Admiralty e-Nautical publications - NMs in seconds

e-Nautical Publications (e-NPs) are electronic versions of official ADMIRALTY Nautical publications.

Easy to use and update, they bring improved efficiency, accuracy and access to information bridge crews need. 

Find out how easy it is to add NMs with e-NPs by watching the above short video

 From UKHO

e-Nautical Publications (e-NPs) are electronic versions of official ADMIRALTY Nautical publications.

Easy to use and update, they bring improved efficiency, accuracy and access to information bridge crews need.

Offering:

• Weekly Notices to Mariners added accurately in seconds to ensure ongoing safety and compliance.
• Simple search functionality for easier access to information the mariner needs.
• Approved for use by the Flag States of over three quarters of ships trading internationally, with clear display of NM updates to aid inspections.
  86 official ADMIRALTY Nautical Publications available in an electronic format. The range includes Sailing Directions, the Mariner’s Handbook and many more.

Why e-Nautical Publications

e-NPs are designed to meet SOLAS carriage requirements, contain the same information as their paper equivalents and are approved for use by the Flag States of over three quarters of ships trading internationally.

Unlike their paper counterparts, each e-NP allows bridge officers to take advantage of accurate electronic updating and quick information access through simple search functionality.

Additionally, the new e-Reader snapshot function allows crews to view, save and print e-NP pages and any applicable NMs and addendums, which can be used to support passage planning.

Fast and accurate NM updates

e-NPs are updatable, electronic versions of official ADMIRALTY Nautical Publications such as Sailing Directions and the Nautical Almanac.

This means that bridge crews can download and apply electronic weekly Notices to Mariners (NMs) updates to publications in just a few seconds every week, freeing their time to focus on other important duties.

This functionality can also help to improve the accuracy of passage plans; giving decision makers more confidence on the bridge.

Easier access to important information

Simple search functionality gives users quick access to important planning information.

The e-Reader snapshot functionality also helps bridge crews to view, save and print e-NP pages and any applicable NMs and addendums, which can be used to support passage planning.​

Carriage compliance
e-NPs are designed to meet SOLAS carriage requirements, contain the same official information as their paper equivalents, and have been approved by the Flag States of over three quarters of ships trading internationally.
e-NPs can also aid inspections by clearly showing when a publication was last updated with weekly NMs.​

A growing list of e-Nautical Publications

86 of the world's leading Nautical Publications will be available in an e-NP format in February 2015. 

They include:

Mariners Handbook (NP100) Ocean passages for the world (NP136)* Symbols and abbreviations used on ADMIRALTY charts (NP5011)* ILALA Maritime Buoyage System (NP735)* Annual summary ADMIRALTY Notices to Mariners* Cumulative list of ADMIRALTY Notices to Mariners*

Sailing Directions Nautical Almanac (NP314) Guide to the practical use of ENCs (NP231)* Guide to ENC symbols used in ECDIS (NP5012)* Guide to ECDIS Implementation, Policy and Procedures (NP232)* How to keep your ADMIRALTY products up-to-date (NP294)*

(*available from February)

These Terabit satellites will bring Internet to the remotest places on Earth

ViaSat offers today's fastest service over land and water for business jets and VIP aircraft.

Today’s service delivers an unmatched internet experience to hundreds of aircraft and our Ka-band service available to commercial airline passengers since 2013 and for business aviation in 2015, is winning awards.

ViaSat keeps everyone on board productive and entertained like no one else.

From FastCompany by Michael Grothaus

The three new ViaSat-3s will deliver twice the combined network capacity of all the connected satellites in space.

The U.S.-based satellite company ViaSat has announced that it has teamed up with aerospace giant Boeing to create three new satellites that will bring high-speed Internet to the remotest parts of the world.

ViaSat said it would be spending about $1.4 billion over five years to provide inexpensive bandwidth to terrestrial consumers, business and commercial aviation passengers and government mobile platforms.
Also in its cross-hairs, ViaSat said, are maritime and offshore-energy markets, which are now paying far too much for their broadband connectivity.

The three ViaSat-3 satellite will join the already 400 other connected satellites in space.
However, the ViaSat-3s will deliver twice the network capacity of the other 400—combined.
The satellites will be capable of 1 terabit speeds each (that’s 1,000 gigabits per second).
That amount of bandwidth will be able to provide fast enough Internet to reliably deliver bandwidth-hogging 4k video to isolated areas—and in the sky.

These three new satellites, named ViaSat3, will be carrying a total network capacity of a whopping 1 Terabit per second of internet bandwidth to remote regions , triple the capacity of ViaSat2.

The satellites will offer residential service to users of up to 100 megabits or more per second in areas that are so rural or remote they don’t have the infrastructure to support hardwired Internet services.
The company says this will enable billions of more people who don’t have access to the web today to get online.
The ViaSat-3 satellites will also deliver in-flight Internet access operating at hundreds of megabits per second to commercial airlines, business jets, and high-value government aircraft.
Additionally the new satellites will deliver the Internet, operating at speeds up to 1 gigabits per second, to maritime operations, including freighter ships, and oil and gas platforms.

