For further information, please visit the dedicated websitehere,
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Launched 1 September 2016, our new app is the worlds first providing the approved ADMIRALTY paper chart corrections, including tracings, notice and correction blocks, via an electronic tablet.
Developed by mariners for mariners, we reviewed the many other chart correction software on the market and determined most are swamped with features which the average mariner simply doesn't want or need.
Their overcomplicated menu structures and inability to easily find the relevant information mean the person designated maintenance of the chart ouftit can waste much time when all they want to do is download the corrections for the forthcoming passage, apply them and execute the passage plan.
Our app has been designed specificially to make it as easy and intuative as possible for the mariner so they spend more time looking out of the winder when on watch or able to catch up with sleep when off.
The app was deliberately created due to the lack of software compatible for the Mac operating system and therefore this will run on any iOS or Android tablet and should you lose or damage that equipment, simply download the app to another, log in with your main user account and carry on from the last sync which was conducted without having to re-load your outfit manually again.
With a simple user interface, the app will allow the user to among other things:
Build their outfit from the standard UKHO catalogue of folios and store them in the same folio structure or a completely customable format specific to that vessel.
As another industry first, log in duplicate charts, useful when two or more of the same are held on board or perfect for training schools and academies with multiple copies of the same.
Having entered your outfit, quickly set the latest Notice to Mariner and apply it to one, all or as many of the charts as necessary.
Determine which corrections to download to save time and communication costs.
Generate additional users on board to maintain full accountability of the chart correction trail.
View or print audit compliant reports detailing the full status of the outfit, corrections, T's & P's and other relevant information.
Ideal for management companies too
As an additional advantage, we've developed the app with the added convenience which allows management companies to log in remotedly via the website to the outfit of each of their vessels to determine its status.
This useful feature not only allows the superintendent to keep an eye on the chart status but also prepare for any forthcoming audit.
Furthermore, if charts are kept in storage at the management company where a correcting service is in place, the corrector can similarly log into the vessel outfit and 'apply' the corrections as the charts are returned on board which again saves time for the bridge team.
Rear Admiral Paul F. Thomas, Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy, United States Coast Guard | Written Testimony
Rear Admiral Shephard Smith, Director, Office of Coast Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Written Testimony
Mr. Edward E. Belk, Jr. P.E., Chief, Operations and Regulatory Division, United States Army Corps of Engineers | Written Testimony
The Subcommittees on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and Water Resources and Environment hold a joint hearing yesterday, in 2167 Rayburn House Office Building to examine federal maritime navigation programs.
The Subcommittees will hear from the United States Coast Guard, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
A safe, secure, and efficient marine transportation system is critical to the U.S. economy.
Waterborne cargo and associated commercial activities sustain 13 million jobs and contribute more than $649 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product annually.
A major challenge facing the Nation is to improve the economic efficiency and competitiveness of the U.S. maritime sector, while reducing risks to life, property, and the coastal environment.
Rapid innovation in satellite and advanced telecommunication-based navigation technologies presents new opportunities to improve the safety, security, and efficiency of the marine transportation system and reduce risks to the coastal and maritime environments.
Operational integration electronic navigation (e-navigation) technologies also pose challenges for federal and other governmental agencies, and for private commercial vessel operators and recreational boaters.
The Committee explored these issues and hear from the leaders charged with adapting these new and emerging technologies to current maritime navigation programs.
In order to measure and understand the planet's oceans, NOAA is constantly monitoring daily measurements of dozens of ocean variables, providing assessments of ocean health, and modeling the future of ocean dynamics. This animation shows four years of sea surface temperature (SST) data from a NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's Earth-system model.
You can see several amazing features in this visualization, from the cycling of El Niño to La Niña, streaks of cooler water created by tropical cyclones, seasonal shifts in temperature, and even ocean currents and eddies--reinforcing the idea that there may be several ocean basins, but only one connected ocean. Not only does the NOAA Satellite and Information Service house and distribute data such as these Earth-system models, but it also provides carefully analyzed, long-term climate data records based on satellite derived information that help validate the accuracy of such models.
