Online maps & data resources related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

A set of resources made available from different organizations that enables users to see the latest maps, web services, and applications devoted to monitoring and tracking the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

• BP response / Map
  
• ESRI proposes several web services containing datasets that are of interest to responders of the Gulf of Mexico BP Oil spill : GeoViewer / ArcGis_online / Gulf Oil Spill Map / Economic Impact
  
• NGA Earth Oil Spill Map
  
• NOAA Office of Response and Restoration : day to day trajectory forecast
• The original environmental sensitivity index (ESI) mapping concept for oil spills was developed to assist spill-response coordinators in evaluating the potential impact of oil along a shoreline and the allocation of resources during and after a spill.
• Marine GeoGarage : specific NOAA raster nautical map RNC11360.kmz (12Mb) with spill projection for Google Earth
• Google crisis answer
• Microsoft Bing Maps
• Louisiana Bucket Brigade : provide data about the impacts of the spill in real time as well as document the story of those that witness it
• Grassroots Mapping a community participatory mapping initiative from the MIT Media Lab to utilize their balloon-based camera system to acquire imagery and map the Gulf oil spill along the Louisiana coast
• How big is the oil spill (Paul Rademacher)
  
• New York Times : map of the oil spill spread
  
• State of Louisiana
• Washington Post TimeSpace
  
• EPA BP Oil Spill : in addition to monitoring air quality, EPA is assessing the coastal waters affected by the spreading oil (kmz file)
  
• NASA Satellite imagery keeping eye on the Gulf Oil Spill
• Envisat & Meris, ESA monitoring changes in oil spill trajectory
• Spot5 image
  
• ZKI maps from German Aerospace Center (DLR) illustrate the extent of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at several times as well as its evolution based on the TerraSAR-X data.
• Weather and currents forecasts : WAVCIS / NOAA Hycom model
• Gulf of Mexico Oil Rigs: 1942-2005
• Ocean Circulation Group : The Deepwater Horizon oil spill trajectory ensemble forecast from different numerical models
• NOAA ERMA (GeoPlatform) : Mapping the response to BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• Map the Spill : mobile app and website built by Trimble
• Nola : 2010 Gulf of Mewico oil spill
• WAVCIS : Wave-current-surge information system for coastal Louisiana
  

-> Directory of other ressources on GISUser.com

Multibeam image of the wreck of a Russian submarine sunk in the Barents sea

On 30 August 2003, the nuclear submarine K-159 sank in a restricted military area in the Arctic circle during stormy weather while being towed to the shipyard in Snezhnogorsk, Murmansk Oblast for scrapping (K-159 was decommissioned in 1987).

K-159 was found and investigated by Russian deep-sea vehicles the same day in the point 69°22.64'N, 33°49.51'E (Barents Sea, 2.4 miles from Kildin Island) at a depth of 248 m.

K-159 performed 9 missions and passed 212,618 miles since June 1963.

The nuclear submarine renamed B-159 on 1989 was under tow to a facility to have its two fully fueled reactors removed. In heavy weather a disastrous sequence of events led to the vessel sinking by the stern.

Three of the 10 skeleton crew escaped but only one survived.

Forensic archaeological analysis, together with the limited contemporary reports available, showed that the submarine sank stern first and stuck 12m into the seabed.

The hull then snapped at the aft end of the internal pressure hull and crashed to the seabed, leaving 8.5m of the outer casing, including the propellors, still buried vertically in the seabed.

It is unlikely that there has been any fishing in the area since the 2nd World War and wildlife is abundant.

At the start of the survey lead by ADUS in 2007, the noise of the multibeam system (Reson 8125) and the ROV thrusters, together with the lights for the videos and cameras, attracted thousands of large atlantic cod.

The multibeam survey had to be stopped at intervals and the ROV dropped onto the seabed. Everything was then turned off to allow time for the fish to disperse before resuming the survey.

Links :

• Wired original article (05/2010)
• other image with fish noise (courtesy of Salvage and Marine Operations, MoD)
• NATO Submarine Rescue Service Intervention ROV used as a platform for the survey of the B 159 (multibeam sonar located in the frame bolted beneath the ROV)
• B-159 in Gremikha Bay of Barents Sea, 28 August 2003, ready for towing to the shipyard for scrapping
• another submarine wreck (German U-735 sunk by R.A.F. in 1944 near Horten, Norway) Olex 3D image rendered from real Simrad EM3000 multibeam soundings fitting 'NUI Explorer' Hugin II AUV
  

DIY sailor launches homemade boat after 30 years

Via: Metro

Zeal to pursue the coveted goal doesn’t faint, no matter how long it takes to achieve it.

Owen Warboys – a man from Hordle, Hampshire proved it when launched his DIY boat that took over three decades building it in his mum’s garden. Christened as "Wight Dolphin", the work on this 40ft long sloop weighing over 18 tonne yacht started in 1982 at his mother Edith’s house. After completion Owen Warboys’ home-made boat has made it to the sea.

"Wight Dolphin" was built by Owen from the scratch with sheets of steel and pieces of wood and the construction was marked with hours and hours of welding and grinding. As the project neared completion, Owen worked virtually every weekend for three years to finish the job. It took Owen a decade to build the hull alone. However, the hard work and patience finally paid and the boat has a galley, bedrooms, showers and toilets and a diesel engine that was brand new when it was fitted – 12 years ago.

The 66-year-old started work on the 12m (40-ft) sloop in his mother’s back garden in 1982. He told her it would take only five years but, after suffering ‘a few problems’, and that was before he had to work out how to get it out of the back garden, his project spiralled into a mammoth project spanning nearly three decades.

