Ocean wave energy resource assessment-- hotspots, exceedance-persistance, and predictability : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Natural Resource Engineering at Massey University

Ocean wave energy conversion is evolving towards commercial viability. Succinct resource assessment is essential to the conversion of wave energy for grid supply electrical generation. The ability to differentiate potential wave energy locations by means of comprehensible evaluations is particularly useful to the commercial developers of wave energy power plants. This report establishes an assessment of wave energy that provides an understanding of the resource in both spatial and temporal resolution. Three aspects of the wave resource are established; mapping of wave energy hotspots due to wave focusing, visualisation of the probability of wave energy exceedance and persistence, and calculation of the predictability of wave energy for a particular aspect of coast. These three assessments are explained with a review of the science surrounding the phenomena of wave creation and propagation, the development of wave energy converter devices, as well as visualisation and manipulation of wave resource assessments. The outputs of these assessment methodologies are comparable, uncomplicated, graphic representations of the resource. Case studies for seven locations encircling New Zealand were investigated, in order to demonstrate the practicalities of the wave energy resource assessment methodology developed by this project. This study modelled the transformation of several hundred combinations of wave height, period and direction from deep-water to shore. The different conditions were ranked in terms of probability of occurrence. Recombination of these iterations created hotspot maps. The locations examined in this study were then compared to other infrastructure for wave energy utilisation. Historical wave data was processed to establish the probability of levels of wave energy being exceeded and persisting. This information establishes how often a potential wave energy plant might provide significant output and for how long this output might persist. Collection of wave prediction data for aspects of New Zealand allowed the comparison of up to seven day forecasts with a "now forecast". Assessment was then made of the predictability of the climatic conditions creating waves for a location. The ability to be able to provide accurate forecasts of potential wave energy plants is of significant interest to generation companies in New Zealand in order to manage a diverse generation portfolio. Key finding of this investigation: • Waves and wave energy have significant variation of spatial, and temporal scales. • Waves can be predicted for an aspect of coastline dependant upon the predictability of the climatic conditions of the wave generation location. • Wave energy resource assessment is often presented as a single figure of averaged kilowatts per meter wave front that fails to adequately incorporate the temporal, spatial, and predictive aspects of the resource. • A methodology was compiled to create "hotspot" (areas of intensified wave energy) mapping of a location utilising a wave transformation model. These maps can then be used to access spatial relationships to other digital information (electricity grid nodal locations, marine protected areas, navigation requirements, etc). • Processing of wave climate data utilising Matlab© script developed by ASR Ltd identified the probability of wave energy being exceeded and persisting for a given location. • Forecasts of wave characteristics are published on the Internet. Calculation of error between a "now forecast" and the previous day's forecast for today (up to six days out), can give an assessment of the predictability of an aspect of a location provided the wave forecast model utilises significant climatic variables. • Case studies of wave energy resource assessment (using the developed hotspot, exceedence persistence, and predictability methods) for seven locations encircling New Zealand, identified three classes of wave resource; exceptional (Southland), good (Otago, Taranaki, Auckland, Hokianga), and poor (Canterbury, Wellington)

Marching orders? : U.S. party platforms and legislative agenda setting 1948-2014

What is the relationship between the priorities expressed in party platforms before an election and the subsequent legislative agenda? The agenda setting literature often deemphasizes the role of political parties in agenda setting. However, parties will often express different issue priorities during elections, and compete based on those priorities. The paper utilizes new data from the U.S. Policy Agendas Project and Wolbrecht (2016) on policy attention in U.S. party platforms to study the relationship between U.S. parties and legislative activities in Congress. A time series cross sectional analysis finds strong evidence to support the proposition that legislative agendas are influenced by the platform of the President’s party in the short term, although the relationship differs for different types of agendas and by issue, and fades over time.Governmen

Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics at CIPANP 2003

In the nuclear and particle astrophysics session of CIPANP 2003 we heard talks on a number of topics, focused for the most part into four broad areas. Here we outline the discussions of the standard cosmological model, dark matter searches, cosmic rays, and neutrino astrophysics. The robustness of theoretical and experimental programs in all of these areas is very encouraging, and we expect to have many questions answered, and new ones asked, in time for CIPANP 2006.Comment: 5 pages, uses aipproc.cls, parallel session summary to appear in proceedings of CIPANP 200

Identifying the Role of Cognitive Ability in Explaining the Level of and Change in the Return to Schooling

This paper considers two problems that arise in determining the role of ability in explaining the level of and change in the rate of return to schooling. (1) Ability and schooling are so strongly dependent that it is not possible, over a wide range of variation in schooling and ability, to independently vary these two variables and estimate their separate impacts. (2) The structure of panel data makes it difficult to identify main age and time effects or to isolate crucial education-ability-time interactions needed to assess the role of ability in explaining the rise in the return to education.