IUCN report warns that ‘truly staggering’ rate of warming is changing
the behaviour of marine species, reducing fishing zones and spreading
disease
The soaring temperature of the oceans is the “greatest hidden
challenge of our generation” that is altering the make-up of marine
species, shrinking fishing areas and starting to spread disease to
humans, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of ocean
warming.
The oceans have already sucked up an enormous amount of heat due to
escalating greenhouse gas emissions, affecting marine species from
microbes to whales, according to an International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) report involving the work of 80 scientists from a dozen countries.
A series of animations produced by the Ocean and Sea Ice SAF showing sea surface temperature (SST) as seen from Europe’s Metop and Meteosat satellites and Suomi-NPP.
The profound changes underway in the oceans are starting to impact
people, the report states.
“Due to a domino effect, key human sectors
are at threat, especially fisheries, aquaculture, coastal risk
management, health and coastal tourism.”
Dan Laffoley, IUCN marine adviser and one of the report’s lead
authors, said: “What we are seeing now is running well ahead of what we
can cope with.
The overall outlook is pretty gloomy.
“We perhaps haven’t realised the gross effect we are having on the
oceans, we don’t appreciate what they do for us.
We are locking
ourselves into a future where a lot of the poorer people in the world
will miss out.”
The scale of warming in the ocean, which covers around 70% of the
planet, is “truly staggering”, the report states.
The upper few metres
of ocean have warmed by around 0.13C a decade since the start of the
20th century, with a 1-4C increase in global ocean warming by the end of
this century.
Global sea surface temperatures are currently at their highest level since records began
Annual global sea surface temperature anomalies in degrees celsius
Guardian graphic | Source: National Climate Data Center - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Base period 1951-1980
The ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the extra heat created by human
activity.
If the same amount of heat that has been buried in the upper
2km of the ocean had gone into the atmosphere, the surface of the Earth
would have warmed by a devastating 36C, rather than 1C, over the past
century.
At some point, the report says, warming waters could unlock billions
of tonnes of frozen methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from the seabed
and cook the surface of the planet.
This could occur even if emissions
are drastically cut, due to the lag time between emitting greenhouse
gases and their visible consequences.
Warming is already causing fish, seabirds, sea turtles, jellyfish and
other species to change their behaviour and habitat, it says.
Species
are fleeing to the cooler poles, away from the equator, at a rate that
is up to five times faster than the shifts seen by species on land.
Even in the north Atlantic, fish will move northwards by nearly 30km
per decade until 2050 in search of suitable temperatures, with shifts
already documented for pilchard, anchovy, mackerel and herring.
The warming is having its greatest impact upon the building blocks of
life in the seas, such as phytoplankton, zooplankton and krill.
Changes
in abundance and reproduction are, in turn, feeding their way up the
food chain, with some fish pushed out of their preferred range and
others diminished by invasive arrivals.
With more than 550 types of marine fishes and invertebrates already
considered threatened, ocean warming will exacerbate the declines of
some species, the report also found.
The movement of fish will create winners and losers among the 4.3
billion people in the world who rely heavily upon fish for sustenance.
In south-east Asia, harvests from fisheries could drop by nearly a third
by 2050 if emissions are not severely curtailed.
Global production from
capture fisheries has already levelled off at 90m tonnes a year, mainly
due to overfishing, at a time when millions more tonnes will need to be
caught to feed a human population expected to grow to 9 billion by
2050.
Humans are also set to suffer from the spread of disease as the ocean
continues to heat up.
The IUCN report found there is growing evidence
of vibrio bacterial disease, which can cause cholera, and harmful algal
bloom species that can cause food poisoning.
People are also being
affected by more severe, if not more numerous, hurricanes due to the
extra energy in the ocean and atmosphere.
Coral reefs, which support around a quarter of all marine species,
are suffering from episodes of bleaching that have increased three-fold
over the past 30 years.
This bleaching occurs when prolonged high
temperatures cause coral to expel its symbiotic algae, causing it to
whiten and ultimately die, such as the mass mortality that has gripped the Great Barrier Reef.