"The innovations in the ViaSat-3 system do what until now has been impossible in the telecommunications industry—combining enormous network capacity with global coverage, and dynamic flexibility to allocate resources according to geographic demand," Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat, said in a statement.
"While there are multiple companies and consortia with ambitions to connect the world with telecom, satellite and space technologies, the key technologies underlying ViaSat-3 are in hand today, enabling us to move forward in building the first broadband platform to bring high-speed Internet connectivity, including video streaming, to all."

ViaSat isn’t alone in the race to supply high speed Internet from above.
Companies from Google to Facebook have looked into satellite Internet technology, but have both abandoned the plans in favor of other methods.
SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are in various stages of development and deployment when it comes to satellite Internet services.
And ViaSat itself already has one satellite in the sky capable of delivering 100Mbps Internet to users in the U.S.
It will also launch a ViaSat-2 satellite, capable of delivering speeds up up to 300Mbps, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the next few months.

As for the ViaSat-3 satellites, the first two will be completed and delivered into space via Boeing Satellite Systems in 2019 and provide service for users in the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
The third satellite will go up sometime after 2019 and provide service to users in Asia.

Links :

• SpaceNews : ViaSat details $1.4-billion global Ka-band satellite broadband strategy to oust incumbent players
• Engadget : Terabit satellites to supercharge remote internet access
• Marine Elect. & Com : Modem software is holding back Ka-band commercial roll-out 
• The Verge : New 1-Terabit internet satellites will deliver high-speed internet to remote areas
• YouTube : Iridium NEXT - A Powerful Vision Comes to Life / Iridium NEXT: Delivering Uncompromising Connectivity
• The Guardian : Project Skybender: Google's secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed  / Alphabet and Facebook develop rival secret drone plans
• GeoGarage blog : Inmarsat's maritime vision / Drone ships move closer to reality as Inmarsat gets on board / Inmarsat brings satellite communications to small vessels / The Internet of everything sets sail / S@iLink, stay connected at sea ! 
• Boats.com : Internet on Boats: Stay connected while getting away 

Big surf in Nazare : a closer look

BIG MONDAY - A CLOSER LOOK from POLVO32

 
A giant swell hits the Portuguese coast, causing indescribable waves due to their strength and size!
Surfers as Garrett McNamara, Andrew Cotton, Hugo Vau, Eric Rebiere, Carlos Burle, Maya Gabeira, Pedro Scooby, Felipe Cesarano, Nitzan Benhaim, Sylvio Mancusi went into the sea of Nazareth willing to write a new chapter in the history of surfing.

From the near drowning of Maya up to the largest possible wave surfed records favored by all surfers who risked surfing a wave on this day!
Nazareth once again shows the world its size and power ...
A Closer Look is an introspetiva and clear vision, which seeks to show in a neat way the waves of Nazaré and their sound...

Big Surf in Nazaré - 23 December 2015 from BalealSurfCamp-Peniche, Portugal

Nazaré is the world’s stage for the biggest waves ever ridden, most of the memorable rides so far were all during big days with favourable or at least sufficient conditions for surfers and safety teams to ride and operate... when conditions go beyond that point, we call it Black Naza.
During the session of February 9th, 2016, things were far from ideal in Praia do Norte, big storm, the swell was big with high period, but the wind was too strong and onshore, most of the waves were too bumpy, the big ones were closing out, the inside looked like nothing less than a war zone.
Despite those conditions, Australian hardcore surfers Mick Corbett and Jarryd Foster decided to have a go anyway and test the waters, this guys have made a name charging “The Right” in Western Australia, one of the most dangerous slabs on the Planet, and it’s such a thrill to watch them here testing the limits even in days like this, literally on an unridable naza. 

 From IHPT, Instituto Hidrografico de la Marinha de Portugal :

a scientific perspective of the Nazaré wave

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Big wave surfing Nazaré Portugal / Searching for monsters : Nazaré - Big Sunday / Surfer rides 90 foot wave (World Record) / Surf spots roar back to life as strong Atlantic swell hits Western Europe : big surf reality check
• Nazaré wave

Valentine's day : earth imagery, map and nature shaped hearts

 Heart cloud.
The first day of Hurricane Season 2011 brings a fast moving surface low tracking west-southwestward near 20 mph.
This image was taken by GOES-East at 1315Z on June 1, 2011.

 Bonne projection
World map by Bernard Sylvanus, 1511

Werner projection
 Heart shaped map projections are known as cordiform map projections.. 
(other Bottomley projection)

Heart wave

Links :

• The Telegraph : Valentines Day hearts in Nature
• Google Earth blog : Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Google Earth
• GeoGarage blog : Image of the week : Galešnak heart-shaped island

M.V. Barzan time-lapse

This is the story of the world’s greenest ultra-large container vessel M.V. Barzan.