Track Hurricane Sandy
From
vehicles in the water to satellites in the sky, numerous ocean
technologies worked overtime earlier this week tracking Hurricane Sandy
as it rolled over the U.S. East Coast. Damages caused by the hurricane
and their associated costs are still being calculated, while millions
are in the dark without power.
As of yesterday, at least six NOAA Office of Coast Survey navigation response teams began checking for underwater debris and shoaling that may pose a risk to navigation. Tasked by the U.S. Coast Guard Captains of the Port, these vessels can use multibeam echosounders or side scan sonar, as conditions warrant, to search for the answers that would speed resumption of shipping and other vessel movements.
Before the storm, U.S. government agencies such as NOAA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey worked to secure the storm-tide sensors, to piers and poles in areas where the storm was expected to make landfall. The instruments recorded the precise time the storm-tide arrived, how ocean and inland water levels changed, the depth of the storm-tide and how long it took for the water to recede. This information will be used to assess storm damage, discern between wind and flood damage and improve computer models used to forecast future coastal inundation.
Of the sensors deployed specifically for Sandy, eight have real-time capability that will allow viewing of the storm-tide as the storm approaches and makes landfall. Some of these real-time gauges include precipitation and wind sensors that will transmit all data hourly. Collected data will be available here.
Liquid Robotics Inc.'s (Sunnyvale, California) Wave Glider Mercury battled through Hurricane Sandy and successfully piloted through winds up to 70 knots while transmitting weather data in real time. One hundred miles due east of Toms River, New Jersey, the weather sensors on the Wave Glider gathered data from the ocean surface, reporting a plunge in barometric pressure of more than 54.3 millibars to a low of 946 millibars as Sandy neared landfall.
Prior to Hurricane Sandy, scientists from Liquid Robotics, Sonardyne International Ltd. (Yateley, England), Rutgers University and the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System deployed the Wave Glider and two Sonardyne undersea nodes as part of an ocean-observing technology demonstration project for ocean measurement and tsunami detection.
NOAA kept an eye on the storm's path and potential damage via Science on a Sphere, a room-sized, global display system that uses computers and video projectors to display planetary data onto a 6-foot-diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. Animated images of atmospheric storms, climate change and ocean temperature can be shown on the sphere, which is used to explain complex environmental processes.
As NOAA satellites tracked Sandy's path, the device pulled all the images together and beamed them in real time onto a screen that is shaped like a moving model of the Earth. This weather-monitoring technology enabled storm response efforts, such as the evacuation of coastal communities.
NASA's satellites also observed the storm, with the agency creating 3D images of Hurricane Sandy with data from its Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite. NASA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) captured a global view of Hurricane Sandy, from birth to landfall.
This animation of NOAA's GOES-13 and GOES-15 satellite observations from October 18 through 28 shows the birth of Tropical Storm Sandy in the Caribbean Sea and the intensification and movement of Sandy in the Atlantic Ocean along the U.S. East Coast.
The OSCAT radar scatterometer on the Indian Space Research Organization's OceanSat-2 satellite captured imagery of Hurricane Sandy's ocean surface winds on Sunday.
Caption: NOAA's
five-day forecast for Hurricane Sandy.
Source: USGS,
Liquid Robotics press release, NBC Los Angeles, NOAA, NASA
MES
Awards Contract to OPT to Continue
PowerBuoy Development for Japan Waters
Ocean Power
Technologies Inc. (Pennington, New Jersey), or OPT, has received a 70
million yen contract from Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.
Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), or MES, for further development of OPT’s PowerBuoy
for application in Japanese sea conditions. Under the contract, OPT
will continue to analyze methods to maximize buoy power capture, as
well as modeling and wave tank testing.
OPT will team with MES staff to develop PowerBuoy enhancements that,
under normal Japanese wave conditions, would provide for improved power
capture. This analysis and design work is expected to be completed by
the end of OPT’s fiscal year, ending April 30, 2013. A decision will
then be made on the next steps toward ocean trials of a demonstration
PowerBuoy system for a prospective build-out of a commercial-scale OPT
wave power station in Japan.
Japan has released a new strategy to increase its renewable energy
generating capacity by more than six times. The Japanese government
identified wave energy as a key component of this policy, setting a
goal of 1,500 megawatts in new power generation capacity by 2030 using
wave and tidal power sources.
Caption: The PowerBuoy.
Source: Ocean Power
Technologies press release
BD&E
Develops Wave-Harvesting System
Prototype for US Navy
Bodkin Design & Engineering LLC (Newton,
Massachusetts), or BD&E, was awarded a Phase I Small Business
Innovation Research program contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a
prototype wave-harvesting system capable of generating power from ocean
energy in coastal waters. It will be a six-month project.
A prototype unit has been constructed and tested at the company’s
Newton facility, demonstrating a power conversion efficiency between 34
and 50 percent. The fully submerged, self-contained design is
anti-fouling and ideally suited for surf zone operation where extreme
environmental conditions could damage systems that rely on deployed
arms, floats or fragile mechanics. The prototype is designed to be an
alternative power source for submerged sensors and systems, and also
has applications for commercial moorings.