Earth temperature timeline
(click to magnify)
Ocean acidification, where rising carbon dioxide absorption increases
the acidity of the water, is making it harder for animals such as
crabs, shrimps and clams to form their calcium carbonate shells.
The IUCN report recommends expanding protected areas of the ocean
and, above all, reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases pumped into the
atmosphere.
“The only way to preserve the rich diversity of marine life, and to
safeguard the protection and resources the ocean provides us with, is to
cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and substantially,” said Inger
Andersen, director general of the IUCN.
In efforts to track the effects of climate change, researchers have launched a collaborative effort to create satellite-based elevation maps of the entire Arctic by 2017. The first series of maps reveals the terrain of Alaska in unprecedented detail. Wolverine Glacier, pictured, is a valley glacier in the mountains of south-central Alaska's Kenai Peninsula
The maps were produced as a result of an Executive Order from President Obama last year
The project aimed to create high-resolution, satellite based maps of Alaska by 2016 and the Arctic by 2017
The models were created using 2-meter resolution images from Digital Globe commercial satellites
As climate change poses an ongoing threat to the global ecosystem, few areas are being affected as rapidly or severely as the Arctic - which is is warming at double the rate of the global average temperature.
In efforts to track these changes and mitigate the risks they present, a White House-backed project plans to create satellite-based elevation maps of the entire Arctic by 2017.
Today, the first maps showing Alaska's terrain were released.
The project is the result of an Executive Order made by President Obama last year, and now, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Science Foundation have completed a major step toward this goal, revealing a stunning new series of 3D maps plotting Alaska’s terrain.
The Arctic Digital Elevation Models (Arctic DEMs) are all publicly available through an online portal, according to the White House’s official blog.
Visualizations of this kind can help to track sea level changes and monitor coastal erosion to help develop effective strategies as climate change worsens the effects of storms.
As Arctic warms and ice subsequently shrinks, open water will gain more area, putting coastal communities at risk.
The models were created using 2-meter resolution images from Digital Globe commercial satellites, providing an unprecedented glimpse at inhospitable and remote areas of the Arctic.
The new maps revealed by the White House show numerous locations across Alaska, including Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport, Wolverine Glacier, Anchorage, and Mount Aniakchak.
While the project is led by the NGA and NSF, many other organizations are involved as well, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the state of Alaska, Ohio State University, University of Illinois, Cornell University, the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota, and ESRI.
The map above focuses on Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport.
The image highlights the rugged relief surrounding the three runways of the airport and clearly depicts vegetation, buildings, coastal features and the drainage network of the area.
Blue indicates low elevations while green shows medium to higher elevations, with red revealing peaks
This map shows Mount Aniakchak, a volcanic caldera located in the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve in the Aleutian Range of Alaska. Aniakchak is one of the wildest and least visited places in the National Park System
President Obama's trip to the Arctic
In January 2015, Obama issued the Executive Order on Enhancing Coordination of National Efforts in the Arctic.
The resulting project pledged to create the ‘first-ever, publicly available, high-resolution, satellite-based, elevation maps of Alaska’ by 2016 and the entire Arctic by 2017, according to the White House’s official blog.
Months later, he became the first sitting US president to visit the Alaskan Arctic.
‘If another country threatened to wipe out an American town, we’d do everything in our power to protect it,’ President Obama said during his visit to the town of Kotzebue.
‘Well, climate change poses the same threat right now. And that’s why I care so deeply about this.’
The project is the result of an Executive Order made by President Obama last year, and now, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Science Foundation have completed a major step toward this goal, revealing a stunning new series of 3D maps plotting Alaska’s terrain. Obama is pictured above during his visit to Alaska
‘For the United States, the Arctic is simultaneously a strategic challenge and a human challenge,’ said Dr. Fabien Laurier, Senior Policy Advisory, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
‘These maps will allow all of our Arctic stakeholders, ranging from Native and Tribal, state and local, the Federal family, our international partners and the business community, to develop the best responses to the changing Arctic.’
The researchers say these types of maps can be produced regularly for weekly, monthly, or annual updates on the changing terrain, thanks to satellite capabilities.
