VOR at reaching

Bringing the colour: Cammas stand out as French crew led on way to Auckland

Credit: Yann Riou/Groupama Sailing Team/Volvo Ocean Race

Live at the extreme in the Volvo Ocean Race
(other video)

The last reef 3D : cities beneath the sea

The production team used underwater 3D technology to film the vibrant life that is part of the ecosystems of the world’s coral reefs, from giant clams, brilliant anemones, and darting jellyfish, to dolphins and sharks.

From the Academy-Award nominated creators of the Broadway show STOMP and the award-winning film Wild Ocean, The Last Reef is an uplifting, inspirational large-format and 3D cinema experience capturing one of nature's more vibrant and diverse wonderlands.

Filmed off the Wild Coast of South Africa, WILD OCEAN is a timely documentary that celebrates the animals that now depend on us to survive and the efforts by local people to protect this invaluable ecological resource

Exotic coral reefs, vibrant sea walls in the sub-arctic pulsating with anemones and crustaceans: these biodiversity hot spots are as vital to our lives as the rainforests.

Shot on location in Palau, Vancouver Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, and The Bahamas using groundbreaking 3D cinematography, The Last Reef takes us on a global journey to explore the connection of our cities on land with the ocean's complex, parallel world of the coral reefs beneath the sea.

Humour : under the sea with the startup ecosystem

From Memeburn

Ever wondered how the startup world really works?
Are you dying to know who the key players are in this mystical world?
Do you lie awake at night cursing the sky hoping your anguish will penetrate the darkness and send you some answers?
Well, it’s your lucky day.

The idea of a startup ecosystem is actually quite simple.
There are 13 key players.
Yep, it only takes 13 people to make a startup work.
These fearless men and women venture out into dangerous seas braving the predators while eyeing out their prey.

The team at udemy, a company whose aim is “to disrupt and democratize the world of education by enabling anyone to teach and learn online”, has put together an infographic that better explains the roles of the 13 people it takes to make the startup machine run.
I particularly like that they are all depicted as some sea creature with either razor-sharp teeth or lots of tentacles.
I find the scientific names for each member of the ecosystem rather accurate.
I particularly like, “Tech Blogger”, scientific name: “Technologicalium Knowitallicus”.
“The startup waters are murky and full of hidden dangers. Below the surface, the ecosystem rests in a delicate balance between predators and prey,” says Udemy.

So to help you navigate the stormy seas, take a gander at the infographic below.

Startup Ecosystem: Predators vs. Prey [Infographic]

Prosecutors target cruise ship captain, Costa executives

From Reuters

The captain of the Costa Concordia, the liner which capsized off the coast of Italy last month killing at least 25 people, made a series of errors that were compounded by failures onshore by the ship's operators, according to prosecution documents.

The shipping journal Lloyd's List Intelligence put out a statement that said the route Schettino steered, which ship owner Costa says was a deviation, kept the ship 500 meters from shore, while "the previously approved route took the vessel far closer to shore than the 500 meters claimed by Costa."

Prosecutors accuse captain Francesco Schettino of causing the accident by bringing the giant vessel too close to shore where it struck a rock that tore a large gash in the hull, causing water to flood into the engine rooms.
He is under formal investigation in the case, accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.
On Thursday, prosecutors added two new counts to the charge sheet, accusing Schettino of abandoning incapacitated passengers and failing to inform maritime authorities.
Officials confirmed that tests showed he was not on drugs at the time of the accident.

First officer Ciro Ambrosio and seven other ship's officers and executives of the operator Costa Cruises are also under investigation.
They include the vice president of Costa Cruises, Manfred Ursprunger and Roberto Ferrarini, head of the company's crisis unit, with whom Schettino was in contact during the evacuation.
Pretrial hearings, including an investigation of the ship's "black box" recorders, are due to open on March 3.

The Costa Concordia foundered and capsized meters from the shore off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13. At least 25 people died in the accident and a further seven are unaccounted for.
Eight bodies, including that of a five year-old girl, were found by divers on Wednesday on the submerged deck of the liner, which lies on its side in some 20 meters of water.

Underwater video from Guardia Costiera taken on January 17, 2012 at the "Le Scole" rock showing twisted wreckage on the sea floor, left by the cruise liner Costa Concordia after it ran aground in front of the Isola del Giglio harbor

Schettino is blamed for bringing the ship near to the rocky shore in order to perform a display maneuver known as a "salute," but prosecutors have also pointed to wider failures in the management of the accident.
In documents filed on Wednesday notifying Schettino of the impending investigation, prosecutors say Schettino slowed the ship down while he was having dinner on the night of the accident, then sped up to 16 knots to make up time, despite being in shallow water.


