Additional applications and related topics, chapter 4, part B

Satellite mounted microwave instruments and their use to measure surface pressure are investigated. Data cover instrument accuracy, atmospheric transmission, and meteorological parameter determinations

Machine Learning Model Selection for Predicting Global Bathymetry

This work is concerned with the viability of Machine Learning (ML) in training models for predicting global bathymetry, and whether there is a best fit model for predicting that bathymetry. The desired result is an investigation of the ability for ML to be used in future prediction models and to experiment with multiple trained models to determine an optimum selection. Ocean features were aggregated from a set of external studies and placed into two minute spatial grids representing the earth\u27s oceans. A set of regression models, classification models, and a novel classification model were then fit to this data and analyzed. The novel classification model is optimized by selecting the best performing model in a geospatial area. This optimization increases prediction accuracy for test purposes by approximately 3%. These models were trained using bathymetry data from the ETOPO2v2 dataset. Analysis and validation for each model also used bathymetry from the ETOPO dataset, and subsequent metrics were produced and reported. Results demonstrate that ocean features can potentially be used to build a prediction model for bathymetry with the inclusion of accurate data and intelligent model selection. Based on the results in this work, evidence supports that no single model will best predict all Global bathymetry

Virtual aids to navigation

There are many examples of master, bridge crew and pilot errors in navigation causing grounding under adverse circumstances that were known and published in official notices and records. Also dangerous are hazards to navigation resulting from dynamic changes within the marine environment, inadequate surveys and charts. This research attempts to reduce grounding and allision incidents and increase safety of navigation by expanding mariner situational awareness at and below the waterline using new technology and developing methods for the creation, implementation and display of Virtual Aids to Navigation (AtoN) and related navigation information. This approach has widespread significance beyond commonly encountered navigation situations. Increased vessel navigation activity in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions engenders risk due, in part, to the inability to place navigational aids and buoys in constantly changing ice conditions. Similar conditions exist in tropical regions where sinker placement to moor buoys in sensitive environmental areas with coral reefs is problematic. Underdeveloped regions also lack assets and infrastructure needed to provide adequate navigation services, and infrastructure can also rapidly perish in developed regions during times of war and natural disaster. This research exploits rapidly developing advances in environmental sensing technology, evolving capabilities and improved methods for reporting real time environmental data that can substantially expand electronic navigation aid availability and improve knowledge of undersea terrain and imminent hazards to navigation that may adversely affect ship operations. This is most needed in areas where physical aids to navigation are scarce or non-existent as well as in areas where vessel traffic is congested. Research to expand related vessel capabilities is accomplished to overcome limitations in existing and planned electronic aids, expanding global capabilities and resources at relatively low-cost. New methods for sensor fusion are also explored to vi reduce overall complexity and improve integration with other navigation systems with the goal of simplifying navigation tasks. An additional goal is to supplement training program content by expanding technical resources and capabilities within the confines of existing International Convention on Standards for Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) requirements, while improving safety by providing new techniques to enhance situational awareness

ACOUSTIC DETECTION AND QUANTIFICATION OF CRUDE OIL

The fate and transport of oil droplets from natural and anthropogenic sources is key to understanding the impact of spills and the resilience of marine communities. Without knowledge of natural background levels, it is difficult to determine the response of the marine environment to large influxes of oil. Current estimates of global flux of oil from natural seeps varies by an order of magnitude, and the wide range of estimates is due in part to the lack of sufficient in-situ quantification techniques for oil droplets in the water column. This work is focused on the feasibility of employing broadband acoustics to address this gap by developing a better understanding of the interaction between sound generated by broadband acoustics and oil droplets in the ocean. The dissertation is organized into three experiments, each written into a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication. The first addresses the paucity of data at oceanographically-relevant pressures and temperatures regarding the physical properties of crude oil that impact acoustic scattering. The acoustic impedance of four crude oils was measured under oceanographic conditions using a sound speed chamber designed and constructed for this experiment. Measurements showed significant deviations from an often-used empirical model and a new empirical model was developed. The results of the first experiment were used in the analysis of the second study. High frequency broadband acoustic backscatter was recorded from droplets of three different crude oils of varying size and shape and compared to three scattering models for fluid targets. The results highlighted the importance of droplet shape (i.e., deviations from a perfect sphere) in acoustic backscatter observations of crude oil droplets. The first two experiments were used to inform the analysis of the third experiment. Broadband acoustics along with ADCP measurements were used to determine flux at an anthropogenic seafloor release of oil and gas. Results of this thesis indicate that broadband acoustics are capable of quantifying oil droplets and oil flux