The maps show the city of Kotzebue, which President Obama visited a year ago.
Kotzebue is located in the Northwest Arctic Borough right above the Arctic Circle Kozebue Harbor the the GeoGarage (NOAA chart)
The Seward Peninsula is pictured.
‘If another country threatened to
wipe out an American town, we’d do everything in our power to protect
it,’ President Obama said during his visit to the town of Kotzebue.
‘Well, climate change poses the same threat right now. And that’s why I
care so deeply about this’
‘This technology and resulting contributions are game changers for the Arctic region,’ said Robert Cardillo, Director, NGA.
‘Traditionally, our capabilities for imagery collection were limited to the availability and frequency of low flying aircraft.
‘With this renewed effort involving the US government, universities, and the commercial imagery and scientific communities, the possibilities for understanding this part of the world are practically limitless.’
The map above illustrates Anchorage Alaska based on new elevation
data.
The researchers say these types of maps can be produced regularly
for weekly, monthly, or annual updates on the changing terrain, thanks
to satellite capabilities
Station Orbits Over Three Hurricanes:This time-lapse video taken from the space station on Aug. 30 shows
Hurricanes Lester and Madeline in the Pacific Ocean, then Gaston in the
Atlantic Ocean.
Giant storms that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines have grown 50% stronger in the past 40 years due to warming seas
The destructive power of the typhoons that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines has intensified by 50% in the past 40 years due to warming seas, a new study has found.
The researchers warn that global warming will lead the giant storms to become even stronger in the future, threatening the large and growing coastal populations of those nations. “It is a very, very substantial increase,” said Prof Wei Mei, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who led the new work.
“We believe the results are very important for east Asian countries because of the huge populations in these areas. People should be aware of the increase in typhoon intensity because when they make landfall these can cause much more damage.”
Typhoons can have devastating impacts in east Asia.
In 2013, typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, killing at least 6,300 people and affecting 11 million. Typhoon Nina struck China in 1975, dumping 100cm of rain in a day and leading to 229,000 deaths and 6m destroyed buildings.
Last week typhoon Lionrock left 11 people dead in northern Japan and caused power blackouts and property damage, while in July typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwanand China, killing at least nine people and leaving a trail of destruction.
In the new research, published in Nature Geoscience, the scientists took data collected independently by centres in Japan and Hawaii and, after accounting for differences in the way it had been collected, showed that typhoons in the north-west Pacific had intensified by 12–15% on average since 1977.
The proportion of the most violent storms - categories 4 and 5 - doubled and even tripled in some regions over that time and the intensification was most marked for those storms which hit land.
On 7 July 2015, satellite images showed the Pacific Ocean with two
typhoons, one tropical storm, one formation alert and one large area of
increased convection.
Photograph: JMA MTSAT-2/NOAA
The intensity of a typhoon is measured by the maximum sustained wind speed, but the damage caused by its high winds, storm surges, intense rains and floods increases disproportionately, meaning a 15% rise in intensity leads to a 50% rise in destructive power.
The researchers showed that the intensification of typhoons making landfall occurred because warmer coastal seas provided more energy to growing storms, enabling their wind speeds to increase more rapidly.
Scientists are not yet able to determine whether manmade climate change or natural cycles are to blame for the warming seas in the region because 40 years is a relatively short time span for such phenomena.
But Wei is clear that the future global warming, as projected by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, would heat the oceans in the region and lead to even more intense typhoons. Mei said: “We want to give the message that typhoon intensity has increased and will increase in the future because of the warming climate.”
He said action was needed to both prepare for future typhoons and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to curb warming: “Understanding intensity change is very important for disaster preparation.”
Prof Kerry Emanuel, an expert on tropical cyclones at MIT and not involved in the new research said: “The results leave little doubt that there are more high intensity events affecting south-east Asia and China, and these are also intensifying more rapidly.” “This is significant for these nations because what matters, in the end, is landfall size and intensity,” he said.
“Stronger storms cause higher storm surges, which often cause the most destruction and loss of life.”
Previous work by Emanuel showed tropical cyclones are likely to become more frequent and stronger if climate change is not curbed.
