NOAA releases 2020 hydrographic survey season plans

From NOAA

NOAA hydrographic survey ships and contractors are preparing for the 2020 hydrographic survey season.
The ships collect bathymetric data (i.e.
map the seafloor) to support nautical charting, modeling, and research, but also collect other environmental data to support a variety of ecosystem sciences.
NOAA considers hydrographic survey requests from stakeholders such as marine pilots, local port authorities, the Coast Guard, and the boating community, and also consider other hydrographic and NOAA science priorities in determining where to survey and when.
Visit our “living” story map to find out more about our mapping projects and if a hydrographic vessel will be in your area this year!

Great Lakes

Chicago, Illinois – This project is located along the southernmost point of Lake Michigan, which includes the Chicago Harbor and portions of the Indiana and Michigan shorelines.
Much of this 371 square nautical mile survey area has not been surveyed since the late 1940s.

Atlantic Coast

Gardiners Bay, New York – Gardiners Bay is home to recreational, tourism, and ferry vessels transiting from Long Island Sound to the north and south sides of Shelter Island.
The bay was last surveyed in the 1930s.

Long Island Sound, New York – This project encompasses a large area of shoreline that is home to almost eight million people, and includes the highly trafficked lower Hudson River and Green River.

Central Chesapeake Bay, Virginia – Survey vintage predates 1950 for the majority of the project area, despite vessels transiting within close proximity to the seafloor.
This survey will close a critical gap in existing modern hydrographic data between the entrance to Chesapeake Bay up through Baltimore, Maryland.

Onslow Bay, North Carolina – This project covers a 362 square nautical mile area seaward of Morehead City and Cape Lookout Shoals.
Data from this project will supersede 1970 vintage chart data, in an area of shifting shoals.

Canaveral, Florida – This project is located approximately six nautical miles southeast of Cape Canaveral.
Much of the 376 square nautical mile survey area has not been surveyed since 1930.
The types of marine vessels visiting Port Canaveral include passenger vessels, cargo ships, tug boats, pleasure crafts, tankers, sailing vessels, fishing vessels, and special crafts.

Gulf of Mexico

Apalachicola, Florida – This project covers an area offshore of Apalachicola Bay and Joseph Bay, Florida.
The survey will provide updated bathymetry and feature data to address concerns of migrating shoals.

Approaches to Houston, Texas – This survey covers approximately 163 square nautical miles of Trinity Bay, Galveston Bay, Houston Ship Channel, and Buffalo Bayou.
Modern high-resolution surveys of these areas are important for navigational safety and as a tool to help planners and researchers model and manage issues as diverse as floodwater movement and oyster reef restoration.

Approaches to Galveston, Texas – This survey covers approximately 610 square nautical miles between the Galveston Bay and Sabine Bank Channels in an area that has not been surveyed since 1963.
This survey will identify changes to the bathymetry since previous mapping efforts.

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary – This project will support NOAA’s Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in their efforts to effectively protect ecologically sensitive and important areas within the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico.
The nine banks to be surveyed in this project have not been surveyed to modern standards.

Alaska

Norton Sound – This survey will improve the safety of maritime traffic and services available to remote coastal communities by reducing the current risk of unknown water depths.
The last hydrographic surveys of this area occurred in the late 1890s.
Tide gauges will also be installed to provide tide data in an area currently underserved with tide observations.

Newenham – This survey will improve the safety of maritime traffic and services available to Bethel and communities around Goodnews Bay by reducing the current navigation risk due to unknown hazards.

Glacier Bay – Frequently visited by cruise ships and tourist vessels, modern surveys will increase maritime safety and address uncharted areas exposed by receding glaciers in this area.

Southeast Alaska – This project will provide modern bathymetric data for Whale Pass, Thomas Bay, and Endicott Arm at Dawes Glacier.
Similar to Glacier Bay, this new data will identify hazards and changes to the seafloor, provide data for nautical charting products, and improve maritime safety.

South Pacific

Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands – A multidisciplinary NOAA team will map the waters around Guam, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, and other islands in the northern part of the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands.
The team will map bathymetry, collect backscatter data, and characterize habitat, while simultaneously performing coral reef assessment dives and collecting other oceanographic observations.

