Tag: NOAA

A team of NOAA researchers today confirmed the discovery just outside San Francisco's Golden Gate strait of the 1910 shipwreck SS Selja and an unidentified early steam tugboat wreck tagged the "mystery wreck." The researchers also located the 1863 wreck of the clipper ship Noonday, currently obscured by mud and silt on the ocean floor.

USCG and National Oceanic and NOAA researchers successfully landed an unmanned aircraft system on the flight deck of USCG Cutter Healy

NOAA scientists and partners are launching a number of new unmanned aircraft and water vehicles to collect weather information as part of a coordinated effort to improve hurricane forecasts. Several of these research projects and other NOAA led efforts to improve hurricane forecasting were made possible, in part, because of the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013. The act was passed by Congress and signed by the President in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. It provides $60 billion in funding to multiple agencies for disaster relief. NOAA received $309.7 million to provide technical assistance to those states with coastal and fishery impacts from Sandy, and to improve weather forecasting and weather research and predictive capability to help future preparation, response and recovery from similar events. Unmanned Planes Gather Storm Details As hard as meteorologists work to forecast storms - even flying planes straight into hurricanes to measure wind speed, direction, water vapor and other data - prediction remains an imprecise science. This is particularly true when forecasting hurricane wind speed, known as hurricane intensity. To improve this predictive aspect of our environmental intelligence, NOAA scientists and partners are sending unmanned aircraft into places where it would be unsafe, impossible or ...

NOAA scientists and partners are launching a number of new unmanned aircraft and water vehicles to collect weather information to improve hurricane forecasts

A coalition of government, non-profit and marine industry groups announced the launch of a new trial incentive program in the Santa Barbara Channel to slow cargo ships down to reduce air pollution and increase protection of endangered whales. Six global shipping companies, COSCO, Hapag Lloyd, K Line, Maersk Line, Matson, and United Arab Shipping Company are participating in the speed reduction incentive program and have identified ships in their fleets that will transit between Point Conception and the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, from July-October 31, 2014, at speeds of 12 knots or less (reduced from typical speeds of 14-18 knots). Participating companies will receive $2,500 per transit through the Santa Barbara Channel. The trial program, developed and implemented by the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, NOAA's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, and the Environmental Defense Center, is modeled after successful speed reduction incentive programs at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles where over 90% of the shipping lines participate. Ship strikes are a major threat to recovering endangered whale populations. In addition, ships emit greenhouse gases and air pollutants, and account for more than 50% of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides in Santa Barbara County. ...

Marine industry groups announced the launch of a new trial incentive program in the Santa Barbara Channel to slow cargo ships down to reduce air pollution

Sailors and Marines fromARG and MEU conducted an emergent recovery of 11 researchers with NOAA from the Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument

Leidos, a national security, health and engineering solutions company, was awarded a prime contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey (OCS) to provide hydrographic surveying services. The multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a five-year period of performance and a total contract value of $250 million for all awardees. The contract was awarded under the NOAA/OCS Hydrographic Surveying Services contract. Leidos is one of eight awardees eligible to compete for task orders under the contract. NOAA OCS provides navigation products and services that ensure safe and efficient maritime commerce on America's ocean coastal waters and in the Great Lakes. Under the contract, Leidos will provide hydrographic data for updating NOAA's nautical charts used by mariners to safely navigate coastal waters in the United States. Hydrographic surveying is used to update nautical charts for shipping, fishing and boating communities, and also supports diverse users with interests from marine ecology, climate change, archeology, energy and water resource management, harbor security and emergency response. Leidos and team members will provide hydrographic data acquisition services using vertical beam echosounder, multibeam echosounder, side scan sonar, airborne bathymetric Lidar and airborne topographic Lidar in any of the priority areas as defined in ...

Leidos was awarded a contract by NOAA to provide hydrographic surveying services

NOAA- and EPA-supported scientists have mapped the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, an area with low oxygen water, measuring 5,052 square miles this summer - approximately the size of Connecticut. The measurements were taken during the 30th annual hypoxia survey cruise from July 27 to August 2. This area falls within the predicted range of 4,633 to 5,708 square miles forecast by a suite of NOAA-sponsored models and confirms the accuracy of the models and their utility for guiding management of nutrients in the Mississippi River watershed. The size is smaller than the 5,840 square miles recorded last year but still greater than the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient (Hypoxia) Task Force target of less than 1,900 square miles - meaning nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed are continuing to affect the nation's coastal resources and habitats in the Gulf. The task force consists of five federal agencies, 12 states and the tribes within the Mississippi/ Atchafalaya River Basin, and was established in 1997 to reduce and control hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. The largest Gulf dead zone ever recorded occurred in 2002, encompassing 8,481 square miles. The smallest recorded dead zone measured 15 square miles in 1988. ...