They also say his nautical charts were not appropriate and not detailed enough to reveal obstacles including the rock on which the fatal impact occurred.

The report also points to the large number of people in the bridge area at the time of the accident, including Domnica Cermotan, a friend of Schettino's.
They say this "generated confusion and distraction for the captain."

It says he failed to perform appropriate maneuvers to avoid the collision, did not activate procedures to seal the ship, and did not take charge of the crew during the operation.
He also took too much time to sound the general alarm and order the evacuation of the ship.
The prosecutors also blame Costa's crisis unit of being "culpably unaware of the real situation on board the ship" and of falling to properly verify the information provided to it by Schettino.

The unit limited itself to "bureaucratic aspects...and to the future prospects of repairing the ship," the report said.
As well as the official investigation, Costa and its parent company Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise operator, face a wave of civil suits from the victims' families and from passengers and crewmembers aboard the ship.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Italy cruise ship Costa Concordia aground near Giglio
• NationalPost : What really happened
  

CryoSat breaks the ice with ocean currents

Animation of the intensity of ocean surface currents as predicted by MyOcean’s global ocean model (1/12°) after assimilation of altimetry data.
In addition to major currents such as the Gulf Stream, the turbulence driving the ocean circulation is visible.
The blue-to-white colour scale represents surface currents in metres per second.
Credits: MyOcean/Mercator-Ocean

From ESA

Ocean measurements from ESA’s CryoSat mission are being exploited by the French space agency CNES to provide global ocean observation products in near-real time.
Understanding sea-surface currents is important for marine industries and protecting ocean environments.

As it orbits from pole to pole, CryoSat’s main objective is to measure the thickness of polar sea ice and monitor changes in the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica.
But the satellite also features an innovative radar altimeter that not only detects tiny variations in the height of the ice, but can also measure sea level and the height of the waves.
Starting today , CryoSat ocean measurements are being processed by CNES and distributed to the oceanography community.
These products will be assimilated using models from the MyOcean project in near-real time to enhance sea surface products and to improve the quality of the model forecasts.

“This achievement is the result of the long-standing collaboration and partnership between ESA and CNES,” says Tommaso Parrinello, CryoSat Mission Manager.
“Through a fusion of processors derived from operational altimeters and experimental software developed specifically for CryoSat’s innovative instrument, CNES experts will be able to transform raw ocean data flows from CryoSat into a quasi-operational end-user ocean product of high quality.
“Ocean topography is an important key environmental parameter to understand how ocean circulation responds to climate change.”

Radioactive pollution
With MyOcean’s 3D model forecasts, it is possible to predict the trajectory of particles (red dots) initially positioned near the Fukushima power plant (green square).
Understanding how the radioactive pollution is driven by local ocean turbulence and the Kuroshio Current (background image) is important for identifying critical areas for the fishery industry.
Credits: MyOcean/Mercator-Ocean

Coastal models and applications will also benefit from the additional coverage provided by CryoSat.

Users can obtain these products through the AVISO website or MyOcean data portal.
Within the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, the MyOcean project is responsible for the development of marine monitoring services.
During major crises such as the Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima disasters, MyOcean models exploited remote sensing data – in particular, altimetry data – to help monitor these crises.
Altimetry data is of highest importance to predict the evolution of local marine currents in near-real time.

Oil spill movement prediction
Like sea-surface temperature features in the Gulf of Mexico (background image), the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, here detected by SAR sensors from the Radarsat-2 satellite (black stain), is pumped away by the Loop Current observed with altimetry (black arrows).
With more altimetry data, ocean models can provide a better prediction of such local events. Credits: Univ. Colorado/CNES/AVISO/GOES SST/Radarsat-2

A wide range of operational marine applications and services with social and economic benefits needs sea-surface currents: oil spill or marine debris tracking and prediction, fishery and offshore industry support, including cost and risk reduction, optimised ship routing, iceberg detection and alert for worldwide ship racing.

Sea-surface topography Altimeter data from ESA’s Envisat and CryoSat-2 were merged with CNES/NASA/NOAA/Eumetsat satellites Jason-2 and Jason-1 to produce this map of sea-surface topography on 1 January 2012.
Credits: CNES/AVISO

Since the launch of the first European Remote Sensing satellite in 1991, radar altimetry has been used to observe ocean surface topography and geostrophic currents continuously.
It has become an invaluable asset for the accurate forecast modelling of ocean currents.