When he finished, a year after his mother, Edith, died last year aged 102 (he had to delay selling her house), he was left with the head-scratching task of getting the 18-tonne yacht out of the garden. So Owen Warboys nervously looked on as a crane lifted 40ft in the air with a huge crane over his late mother’s detached house on to a lorry to transport it to a marina on the Solent, where, to Owen’s delight, it floated and didn’t show any signs of leakage when it was tested.
Now he and his long-suffering wife, Anne, 65, plan to go on a cruise in the Mediterranean.
He added: “Once the mast and sails are fitted we’re heading to warmer climes.”

Thirty years are too long a time to hunt only one goal and one would have lost the patience in the middle.
The retired marine engineer from Hordle, near Lymington, Hants, said:
"I am so relieved it’s finished," he said. "There were times when I thought it would never end but I’m the sort of person who likes to finish something once I’ve started."

Benjamin Franklin's quotation : “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Hats off and kudos to Owen’s perseverance!

Links :

• Telegraph UK
• similar story : a 1/8 scale model of the Majesty of the Seas (mini) was built in Morsbach, by François Zanella a retired French mine worker and was launched in 2005 after 11 years of work
  

Scientists uncover deep ocean current near Antarctica

Antarctic route highlights new ocean-climate links :

The Southern Ocean provides a critical link in the overturning ocean circulation that controls global climate

(courtesy of Reuters, originally editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Scientists have discovered a fast-moving deep ocean current with the volume of 40 Amazon Rivers near Antarctica that will help researchers monitor the impacts of climate change on the world's oceans.

A team of Australian and Japanese scientists, in a study published in Sunday's issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, found that the current is a key part of a global ocean circulation pattern that helps control the planet's climate.

Scientists had previously detected evidence of the current but had no data on it.

"We didn't know if it was a significant part of the circulation or not and this shows clearly that it is," one of the authors, Steve Rintoul (CSIRO, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), told Reuters.

Rintoul, of the ACE-CRC (Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center) in Hobart, said it proved to be the fastest deep ocean current yet found, with an average speed of 20 cm (7.9 inches) a second. It was also found to carry more than 12 million cubic meters a second of very cold, salty water from Antarctica.

"At these depths, below three kilometers (two miles) from the surface, these are the strongest recorded speeds we've seen so far, which was really a surprise to us."

He said the current carries dense, oxygen-rich water that sinks near Antarctica to the deep ocean basins further north around the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean and then branches out.

Global conveyor belt :

The current forms part of a much larger network that spans the world's oceans, acting like a giant conveyor belt to distribute heat around the globe.

Oceans are also a major store of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is emitted naturally and by mankind, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

For example, the Gulf Stream brings warm water to the North Atlantic, giving northern Europe a relatively mild climate. Failure of the current, which has occurred in the past, would plunge parts of Europe into a deep freeze, scientists say.

"The deep current along the Kerguelen Plateau is part of a global system of ocean currents called the overturning circulation, which determines how much heat and carbon the ocean can soak up," Rintoul said.

A key part of the circulation is the creation of large volumes of the very cold, salty water in several areas along coastal Antarctica that then sinks to the bottom and flows to other ocean basins.

The team deployed measuring devices anchored to the sea floor at depths of up to 4.5 km (3 miles) and recorded current speed, temperature and salinity for a two-year period. "The continuous measurements provided by the moorings allow us, for the first time, to determine how much water the deep current carries to the north," Rintoul said.

He said a key issue for predicting climate was whether the overturning circulation was going to stay at its present strength or whether it was sensitive to changes as climate changes. That meant further improving measurements of the speed and volume of the cold, salty water that is created around Antarctica.

Links :

• Huge ocean current found circling Antarctica (The Australian)
• Southern ocean seals dive deep for climate data (ScienceDaily)

WAAS geo satellite going down

Real-time WAAS satellite status / video

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that one of the two WAAS GEO satellites will drift out of usable orbit within two to four weeks.

Earlier on April 8th, Intelsat announced it had lost control of its Galaxy 15 satellite that hosts the WAAS SBAS transponder used by the FAA.

The FAA says it is monitoring the satellite, but that failure is imminent (by mid-May 2010).
When G-15 is out of usuable orbit, WAAS will be disrupted for users in northwest Alaska.
The rest of the WAAS service area — U.S., Canada, Mexico — will operate normally but will be reduced to a single point of failure with only one WAAS broadcasting Anik F1R satellite remaining (PRN #138/NMEA#51).

So it seems recommending that all users should be locked onto PRN 138.
For those users that have GPS receivers with the ability to track either one of the above PRNs, it would be best to remove PRN#135 (NMEA#48) as an option.
For the short term, 138 will be the only option. Longer term, there will have other options (PRN#133 today in test mode until the end of the year).
Note : there are two numerical designations for each WAAS satellite. PRN numbers identify the code transmitted by the satellite while the NMEA SV ID designation which is a proprietary format is simply the PRN minus 87. Garmin for example uses the NMEA number.

The impending failure of this satellite—which only affects WAAS signals—comes at a time when there are questions about the regular GPS constellation. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has said that many of the older satellites currently in use could reach the end of their operational life faster than they can be replenished, resulting in a drop below the number of satellites needed to meet some GPS users’ needs, as early as this year.

For more information, see the FAA’s “WAAS Intelsat GEO Outage Impacts” presentation.
AVweb raised the issue of satellite redundancy with AOPA President Craig Fuller (podcast)

Links :

• Garmin : what is WAAS ?
• GPS Information.net FAQ
  
• FAA Satellite Based Augmentation System (WAAS) / FAQ
  
• FAA Navigation Services, WAAS news
• GPSWorld Failure imminent WAAS geo satellite (updated news)