Source: Bodkin Design
& Engineering press release
Nautronix
Expands Aberdeen Headquarters
Nautronix (Aberdeen, Scotland) announced last Monday
the opening of its new global headquarters in Aberdeen, which
consolidates the company’s engineering department and expands its
production facilities.
The headquarters comprises Ury House and Nautronix House. Ury House
accommodates the expanded commercial department, engineering and
technology, finance and human relations teams. The production
facilities at Nautronix House have been upgraded to incorporate a
modern customer training suite and an acoustic test and calibration lab
facility, the company said.
Caption: Ury
House at Nautronix headquarters.
Source: Nautronix
press release
OceanServer
Adds Marine Magnetics Explorer
Magnetometer Option to Iver2 AUVs
OceanServer Technology Inc. (Fall River,
Massachusetts) has partnered with Marine Magnetics Corp. (Markham,
Canada) to bring a new magnetometer option, the Marine Magnetics
Explorer, to the Iver2 family of AUVs. This new AUV-towed device,
coupled to data-logging software features, enables existing or new
Iver2 AUVs to collect georeferenced magnetometer data.
The ability to simultaneously collect and fuse high-resolution sonar
data with magnetometer data enables the Iver2 to carry out operations
in shallow-water
and resolution-intensive applications, such as mine countermeasures,
unexploded ordnance identification and debris mapping. The Explorer
option also extends the Iver platform into traditional magnetometer
markets, such as inshore geophysical surveys, wreck detection, magnetic
mapping of harbors and ferrous target detection.
Source: OceanServer press release
NOAA Buys Solar-Powered Buoy for Chesapeake Bay
—Q&A with SOSI's Doug Bennett
Purchased
by NOAA for its Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System, the recently
launched Bay Monitor buoy from Sound Ocean Systems Inc. (Redmond,
Washington), or SOSI, will record data on the bay's environmental
parameters, powered by solar energy.Sea Technology caught up with Doug Bennett, SOSI vice president, after OCEANS '12 MTS/IEEE Hampton Roads in October to talk about the data buoy.
What's the Bay Monitor's competitive advantage?
The Bay Monitor is a small, robust, easily deployed data buoy that lowers operating and support costs with initial accuracy, long-term stability and fouling resistance, mean[ing] fewer service visits to the buoy. The buoy can be reassembled on a beach, launch ramp or dock and towed to a pre-existing mooring by a small boat.
What's going on with the one NOAA bought for the Chesapeake Bay?
SOSI collaborated with oceanographer Doug Wilson of NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office in developing a new prototype buoy for Chesapeake Bay to augment the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System. The buoy has undergone acceptance testing on land and is awaiting deployment as soon as time and resources permit.
Did you work with other companies on the sensors, or was that all SOSI?
Sensors used are existing products made by other manufacturers. These include a Nortek Aquadopp current profiler; WET Labs WQM (water quality monitor) measuring sea surface temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and turbidity; and a Vaisala WXT520 weather station, which measures wind speed, air temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity and precipitation.
What's the depth range?
Approximately 20 meters.
Is it run purely on solar power? What's the cost trend for marine solar power now—going down considerably/becoming more feasible for more products, or no?
Essentially, yes. Four 5-watt solar panels are sufficient to keep the buoy's battery charged almost indefinitely, within the specified sampling and transmission intervals. Solar panel costs are trending lower, and as sensors become more power efficient, 100 percent solar power will be more widely feasible.
Caption: The Bay Monitor buoy.
Details Released for US Oil and Gas Lease Sale 229
The oil and gas lease sale will offer more than 20 million acres offshore and will make available all unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico planning area. This encompasses 3,873 blocks and covers roughly 20.8 million acres, located from nine to 250 miles offshore, in water depths ranging from 5 to 3,346 meters. The final notice of sale information package, including environmental stipulations, is available here.
BOEM estimates the proposed lease sale could result in the production of 116 to 200 million barrels of oil and 538 to 938 billion cubic feet of natural gas. This will be the first offshore sale under the Obama administration’s new Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012–2017.
Lease Sale 229 will build on two major Gulf of Mexico lease sales in the past year—a 21-million-acre sale held last December and a 39-million-acre sale held in June.
The next Central Gulf of Mexico lease sale, proposed Lease Sale 227, will take place on March 20, 2013, making 38 million acres available.
Caption: Royal Dutch Shell plc's (The Hague, Netherlands) Perdido rig in the western Gulf of Mexico.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior press release
New in Sea Technology...
Gathering Multibeam Bathymetry Aboard Icebreakers
Benthic Habitat Mapping Using High-Resolution Image Mosaicking
Industry Events ...
Clean Gulf 2012. November 13-15, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Brought to you by
Sea Technology magazine
Unsubscribe • Subscribe • About