Weekly Ocean News

Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK ELEVEN: 13-17 April 2015

Items of Interest

Nation's environmental satellite program launched 55 years ago -- Wednesday, 1 April 2015, marked the 55th anniversary of the successful launch of the first polar orbiting weather satellite, TIROS I (Television Infrared Observation Satellite I), by NASA from Cape Canaveral, FL. Although it remained operational for two and a half months, this first spacecraft dedicated to taking images of the atmospheric weather systems eventually led to a world-wide meteorological satellite information system. [NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service News Archive]
Species dominance and ocean properties -- Discover how variations in both the physical and chemical properties of ocean waters can be accompanied by changes in the dominance of the various species of marine life in this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week several tropical cyclones were detected across the South Indian Ocean and the western Pacific.

In the South Indian basin Cyclone Ikola formed quickly and intensified into a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale at the start of last week approximately 1700 miles to the west-northwest of Learmonth, Australia. This tropical cyclone was relatively short-lived as it traveled to the southeast and then dissipated within three days. See the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information on Cyclone Ikola.
Cyclone Joalane formed from a tropical storm early last week approximately 450 miles to the northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. Traveling to the south-southeast, Joalane intensified into a category 2 tropical cyclone. By late in the weekend, this cyclone had weakened to a tropical storm. Additional information along with satellite images on Cyclone Joalane appears on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Haishen was traveling toward the west-northwest at the start of last week. However it dissipated near the island of Fananu and the Federated States of Micronesia. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Haishen can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western South Pacific basin Tropical Storm Solo developed near the end of last week over the Coral Sea approximately 550 miles to the northwest of Noumea, New Caledonia. This tropical storm moved toward the south and then southeast over the weekend. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on Tropical Storm Solo.

