Mapping the deep ocean: Geoscience Australia and the search for MH370

A short film describing the processes of bathymetric mapping and side scan sonar, used to gather data within the search area for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

About this video: Geoscience Australia has been applying specialist marine geoscience knowledge and capability to assist in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
With existing experience and capabilities supporting management of Australia’s vast marine jurisdiction, Geoscience Australia is providing ongoing expert advice to the international search team, led by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Specialist advice regarding bathymetry, the study and mapping of sea floor topography, has proved critical in understanding the environment in which the search is operating.
This video describes the key processes of bathymetric mapping and side scan sonar, which are used to gather data within the search area for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

  Sonar images could reveal MH370 in Indian Ocean

source DailyMail

Links : 

• CNN : Mapping MH370: Takeoff, disappearance, searches ... and debris found
  

New colors in the French charts from SHOM

Example of detailed chart updated for SEM-REV project
with new land color

Since the beginning of 2015, the geoTIFF raster files which are the base material provided by SHOM and processed in the GeoGarage platform have a new color for land areas (new color previously used for the harbor drawings in the Nautical instructions) :

Note : in 2014, the printed L paper maps already displayed this color; but the flat paper maps adopt the same color at the beginning of 2015.

For memory, some old views of the SHOM layer in ancient versions :

GeoGarage with ancient color (flesh-colored) SHOM maps

The official viewer on the data.shom.fr still displays the ancient color (flesh-colored)

indicating that SHOM didn't update the displayed charts

Speechless - The polar realm

Speechless - The Polar Realm from Richard Sidey

A transcendent cinematic experience.'

Filmed over ten years throughout the Earth’s polar regions (filmed over 10-years in Antarctica, South Georgia, Falklands, New Zealand subantarctic, Svalbard, Greenland, Franz Josef Land, Canada and Iceland) by nature photographer Richard Sidey, Speechless – The Polar Realm is an award-winning non-verbal visual meditation of light, life, loss and wonder at the ends of the globe.

In search of an individual viewing experience aided by the absence of spoken narrative, this cinematic voyages is guided through both powerful imagery of the natural world and a poignant, original score from composer and sound artist, Miriama Young.

Rogue wave theory to save ships

BBC - Horizon - 2002 - Freak Wave par DocumentaryHD2014

Horizon - Freak Wave pt 1 Horizon examines

how the mariners' mythical wall of water could indeed be a quantum physics reality.

From ANU

Physicists have found an explanation for rogue waves in the ocean and hope their theory will lead to devices to warn ships and save lives.

"A device on the mast of a ship analysing the surface of the sea could perhaps give a minute's warning that a rogue wave is developing," said Professor Nail Akhmediev, leader of the research at the Research School of Physics and Engineering.
"Even seconds could be enough to save lives."

Rogue ocean waves develop apparently out of nowhere over the course of about a minute and grow to as much as 40 metres in height before disappearing as quickly as they appeared.

Ships unlucky enough to be where rogue waves appear can capsize or be seriously damaged, as happened in the Mediterranean Sea to the Cypriot ship Louis Majesty, which was struck by a rogue wave in 2010 that left two passengers dead and fourteen injured.

The research by Professor Akhmediev and the team at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering, Dr Adrian Ankiewich and PhD student Amdad Chowdury, is published in Proceedings of Royal Society A.

Professor Akhmediev said that there are about 10 rogue waves in the world's oceans at any moment.
"Data from buoys and satellites around the world is already being collected and analysed. Combined with observations of the surrounding ocean from the ship this would give enough information to predict rogue waves," said Professor Akhmediev.

 The physics team has been using mathematical models to predict rogue waves and where they will appear.

The theory may also explain freak waves that wash away people from beaches, as the rogue waves can sometimes transform into travelling waves known as solitons, that travel through the ocean like mini-tsunamis until they hit the coastline.

Professor Akhmediev's theory also applies to other chaotic phenomena such as light travelling in optical fibres, atoms trapped in a Bose-Einstein condensate and the ionosphere in the upper atmosphere.

The rogue wave is a special solution of the non-linear Schrodinger equation which is localised in time and space.
The solutions were derived by adding terms to cover dispersion to the non-linear Schrodinger equation, forming the Hirota equations.

Professor Akhmediev said that he next plans to add more terms to account for the influence of the wind on waves.

Links :

• YouTube : Mysterious 100+ Foot Rogue Waves Capable of Sinking Any Size Ship / When Nature Strikes Back - Episode #105: Freak Waves

Hohonu Moana: Exploring the deep waters Off Hawai’i in Live

Live streaming video from the ocean floor

From NOAA

From July 10 to September 30, 2015, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will explore largely unknown deep-sea ecosystems in the Hawaiian Archipelago and offshore Johnston Atoll as part of the Hohonu Moana: Exploring the Deep Waters off Hawai’i expedition.

 The project area to be explored: Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the Johnston Atoll Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, created from a synthesis of existing multibeam mapping data by Dr. John R. Smith of the University of Hawaii

During four separate cruise legs, NOAA and partners will investigate deep waters in and around Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM), the Geologists Seamounts group, and the Main Hawaiian Islands.

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer uses telepresence technology to transmit data in real-time to a shore-based hub where the video is then transmitted to a number of Exploration Command Centers located around the country as well as to any Internet-enabled device.

Access to the video combined with a suite of Internet-based collaboration tools allow scientists on shore to join the operation in real-time, and allows the general public to follow the expedition online. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana.