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Wangensteens kart over Norge fra 1761

First global VDES satellite network to launch in 2022

MARIOT (Maritime IoT)

From New Electronics by Neil Tyler

A newly established consortium is going to develop a network for low Earth orbit satellites delivering ice chart data to ships at sea.

The network of satellites will significantly improve navigation for ships in rough seas and raise security for the crew on board.
The network will also allow the satellite operator Sternula to launch its first out of a total of fifty small satellites.

A research project called MARIOT (Maritime IoT) will look to develop a low Earth orbit satellite network based on the new VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) technology.
The network will be the first of its kind and establish a stable, low-cost data connection for maritime safety and navigation services.

The consortium behind the project is headed by the Danish satellite operator Sternula.
The satcom developers GateHouse, Space Inventor, and Satlab as well as Aalborg University, and the Danish Meteorological Institute will also participate in the project which will initially focus on the need for improved communication and navigation services in the Arctic Ocean.

Today, the satellite communication networks used by ships in high-latitude seas are often expensive and not suitable for small amounts of data, and, in some cases, do not even cover seas in remote regions.
This is an issue where optimised navigation services can significantly reduce the length of shipping routes, e.g. by placing routes closer to the Arctic, says Business Development Manager at GateHouse, Per Koch.

VDES is the next generation of the popular AIS technology. VDES adds new two-way data channels to AIS, enabling e.g. efficient delivery of weather and ice services integrated with onboard electronic charting systems (ECDIS).
The new allocation of radio frequencies for VDE-SAT means that sailors all over the world will now get access to a range of global e-Navigation services over standard AIS/VDES equipment. 

VDES technology is the second generation of the Automatic Identification System (AIS).
Today, the AIS standard is used to monitor marine traffic by more than 200,000 ships.
However, AIS has a limited reach of only 30 nautical miles and is also limited to transfer on only certain types of data.
VDES will enable global connectivity through satellite networks as well as efficient transfer of more data types.

VDES is able to offer a faster and more efficient data connection compared to other satcom services and after the VDES standard was assigned global radio frequencies last year, it is now possible to develop the first global VDES network improving navigation services and security for ships.

 What is VDES ?

Besides shipping companies operating in the Arctic Ocean, the VDES network is also relevant for maritime security and navigation services, e.g. for sailing directions and coastal monitoring, and can also be used by the maritime industry to monitor marine engines and critical equipment on board.

The contribution from GateHouse is mainly related to data communication.
More specifically by ensuring that data can be communicated to and from the individual satellites to the ground station.
This include inter-satellite capabilities and advanced algorithms for data routing in satellite constellation.

GateHouse, Space Inventor, and Satlab will develop the hardware and software components for the project while Aalborg University - based on its extensive experience with launching smallsats - will contribute with technology and expert knowledge.
The Danish Meteorological Institute will participate with its ice chart service, which is in development and will be tailored to the VDES network.
The MARIOT project will be managed by Sternula and is sponsored by the Danish Innovation Fund.


Links :

• Sternula : Mariot / press release

The changing face of e-navigation

From Safety4Sea

During his presentation at 2019 SAFETY4SEA Hamburg Forum, Capt. Mark Bull, Director, Trafalgar Navigation, gave an insight concerning e-navigation, pointing out that we are on the threshold of a major change in our industry; it has already started and it is now picking up speed.

Good afternoon, risk and safety.
In 1997, the worst peacetime maritime disaster occurred and that was the collision between the tanker Vector and the passenger roll on roll of ferry Doña Paz.
4,387 people lost their lives the vast majority were burnt alive in the water where they ended up after the two ships collided.
In 2012, the Costa Concordia incident occurred, and it cost the insurance industry an excess of 1 billion dollars just to remove the wreck.
Groundings have resulted in massive pollution incidents.
We can start with the Torrey Canyon and move on to Exxon Valdes, the Braer, the Sea Empress, the list is never ending but it has cost the industry dearly.
So, they are all results of navigational accidents.
Navigation has been practiced for years, but in the last two or three years the face of navigation is changing considerably.

A ship’s bridge traditionally consisted of a chart room and the wheelhouse.
Later this changed slightly to a wheelhouse with a chart space.
Officers would then move backwards and forwards between the two places for plotting the ship’s position and checking the progress of the ship.
Now with the introduction of ECDIS, which is located in the wheelhouse and the transfer of other instruments to the forward console, the chart space is becoming redundant.

There are many designs of bridges; a typical one now incorporates ECDIS and the ARPA display side by side, occasional bridges have an integrated bridge screen display in the center.
The latest navigation; bridges are rapidly approaching the appearance of an aircraft cockpit.
However, we still have on the deckhead various displays which are prescribed by regulation in SOLAS, but perhaps would be better being re-located.
There is another problem with this type of bridge and that is total internal reflection, which, depending upon where you are stood may affect.

Nowadays, we use the terms “back of bridge” and “front of bridge2 and not charts space because there are no more charts.
There are all contained in the ECDIS as NCs - electronic navigation charts.
As you can see from the slide there are still instruments on the wooden bulkhead but otherwise that place is unused.

Here is an example of what navigation looks like in practice; that display shows three independent navigation systems displayed simultaneously at the same time.
The first one is GPS position, following the track is mapped on the ENC and the little black dots behind are the records of where the ship was; the brightly yellow color is known as the radar overlay and marked on the ECDIS alone but not measured there is a blue dotted line which is the parallel index line.

The fourth and final system is visual when we can see things.
Because for years, we have been trying to resolve the problem of bad visibility by radar and we now have so much experience with radar, that I argue strongly and with many senior captains that visual means of navigation instrumentation has now been replaced by instrumentation navigation.

GPS and radar are two continuous positioned monitoring systems, so that if one fails, we just continue with the other one, it’s not a big deal.

Nowadays, digital displays are very clear.
Slowly manufacturers are introducing these displays with exceptionally good clarity enabling an officer of the watch, a pilot or a master to see at a glance the information he/she requires.

The following is a digital analog display of the engine controls.
Notice the clarity here.
It would be so good if we could get all information displays to be the same.
It would make the life of the Master, OOW or pilot so much easier.
Instead of having to run around to find this information in the bridge, if it’s put in the right place, they can stay in one location and monitor the situation continuously.
(Improved situational awareness?)

Nowadays, we even have course recorders that do not have paper but the manufacturers have adopted them so you can write on the screen and then download it to a USB stick.
We also have bridge wing cameras allowing the navigation bridge to be smaller and with simpler construction to save a lot of money.
Also, in the old days we used to have books on the bridges sailing directions, light lists, radio signals.
Today these are all digital.

The benefits are huge, with massive cost reductions in both construction and maintenance.
But the increased benefit provided by hugely improved situational awareness is much, much more and unquantifiable in costs.
The navigator now has more information at his fingertips to make informed decisions.
We need to be very careful because there are regulations in existence that will stop progress.
There are regulations about locating instrumentation on the deck head which is no longer required if we design our bridge correctly and of course, we need to consider the layout and the construction of the bridges itself.

You can see from this photograph there are some clear problems.
It is so bad that the helmsman has to stand in front of a radar to steer the ship.

and here trying to just operate equipment, this officer can barely reach the instrument at the back of the chart table, and she had great problems reaching one on the central bridge console.
Absolutely madness in design.

In light of the above problems, some companies are now investing a lot of money in navigation for a more ergonomically efficient bridge with the object to enhance safety of navigation and avoid groundings, collisions, ice damage and heavy weather damage.

Above text is an edited version of Capt. Mark Bull’s presentation during the 2019 SAFETY4SEA Hamburg Forum.
You may view his presentation here.

Oceans can be restored to former glory within 30 years, say scientists

Phytoplankton blooms are visible from space in this 2017 satellite image taken of the Gibraltar strait. Photograph: Suomi/VIIRS and Modis/Nasa

From The Guardian by Damian Carrington

The glory of the world’s oceans could be restored within a generation, according to a major new scientific review.
It reports rebounding sea life, from humpback whales off Australia to elephant seals in the US and green turtles in Japan.

Through rampant overfishing, pollution and coastal destruction, humanity has inflicted severe damage on the oceans and its inhabitants for centuries.
But conservation successes, while still isolated, demonstrate the remarkable resilience of the seas.

The scientists say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance for wildlife by 2050 and with it bolster the services that the world’s people rely on, from food to coastal protection to climate stability.
The measures needed, including protecting large swathes of ocean, sustainable fishing and pollution controls, would cost billions of dollars a year, the scientists say, but would bring benefits 10 times as high.

However, the escalating climate crisis must also be tackled to protect the oceans from acidification, loss of oxygen and the devastation of coral reefs.
The good news, the scientists say, is a growing awareness of the ability of oceans and coastal habitats such as mangroves and salt marshes to rapidly soak up carbon dioxide and bolster shorelines against rising sea levels.

“We have a narrow window of opportunity to deliver a healthy ocean to our grandchildren, and we have the knowledge and tools to do so,” said Prof Carlos Duarte, of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, who led the review.
“Failing to embrace this challenge, and in so doing condemning our grandchildren to a broken ocean unable to support good livelihoods is not an option.”

Prof Callum Roberts, at the University of York, one of the review’s international team, said: “Overfishing and climate change are tightening their grip, but there is hope in the science of restoration.
“One of the overarching messages of the review is, if you stop killing sea life and protect it, then it does come back.
We can turn the oceans around and we know it makes sense economically, for human wellbeing and, of course, for the environment.”

 Fishing below an ocean’s maximum yield allows faster recovery of fish stocks.

Photograph: Manu San Felix/NG/KAUST

The review, published in the journal Nature, found that global fishing is slowly becoming more sustainable and the destruction of habitats such as seagrass meadows and mangroves is almost at a halt.
In places from Tampa Bay, Florida to the Philippines, the habitats are being restored.

Among the success stories are humpback whales that migrate from Antarctica to eastern Australia, whose populations have surged from a few hundred animals in 1968, before whaling was banned, to more than 40,000 today.
Sea otters in western Canada have risen from just dozens in 1980 to thousands now.
In the Baltic Sea, both grey seal and cormorant populations are soaring.

Sealife shows some signs of recovery across the globe

“We’re beginning to appreciate the value of what we’re losing and not just in terms of intrinsic beauty of the wildlife but in terms of protecting our livelihoods and societies from bad things happening, whether that be poor water quality in rivers and oceans or sea level rise beating on the doorstep of coastal areas,” said Roberts.

However, progress is far from straightforward.
Pollution from farms and plastics still pours into the oceans, the waters are reaching record high temperatures, and destructive fishing is still taking place in many places, with at least one-third of fish stocks overexploited.

“The Mediterranean is still pretty much a basket case,” said Roberts.
“And there is horrendous overfishing throughout large parts of south-east Asia and India, where fisheries are just catching anything they trawl on the seabed to render into fish meal and oil.”

The global heating of the oceans has driven the few hundred surviving northern right whales along the coast of the western Atlantic.
Here, amid busy shipping lanes and lobster fisheries, they are killed by collisions or drowned in a tangle of ropes, according to Roberts, though new regulations are starting to help.

The Gulf of Mexico suffers massive dead zones owing to huge amounts of manure and fertiliser running off midwest farms, and elsewhere albatrosses continue to be snared by long-line fishers, despite simple solutions being available.

 Healthy coral reefs are highly productive and support high biomasses of top predators.

Photograph: Manu San Felix/NG/KAUST

But examples of the benefits of restorative habits were growing, Roberts said, from the return of once abundant oyster beds that can clean huge volumes of water, to marine protected areas that can boost fishery catches nearby, such as by the Scottish island of Arran.

“When I started working on the science of marine protected areas in the early 1990s.
it was very much a niche interest,” said Roberts.
“Now it’s being discussed at the top level internationally and we have many countries signing up to expand protection to 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, with the UK among the early adopters of the target.”
Marine protected areas have risen from 0.9% of the ocean in 2000 to 7.4% now, though not all are fully implemented.

The scientists’s review concludes that restoring the oceans by 2050 is a grand challenge that, with a global redoubling of conservation efforts, can be achieved: “Meeting the challenge would be a historic milestone in humanity’s quest to achieve a globally sustainable future.”

Links :

• The Guardian : North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests

Canada (CHS) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

57 nautical raster charts updated

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