasing special navigation products in the form of Booklet Charts that include nautical charts, OPSail® tall ship parade routes, and historical background for activities planned to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812. The five ports holding official bicentennial events are New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Baltimore and Boston. [NOAA News]
• Public input sought on management plans for two national marine sanctuaries -- Last week officials with two of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries invited public option on:
• An environmental assessment and draft management plan for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary for public review and comment by late June. The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, located in the coastal waters off North Carolina's Outer Banks, is the final resting place for the USS Monitor, the famous Civil War ironclad. [NOAA News]
• A review of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary’s marine zones set aside for specific uses and the regulations designed to shape Florida Keys marine conservation for the next two decades. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is located in the coastal waters off south Florida's Keys. [NOAA News]
• Proposal made to remove eastern Steller sea lions from endangered species list -- After a status review by NOAA's Fisheries Service biologists, the agency is proposing that the eastern Steller sea lion, which is currently deemed "threatened," be removed from the list of endangered wildlife. This eastern Steller sea lion is found along the Pacific Coast from southeastern Alaska southward to California's Channel Islands. [NOAA Fisheries News Release]
• Students participate in the "Adopt a Drifter" Program -- During the past week, the NOAA coordinated six “Adopt a Drifter Program” deployments of drifting instrumented buoys or “drifters” at several locations along the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico as part of its celebration of Earth Day.  The ”Adopt a Drifter” program allows teachers and students at the middle school and high school level to help deploy the drifters and then track their adopted drifter through classroom activities.   One of the drifter deployment ceremonies was held off the coast of Massachusetts in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and involved students from the Boston metropolitan area. [NOAA News] Another deployment was off the Gulf Coast and involved students from Alabama and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. [NOAA News]
• Current La Niña event is fading -- In the April 2012 ENSO Diagnostic Discussion, NOAA scientists at the Climate Prediction Center report that sea surface temperatures across the eastern equatorial Pacific have warmed during the last two months, indicating the current La Niña event of the last two winters is weakening. The La Niña event is anomalous large scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern that favors lower than average sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific off the South American coast. The scientists feel that ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation)-neutral conditions could return within the next month. [NOAA Climate Services]
• Global temperatures for March 2012 reviewed -- Using preliminary data collected from the global network of surface weather stations, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center report that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for March 2012 was the 16th highest for any March since global climate records began in 1880, or approximately 0.8 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th century (1901-2000) average. While this past month was the warmest Mach across the continental United States since 1895, the month was the coolest March since 1999, as below average temperatures were found across Alaska, Australia, eastern and western Russia, and parts of New Zealand. The scientists also reported that when considered separately, the average land temperature was the 18th highest for any March since 1880, while the temperature over the oceans was the 14th highest for March. Sea-surface temperatures were increasing across the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean in March, indicating the general demise of La Niña conditions.
  The researchers also noted the areal extent of the Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent in mid March, approximately 12 days later than average. In addition, the areal extent for March 2012 was the ninth smallest since satellite surveillance began in 1979. On the other hand, the extent of the Antarctic sea ice was the fourth largest in the 34-year record. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate] [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• Implications of ocean acidification addressed -- A YouTube video produced by NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory entitled "Ocean Acidification: The Other Carbon Dioxide Problem" describes the fundamental changes in seawater chemistry leading to increased acidification that are occurring throughout the world's oceans due to increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide caused by human activity since 1880, along with the effects that increased ocean acidity have had on marine life. Ocean acidity levels in 2094 are projected. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• New ecological model developed for deep-water oil spills -- A national panel of researchers recently published a study entitled "A Tale of Two Spills: Novel Science and Policy Implications of an Emerging New Oil Spill Model" that reviews old models of oil spills and provides a new model providing guidance for the response to oil spills emanating from deep-sea oil wells. This new model, which was stimulated by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, was produced by the Gulf Oil Spill Ecotox Working Group at the University of California-Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. [UC Santa Barbara]
• Surface lake melt may help Greenland "slip-sliding away" -- Using satellite images to monitor nearly 1000 lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet, scientists from the University of Colorado-Boulder report that this ice sheet may be sliding faster into the ocean due to massive releases of melt water from these "supraglacial" lakes that are collections of liquid water on top of a glacier. [University of Colorado Boulder]
• 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, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 23 April 1924...A tube transmitter for radio fog-signal stations, developed to take the place of the spark transmitters in use, was placed in service on the Ambrose Channel Lightship and proved successful. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 24 April 1884...USS Thetis, Bear, and Alert sailed from New York to search for Greeley expedition lost in the Arctic. (Naval Historical Center)
• 24 April 1928...The fathometer was patented by Herbert Grove Dorsey (No. 1,667,540). The invention measured underwater depths by using a series of electrical sounds and light signals. (Today in Science History)
• 27 April 1521...The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines after completing nearly three-quarters of a trip around the world. One of his ships, the Victoria, under the command of the Basque navigator Juan Sebastiżn de Elcano, continued west to arrive at Seville, Spain on 9 September 1522, the first ship to circumnavigate the globe. (The History Channel)
• 28 April 1947...Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. The trip took 101 days.
• 29 April 1770...The British explorer, Captain James Cook, arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia. (Wikipedia)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2012, The American Meteorological Society.