WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

11-15 May 2015

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2015 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 24 August 2015. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Item of Interest:

Hurricane season begins in the eastern North Pacific -- The 2015 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin begins on Friday, 15 May 2015. The hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico will begin in two weeks on 1 June. The official hurricane seasons in both basins end on 30 November 2015. NOAA has declared the week of 24-30 May 2015 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
Land of the Midnight Sun -- Barring clouds, the sun should rise at Barrow, AK early next Monday morning (2:37 AM AKDT on 11 May 2015) after spending 28 minutes below the horizon. The sun should then remain above the local horizon for the next 12 weeks, before going below the horizon for 50 minutes on 2 August 2015 (at 2:09 AM AKDT). [US Naval Observatory]
North American Safe Boating Week -- This week of 16-22 May has been declared 2015 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2015 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
Zenithal Sun -- The end of this upcoming week marks one of the two times during the year when the noontime sun is directly overhead to residents on the Big Island on about 14 May at South Cape (Ka Lae at 18.9 deg North latitude and 155.68 degrees West longitude) and on the 18th and 19 May at Hilo; those on Oahu (Honolulu metropolitan area) will experience the noon sun at the zenith in approximately two more weeks (25-27 May). The sun will again be over the Big Island during the last week of July. [US Naval Observatory, Data Services]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- Tropical cyclones developed last week over the waters of the Northern Hemisphere:

In the western North Pacific Basin, Tropical Storm Noul strengthened to become typhoon during the week as it traveled toward the west and west-northwest, passing Yap Island in the Caroline Islands. . By this past weekend, Noul had become a super typhoon with a strength equivalent to a category 5 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, as maximum sustained surface winds reached 160 mph. On Sunday (local time), Super typhoon Noul curved to the northwest, passing close to the northeastern coast of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. Forecasts call for Noul to curve to the north passing to the east of Taiwan before curving toward the northeast, remaining just to the south of the main Japanese islands. Additional information and satellite images on Typhoon Noul can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Late in the week a tropical depression formed to the south-southeast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia that became Typhoon Dolphin after taking a circuitous loop to the southeast, then northeast and northwest. Over this past weekend Typhoon Dolphin was traveling to the west-northwest across the western Pacific as it was approximately 130 miles to the east-northeast of Pohnpei. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm 7W, which eventually became Typhoon Dolphin.
In the North Atlantic basin, a low pressure system located off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina organized into Subtropical Storm Ana during the late evening hours of last Thursday. Since Ana had both tropical and extratropical characteristics, it was identified as a subtropical storm. After weakening into a subtropical depression, Ana re-intensified and became a tropical storm early Sunday as it traveled to the northwest toward the coast of the Carolinas. On Sunday morning Tropical Storm Ana made landfall along the South Carolina near Myrtle Beach. In addition to being the first named tropical cyclone of the 2015 hurricane season, Ana represents the second earliest land falling tropical storm on record in the Atlantic. After making landfall, Ana weakened to a tropical depression as it traveled northward across eastern North Carolina. The NASA Hurricane Page has satellite images and additional information on the weather system that eventually became Tropical Storm Ana.

New Deepwater Horizon oil spill searchable database web tool is unveiled -- NOAA has recently unveiled a new online tool called DIVER (for Data Integration, Visualization, Exploration, and Reporting) that can be used by the public and researchers to assess the damage to the Gulf of Mexico and its ecosystems by the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. This tool was developed by NOAA with the goal of managing and integrating vast quantities of data collected by a variety of sources during the five years following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [NOAA News]
Long-term Gulf of Mexico ecosystem research priorities announced -- During the last week NOAA officials announced ten long-term research priorities that is part of the final version of the science plan for the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program aimed at developing a more complete understanding of how the waters of the Gulf of Mexico along with its natural resources, fisheries and its coastal communities are interconnected. This NOAA program supports research on the Gulf's long-term ecological sustainability and its fisheries. [NOAA News]
Recreational fishing surveys are being updated -- The chief science advisor and director to science programs at NOAA Fisheries recently announced that his agency has commenced a transition in the way Atlantic and Gulf Coast saltwater recreational anglers are surveyed on their fishing trips (efforts) from telephone to mail surveys. This transition period is scheduled to run through 2017. The results of the surveys on recreational fishing effort for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are used for science and management decision-making. [NOAA Fisheries Newsroom]
Assessing global cloud cover from space -- A global cloud fraction map was generated from data collected by the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite between July 2002 and April 2015. This image shows three bands across the globe with abundant cloud cover, with one narrow strip encircling the equatorial latitudes that form the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and broader bands at subpolar latitudes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres corresponding to midlatitude storm systems and accompanying fronts. Cloud fraction differences also can be discerned between continents and oceans at the same latitude. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Reorganizing three of the nation's environmental data centers -- NOAA recently merged three of its former data centers (the National Climatic Data Center, the National Geophysical Data Center, and the National Oceanographic Data Center) into a reorganized National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). This new organization will be responsible for archiving and providing access to comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric and geophysical data. [NOAA National Climatic Data Center News]
Monthly atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration reach benchmark level -- According to scientists with NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, the monthly global average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in recorded history during the month of March 2015. This recent level is more than 120 ppm higher than in pre-industrial times and is estimated to be the highest level of carbon dioxide in at least 800,000 years. [NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research News]
Upcoming airborne science mission designed to measure the missing part of the "average" atmosphere -- Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and their colleagues are preparing for an airborne campaign called the Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) that would measure the chemical composition of the Earth's troposphere and lower stratosphere under "average" conditions during all four seasons using a variety of instruments mounted on research aircraft. Measurements of the atmospheric composition in vertical cross-sections will be conducted along flight paths out over both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This (ATom) mission, which is expected to start in 2016, is intended provide insights designed to validate satellite measurements and improve climate-change computer models. [NASA Global Climate Change News]
Ocean fronts found to improve fishery production -- In research conducted at the University of Georgia, ocean fronts have been found to help increase the total marine ecosystem biomass and fishery production and help cycle carbon and nitrogen compounds in the ocean. Like fronts in the atmosphere, ocean fronts separate different types of ocean masses that are warm and cool or salty and less salty. They also represent convergence zones. [University of Georgia Today]
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.

Historical Events:

11 May 1833...The ship Lady of the Lake struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic while bound from England to Quebec, resulting in the loss of 215 lives. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
11-12 May 1965...The first of two cyclones that struck East Pakistan (now called Bangladesh) during the year made landfall. This system, along with the one on 1-2 June, killed about 47,000 people.
12 May 1916...Plumb Point, Jamaica reported 17.80 inches of rain in 15 minutes, which set a world record. (The Weather Doctor)
12 May 1978...The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.
14 May 1836...U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, the first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific. (Naval Historical Center)
15 May 1934...Lightship No. 117, occupying the Nantucket Shoals Station, in a dense fog, was struck by the RMS Olympic and sank on station with the loss of seven crew members. (USCG Historian's Office)
15-24 May 1951...Hurricane Able did a "loop-the-loop" north of the Bahamas and reached Category 3 strength off Cape Hatteras, NC. (The Weather Doctor)
16 May 1917...Marquette, MI had its latest opening of navigation on Lake Superior in history. (Intellicast)
17-21 May 1887...An early season tropical storm raked Cuba and The Bahamas. (The Weather Doctor)
17 May 1970...The Norwegian ethnologist, Thor Heyerdahl, and a multinational crew set sail on a trans-Atlantic voyage from Morocco on Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after the ancient Egyptian vessels in an effort to prove his theory that Mediterranean sailors reached the Americas in ancient times. After 57 days, the Ra II reached Barbados. (The History Channel)