An El Niño Advisory remains in effect -- Forecasters with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center recently continued their El Niño Advisory indicating an approximately 70 percent chance that an El Niño event will continue through the upcoming Northern Hemisphere's summer (beginning in June and running through August) as above average sea-surface temperatures were developing across the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean during March 2015 that were indicative of weak El Niño conditions. In addition, they also felt that a 60 percent chance that the El Niño would continue through boreal autumn (September-November 2015). [NOAA Climate Prediction Center]
An ENSO blog was written by a CPC researcher that details the thinking that went into the preparation of the recently released April El Niño forecast. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Another ENSO blog written by a senior scientist at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory describes how the scientific forecasting of El Niño events has evolved over the last 40 years following the memorable 1972-73 El Niño that triggered a collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fishery. [NOAA Climate.gov News]
Hurricane season forecast -- Last week, the hurricane forecast team from Colorado State University headed by Dr. Phil Klotzbach released its April forecast of the 2015 North Atlantic hurricane season that officially begins on 1 June 2015. The team, which includes Professor William Gray, foresees this upcoming hurricane season as being one of the least active seasons since the middle of the 20th century. They feel that an El Niño event of moderate strength could develop in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during this upcoming summer and autumn seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, which would result in a relatively quiet Atlantic hurricane season. In addition, the waters of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic remain relatively cool. In their initial April forecast, the forecasters call for seven named tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms), with three potentially becoming hurricanes. One of these hurricanes could become severe, reaching category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. They also anticipate a below-average probability of a major Atlantic hurricane making landfall somewhere along the coast of the coterminous US and in the Caribbean. [The Tropical Meteorology Project]
Hurricane awareness tour commences to Mexico and the Caribbean -- NOAA and US Air Force Reserve hurricane experts will embark next week on a six-day, seven-city tour to Mexico and the Caribbean in a "hurricane hunter" aircraft designed to raise public hurricane awareness in communities in several countries surrounding the Gulf of Mexico. A series of events will be hosted that would include tours aboard the Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft. [NOAA News]
Watch a remotely operated vehicle explore depths of the Caribbean and Atlantic -- The public is invited to view online the expedition dives that are scheduled to be made through the end of April by a dual-body ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle ) to the depths of the Caribbean Sea and the western North Atlantic from the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. The ROV will descend to as deep as 3.7 miles and broadcast live video to the Internet from the seafloor. [NOAA News]
"Early warning system" for freshwater toxic algal blooms --NOAA, NASA, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) are collaborating in a five-year $3.6-million research project designed to help protect the American public from contamination created by harmful freshwater algal blooms (HABs). This new project will utilize color data from freshwater bodies collected from orbiting NASA and NOAA environmental satellites that would be provided to federal, state and local agencies for the issuance of health advisories to the public when warranted. [NOAA News]
"Toddler" sea turtles found to be very active swimmers -- Researchers from NOAA'a Southeast Fisheries Science Center and the University of Central Florida have found that contrary to a long-held ocean myth, young sea turtles between six and eighteen months of age are indeed very active swimmers and do not merely drift passively in ocean currents. The researchers tracked as many as 44 "toddler" turtles with solar powered tags. [NOAA Fisheries Newsroom]
The 17-year TRMM Rainfall Mission draws to a close -- The joint NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) ended last week after a 17-year career as its instruments were turned off because the spacecraft had depleted its fuel reserves. The TRMM spacecraft, which was launched into a low orbit of 350 km above the Earth's surface in 1997, was designed for a planned mission of only a few years to observe precipitation rates over the tropics and subtropics, especially over the data-sparse oceans. The spacecraft carried five onboard sensors: the Precipitation Radar (PR), first precipitation radar flown in space that permitted generation of 3-D radar imagery; The Microwave Imager (TMI), which provided the highest resolution images of rainfall for that time; the Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS); the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument. The TRMM data collected over the mission's 17 years of operation permitted scientists to explore weather events, climate, and Earth's water cycle. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center] The spacecraft was expected to descend into the Earth's atmosphere and essentially be destroyed upon reentry in mid June 2015. [NASA Precipitation Measurement Missions]
Pool of warm water in Pacific linked to recent "weird" weather across US -- Researchers at the University of Washington and their colleagues point to the existence of a long-lived "blob" of warm water in the North Pacific Ocean off the US West Coast since late 2013 as being responsible for a variety of unusual weather across the nation that include unseasonably warm and dry weather across the Western states along with cold and record snow across the Northeast. The warm blob originated as a nearly circular water mass that was approximately 1000 miles in horizontal extent, 300-feet deep and had a temperature that was between two and seven Fahrenheit degrees above normal. Over time, this blob had elongated and remained offshore of the coast, extending from Mexico north to Alaska. [University of Washington Today]
Water is found across the solar system and beyond -- Scientists who are involved with NASA missions designed to explore our solar system and regions of space beyond the solar system have been finding signatures of water in many locations including in the atmospheres of planets in other solar systems and in giant interstellar clouds. The presence of water is a key in the search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth. A review of some of the recent results of NASA's exploration of the solar system and beyond are described. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
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.

Concept of the Week: Living Coral and El Niño

El Niño episodes of 1982-83 and 1997-1998, the most intense of the century, confirmed the connection between higher than average ocean temperatures and bleaching of hermatypic corals. (Hermatypic corals live in warm shallow water and build large reefs.) Water temperatures higher than 29°C (the normal maximum sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific) can trigger expulsion of zooxanthellae, microscopic dinoflagellates whose symbiotic relationship with coral polyps is essential for the long-term survival of coral. Without zooxanthellae, coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral's white skeleton, a condition known as coral bleaching. If maximum temperatures are not too high for too long, corals can recover, but prolonged warming associated with an intense El Niño (that may persist for 12 to 18 months) can be lethal to coral. Most hermatypic corals thrive when the water temperature is 27°C, but do not grow when the water becomes too cold. Although the ideal temperature varies with species and from one location to another, the temperature range for optimal growth is quite narrow--only a few Celsius degrees. This sensitivity to relatively small changes in water temperature is an important source of information on past climates as fossil coral is a significant component of many limestones. Evidence of bleaching episodes in fossil corals may yield important clues to past changes in the world's tropical ocean.