Workshop proceedings: Information Systems for Space Astrophysics in the 21st Century, volume 1

The Astrophysical Information Systems Workshop was one of the three Integrated Technology Planning workshops. Its objectives were to develop an understanding of future mission requirements for information systems, the potential role of technology in meeting these requirements, and the areas in which NASA investment might have the greatest impact. Workshop participants were briefed on the astrophysical mission set with an emphasis on those missions that drive information systems technology, the existing NASA space-science operations infrastructure, and the ongoing and planned NASA information systems technology programs. Program plans and recommendations were prepared in five technical areas: Mission Planning and Operations; Space-Borne Data Processing; Space-to-Earth Communications; Science Data Systems; and Data Analysis, Integration, and Visualization

Annihilation Signals from Asymmetric Dark Matter

In the simplest models of asymmetric dark matter (ADM) annihilation signals are not expected, since the DM is non-self-conjugate and the relic density of anti-DM is negligible. We investigate a new class of models in which a symmetric DM component, in the `low-mass' 1-10 GeV regime favoured for linking the DM and baryon asymmetries, is repopulated through decays. We find that, in models without significant velocity dependence of the annihilation cross section, observational constraints generally force these decays to be (cosmologically) slow. These late decays can give rise to gamma-ray signal morphologies differing from usual annihilation profiles. A distinctive feature of such models is that signals may be absent from dwarf spheroidal galaxies.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, v3; minor corrections, and reference added - matches version published in JHE

Representing simmodel in the web ontology language

Many building energy performance (BEP) simulation tools, such as EnergyPlus and DOE-2, use custom schema definitions (IDD and BDL respectively) as opposed to standardised schema definitions (defined in XSD, EXPRESS, and so forth). A Simulation Domain Model (SimModel) was therefore proposed earlier, representative for a new interoperable XML-based data model for the building simulation domain. Its ontology aims at moving away from tool-specific, non-standard nomenclature by implementing an industry-validated terminology aligned with the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). In this paper, we document our ongoing efforts to make building simulation data more interoperable with other building data. In order to be able to better integrate SimModel information with other building information, we have aimed at representing this information in the Resource Description Framework (RDF). A conversion service has been built that is able to parse the SimModel ontology in the form of XSD schemas and output a SimModel ontology in OWL. In this article, we document this effort and give an indication of what the resulting SimModel ontology in OWL can be used for

Dynamics of wind-driven upwelling and relaxation between Monterey Bay and Point Arena: Local-, regional-, and gyre-scale controls

In north and central California, equatorward winds drive equatorward flows and the upwelling of cold dense water over the shelf during the midspring and summer upwelling season. When the winds temporarily weaken, the upwelling flows between Point Reyes and Point Arena relax,\u27\u27 becoming strongly poleward over the shelf. Analytical and numerical models are used to describe the effect of alongshore variability of winds, bathymetry, and basin-scale pressure gradients on the strength of upwelling and its relaxation. Alongshore winds weaken to the south of Point Reyes, and the shelf becomes narrower from Point Reyes to Monterey Bay. Both of these lead to reduced upwelling at and to the north of Point Reyes, causing an alongshore gradient of temperature and density on the shelf. These alongshore gradients lead to an along-isobath pressure gradient over the shelf that drive the relaxation flows. A simple analytical model is used to explain the dynamics, magnitude, and structure of the relaxation flows. The modeling also suggests that the depth of origin of the upwelled waters, and thus their temperature, is controlled by the along-isobath pressure gradient that exists over the continental slope. This along-slope pressure gradient is also responsible for the California undercurrent in this region. This pressure gradient is not generated in a model of the Californian coast extending from 32 degrees N to 42 degrees N and integrated for several months, suggesting it is caused by dynamics whose spatial or temporal scales are larger than the Californian coast and/or longer than several months