NOAA’s four hydrographic survey ships –Thomas Jefferson, Ferdinand Hassler, Rainier, and Fairweather – are operated and maintained by the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, with hydrographic survey projects managed by the Office of Coast Survey. 

What’s the difference between private weather companies and the National Weather Service?

Many people don’t realize there are private weather companies that consult with businesses of all kinds and sizes every day around critical decisions.

In fact, private weather forecasting is a $7 billion industry, according to a 2017 National Weather Service study, and it’s continuing to grow at a rate of around 10-15% each year.

image Associated Press

From Forbes by Jim Foerster

Many people don’t realize there are private weather companies that consult with businesses of all ...

Weather plays a significant role in business.
It impacts the U.S.
gross national product by approximately $1 trillion each year, and weather information is used by over 95% of all companies in the U.S. based on several recent studies.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), weather creates $13 billion of value to businesses each year in the U.S.
Neither the public nor private sector by itself can address the needs of all weather consumers.
The efforts of the NWS and private weather companies go hand in hand to make our industry as successful and productive as it is.

The relationship is a very symbiotic one that continues to evolve and grow.
Many people don’t realize there are private weather companies that consult with businesses of all kinds and sizes every day around critical decisions.
In fact, private weather forecasting is a $7 billion industry, according to a 2017 National Weather Service study, and it’s continuing to grow at a rate of around 10-15% each year.

As with any good partnership, both parties contribute in significant ways, capitalizing on their unique strengths.
The NWS has the funding and long-term vision to make capital investments and develop an infrastructure that produces a wealth of weather information, including surface observations, radar, satellite data, as well as running multiple numerical weather models that predict the future state of the atmosphere.
This information helps the government meet its primary public safety obligation.

It’s not financially practical for a private sector company to produce and collect such massive amounts of weather information because it wouldn’t provide a return on investment.
Thus, these functions have traditionally been executed on a large scale by a government agency.
The NWS makes its data freely available, thus allowing the private sector to use the information for its purposes.
Indeed, this sharing of data provides the backbone of the American weather enterprise.

The NWS has an essential role providing warnings of hazardous weather and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for purposes of protection, safety and general information.
We are all familiar with watches and warnings issued by the NWS for various severe weather events, including large hail, winds more than 55 knots, tornadoes, heavy rain events, tropical storms, and significant snowstorms.

The NWS provides consistent, high-quality forecasts and services for the country as a whole, but in turn does not customize forecasts, watches or warnings to any individual or business.

Commercial weather companies utilize the data made available by the NWS’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) along with data from private networks and other global government agencies to create the value-added services tailored to customer’s needs.
For example, many commercial weather providers statistically combine forecasts from the NOAA GFS model, the European ECMWF model, and their own, higher resolution models to create highly-accurate global forecasts.
Further, most commercial weather providers have a staff of expert meteorologists that curate these combined forecasts to produce the final forecasts that go out to clients and more important than ever, consult with customers around the risk or impact the weather will have on their operations.

Unlike the NWS, a commercial weather provider prepares custom forecasts for a variety of purposes and precise locations.
For example, a commercial weather provider can issue forecasts for the exact location of an oil rig’s operation in the ocean.
It can detail the time of critical wind changes or frontal passages and provide alerts about the onset of significant rain, lightning or thunderstorms that might affect their operations.
Private forecasters can also provide customized forecasts and risk consultation for farmers, large festivals and events, retail interests and many other corporate interests.

A strength of the private sector is its ability to effectively tailor and communicate weather information and the risk it will bring to both consumers and businesses.
While the government produces essential weather data and general forecasts for the nation, it lacks the readymade audience that many sizable private weather companies have developed.
The private sector can broadcast weather watches and warnings issued by the NWS through apps, television, websites, and social media.
Commercial weather providers have also been creative in providing weather information that helps people plan their outdoor activities for the hour, day and week due to the detailed knowledge they obtain about the decisions being made.
This also allows private sector meteorologists to work directly with customers to define their needs and create analytics that are a combination of weather information and customers information, creating significant value for customer work flows, safety plans, etc.

Commercial weather providers also provide value to large, global companies that seek seamless services anywhere in the world, including in places where the National Meteorological Centers do not provide coverage.
With more and more extreme weather events around the globe, having the resources of both the public and private weather services benefits businesses and consumers alike.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Can a ‘crowdsourcing’ approach make the American weather model best in the world?