Coral, sometimes referred to as "the rainforests of the ocean," provides a base for local ecosystems and have many benefits (e.g., fisheries, tourism) that are important in many parts of the globe. Hence, vulnerability to El Niño-associated warming is an object of considerable scientific interest. During the 1997-98 El Niño, NOAA charted significant coral bleaching from portions of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia, French Polynesia in the south Pacific, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, and around the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Closer to home, coral bleaching was reported in the Florida Keys, the Cayman Islands, and off the Pacific coast of Panama and Baja California. Fortunately damage from the 1997-98 El Niño warming was less drastic than the 1983-84 El Niño when up to 95% of the corals in some locations died. Many of the corals damaged in the late 1990s have at least partially recovered including important reefs in the Florida Keys. For additional information on coral status, go to the NOAA website http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Most hermatypic corals thrive at an ocean water temperature of [(10) (27)] °C.
Corals [(can) (cannot)] recover from bleaching if high ocean water temperatures are not long lasting.

Historical Events:

13 April 1960...The Navy's first navigation satellite, Transit-1B, was placed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, FL and demonstrated the ability to launch another satellite. The Transit system was designed to meet Navy's need for accurately locating ballistic missile submarines and other ships. (Naval Historical Center) (Today in Science History)
14 April 1543...Bartolomé Ferrelo returned to Spain after assuming command of the ill-fated expedition of the Spanish navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (who died on San Miguel Island in California's Channel Islands). The expedition was the first known entry by Europeans into San Francisco Bay in the New World.
14-15 April 1912...The British steamer RMS Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. The collision occurred at about 11:45 PM on 14 April and the ship, which was considered unsinkable, sank in 2.5 hours during the early morning hours of the 15^th. Reports showed 1517 people out of 2207 onboard lost their lives in this accident. Because of this disaster, certification and life saving devices were improved and an International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the iceberg hazards in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct much of the effort. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office) A 21-year old telegraph operator at the Marconi radio station in New York City, David Sarnoff who became a pioneer in radio and television broadcasting, received and transmitted the distress calls from the Titanic. (Today in Science History)
16 April 1851...The famous "Lighthouse Storm" (a "nor'easter") raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed the 116-ft Minot Ledge Light at Cohasset, MA with the loss of its two keepers still inside. The lighthouse was the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean. The storm coupled with a spring tide resulted in massive flooding, great shipping losses and coastal erosion. Streets in Boston were flooded to the Custom House. (David Ludlum) (US Coast Guard Historians Office) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 April 1854...A furious storm that produced two feet of snow at New Brunswick, NJ also caused approximately 18 shipwrecks along the New Jersey coast. The immigrant ship Powhattan beached 100 yards from the shore. With rescue impossible, 340 people onboard lost their lives. "The shrieks of the drowning creatures were melancholy indeed." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 April 1992...The Katina P ran aground off Maputo, Mozambique, causing 60,000 tons of crude oil to spill into the ocean. (Wikipedia)
17 April 1492...Spain and the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus signed a contract for him to sail to Asia to obtain spices. (Wikipedia)
17 April 1524...Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, onboard the frigate La Dauphine "discovered" New York Bay. (Wikipedia)
18 April 1906...An early morning magnitude 7.8 earthquake along with a subsequent fire devastated much of San Francisco, CA, resulting in one of the worst natural disasters to hit a major US city. As many as 6000 people may have died because of this disaster. The earthquake was along the San Andreas Fault, with an epicenter thought to have been near Mussel Rock along the coast at suburban Daly City.
18 April 1848...U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, commanded by LT William F. Lynch, reached the Dead Sea. (Naval Historical Center)
19 April 1770...Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia. Cook originally named the land Point Hicks.