Comparative Analysis on Interpolation Methods for Bathymetric Data Gaps

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology delivers high accuracy elevation values and ground features. However, the capability of this technology is inhibited in terms of its strength to penetrate certain surfaces. For instance, LIDAR is limited to the elevation values of the river water surface and not the elevation of its riverbed. Hence, topographic and bathymetric surveys are conducted to obtain an accurate set of elevation values for areas where the technology is unable to permeate. Bathymetric surveys are conducted using a scientific echo sounder equipment, which utilizes sonar technology to determine the river depth relative to the water’s surface by transmitting sound pulses and calculating the interval between the emanation and regress of a pulse per unit time. Like in all remote sensing measurements, errors are inevitable. Noise and external factors that cause faulty or bad readings result in data gaps. Gaps in the gathered elevation data sets can only be identified during filtering, which is done after the actual survey. In addition, covering the gaps back in the field would mean additional costs. This study aims to maximize data gathered by using different interpolation methods to generate points in the data gaps. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), Spline, and Kriging methods are used to extrapolate the values within the gaps. These values are then used together with the rest of the data for bathymetric data integration into the LIDAR data using IDW. Statistical calculations are shown to analyze the accuracy and efficiency of the results. Keywords: bathymetry · interpolation · remote sensing limitation

Emerging technologies for reef fisheries research and management [held during the 56th annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute meeting in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, November 2003]

This publication of the NOAA Professional Paper NMFS Series is the product of a special symposium on “Emerging Technologies for Reef Fisheries Research and Management” held during the 56th annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute meeting in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, November 2003. The purpose of this collection is to highlight the diversity of questions and issues in reef fisheries management that are benefiting from applications of technology. Topics cover a wide variety of questions and issues from the study of individual behavior, distribution and abundance of groups and populations, and associations between habitats and fish and shellfish species.(PDF files contains 124 pages.

Survey Plan Improvement by Detecting Sea Floor Dynamics in Archived Echo Sounder Surveys

La publication de cartes a jour de mers peu profondes necessite l'execution de nouveaux leves periodiques. Les informations sur le comportement du fond de la mer permettent d'ameliorer la planification des frequences d'execution des nouveaux leves , laquelle pourrait etre assuree par l'analyse d'une serie de leves du fond archivee. Nous presentons une methode qui permet d'extraire ces dynamiques en utilisant l'analyse des deformations. Il s'agit de la modelisation d'un plan incline pour une zone limitee du fond. La methode permet de juger si les differences entre les leves sont statistiquement importantes du point de vue de la precision du leve. C'est ainsi que differentes sortes de comportement du fond de la mer peuvent etre detectees et que les dimensions des deformations detectees et que les deformations detectees sont estimees. Cette procedure est illustree a l'aide d'un exemple concernant la mer du Nord.La publicacion de cartas actualizadas requiere nuevas levantamientos periodicos. La informacion sabre el comportamiento del fonda marino mejora Ia planificacion de las frecuencias de los nuevas levantamientos, lo que puede lograrse mediante el analisis de una serie de levantamientos de archivo del fonda submarino. Presentamos aqui un metoda para obtener esa dinamica, utilizando analisis de deformacion, que modelan una superficie en pendiente para un area limitada del fondo submarino. Este metoda determina si las diferencias entre levantamientos tienen importancia estadTstica con respecto a la precision del levantamiento. De esta manera se podran detectar diferentes tipos de comportamiento del fondo submarino y asr calcular las deformaciones detectadas. El procedimiento se ilustra con un ejemp/o en el Mar del Norte

Five decades of radioglaciology

Radar sounding is a powerful geophysical approach for characterizing the subsurface conditions of terrestrial and planetary ice masses at local to global scales. As a result, a wide array of orbital, airborne, ground-based, and in situ instruments, platforms and data analysis approaches for radioglaciology have been developed, applied or proposed. Terrestrially, airborne radar sounding has been used in glaciology to observe ice thickness, basal topography and englacial layers for five decades. More recently, radar sounding data have also been exploited to estimate the extent and configuration of subglacial water, the geometry of subglacial bedforms and the subglacial and englacial thermal states of ice sheets. Planetary radar sounders have observed, or are planned to observe, the subsurfaces and near-surfaces of Mars, Earth's Moon, comets and the icy moons of Jupiter. In this review paper, and the thematic issue of the Annals of Glaciology on ‘Five decades of radioglaciology’ to which it belongs, we present recent advances in the fields of radar systems, missions, signal processing, data analysis, modeling and scientific interpretation. Our review presents progress in these fields since the last radio-glaciological Annals of Glaciology issue of 2014, the context of their history and future prospects