AC75 foils training

The British team for 36th America's Cup winter training in Cagliari on the island of Sardegna, Italia. Skippered by Ben Ainslie the crew are testing their new boat. 

A day in the training and development life of Emirates Team New Zealand America's Cup Class yacht (AC75 class) sailing in Auckland on January 9, 2020.

Australia (AHS) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

15 nautical raster charts updated & 1 new inset added

see GeoGarage news

Storm Gloria generates the biggest wave ever recorded in the Mediterranean

Watch how Storm Gloria-produced swells hit Portocolom in Spain's Balearic Islands, and Platja de la Mar Bella, in Barcelona.

From Surfer Today

On January 20, 2020, Spain's Ports of the State announced the largest significant wave height in recorded history in the Mediterranean Sea.

According to the Spanish meteorologists and oceanographers, Storm Gloria generated a record-breaking significant wave height of 8.44 meters (27.69 feet) off the port city of Valencia, in Spain.

The previous significant wave height record in the Mediterranean Sea had been set at 8.15 meters (26.73 feet) and was recorded in 2003 in Mahón, Menorca.

The authorities estimate that this time, Storm Gloria produced waves of 13.5 meters (44.29 feet).

Storm Gloria, which continues to affect much of the western Mediterranean, including France and Portugal, has already smashed several significant wave height records according to the network of deep-sea buoys.

This historical maximum, the highest data measured in the western Mediterranean, has been obtained by an ocean buoy located near Valencia.

Significant Wave Height

The significant wave height parameter is equivalent to the mean wave height of the highest third of the waves and coincides with the height of the waves that an experienced observer would estimate at any given moment in the sea.

On the other hand, the significant wave height measured by buoys is a critical statistical parameter transmitted in real-time via satellite to describe the swell position in relation to the coastline.

However, the height of a wave by itself is not as representative as significant wave height, i.e., measuring a large individual wave in the open ocean does not mean that it will arrive at the coastline with the same size.

Gloria's effects have also been noticeably felt inside the ports.

In the Port of Valencia, the tide gauge reached a significant wave height of 2.11 meters (6.9 feet) and a maximum wave height of 3.28 meters (10.76 feet).

This is also the maximum record ever recorded by this station since the installation of the sea level sensor in 2006.

These have not been the only wave records beaten during the passage of Storm Gloria.

The Dragonera buoy, in the Balearic Islands, also belonging to the deep-water buoy network of Spain's Ports of the State, also recorded a historical maximum since it was put into operation in 2006.

On January 20, at 3 am (local time), the buoy registered 7.97 meters (26.14 feet) of significant wave height, beating its previous record of 6.33 meters (20.76 feet) obtained in January 2017.

This buoy provides maximum wave height data in real-time and delivered a new record of 14.2 meters high in the same period.

A Deep-Water Buoy Network

The Spanish deep-water buoys are anchored in open waters, at depths between 400 and 2,000 meters (1,312-6,561 feet).

They are equipped with a wave sensor, weather sensors (wind, air temperature, and atmospheric pressure) at about three meters high, and oceanographic sensors at three meters of depth (currents, temperature, and salinity).

In the upper part, they carry luminous beacons, and their position is communicated to the Marine Hydrographic Institute for signaling in the nautical charts.

These buoys are not adrift but, instead, have a complex anchoring line that keeps them in a fixed position.

Every hour, the wave sensor records a 30-minute wave log.

The data produced is complex and cannot be transmitted in real-time. Instead, it is stored onboard, and processed inside the buoy by a computer.

The system performs a statistical analysis of the information and calculates the so-called "integrated parameters": significant wave height, average wave period, average ave direction, etc.

These wave parameters, along with extra meteorological and oceanographic data, are sent by satellite in real-time, since the buoys are too far from the coast for radio communication to be effective.

The buoys' maintenance is performed every four or six months.

That's when the buoy is completely revised: the anchoring line, each and every one of the sensors onboard, batteries, satellite transmission systems, light beacons, electronics, and structural parts.

Then, the raw data that is stored aboard the buoy is downloaded for later analysis in Spain's Ports of the State.

Links :

• Surf Report : Ruben Soler Gloria tempest photographies