CCOM/JHC latest news

CCOM SEMINAR SERIES: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:00:00 P.M.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

The Ocean From Some New Remote Vantage Points

The last two decades have provided a slew of new earth system observations from low earth orbiting satellites. Using these tools, oceanography has gained the ability to track sea level, circulation, ocean winds and waves, and surface temperature at increasing levels of resolution and accuracy. Numerous ongoing projects within the UNH Ocean Process Analysis Laboratory are contributing to these refinements in satellite measurements and applications. This talk will present new results from a couple perspectives. One key ocean state variable that has yet to be measured from space is seawater salinity. However, this is about to change, and recent results from our team showing first ocean views of surface salinity in the equatorial Atlantic will be discussed along with detail on new dedicated salinity observing missions being launched by ESA and NASA in 2009 and 2010. In a separate vein, the use of satellite ocean color imagery to study ocean phytoplankton dynamics is a central OPAL research theme and a new approach to evaluating the impact of horizontal advection on ocean color time series data will be presented. Using the Gulf of Maine as an example, I'll discuss how an ocean circulation model is used to help interpret surface layer carbon production rates under a Langrangian rather than Eulerian viewpoint

For location and more details, please see the CCOM seminars page

All are welcome to attend!

CCOM SEMINAR SERIES: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:00:00 P.M.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core Project

The U.S research community is conducting a deep ice coring project in West Antarctica for studies of climate, ice sheet history and cryobiology. This project is collecting a deep ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) ice flow divide and integrating approximately 30 separate but synergistic projects to analyze the ice and interpret the records. The most significant characteristic of the WAIS Divide project is the development of climate records with an absolute, annual-layer-counted chronology for the most recent ~40,000 years. Lower temporal resolution records will extend to ~100,000 years before present. The WAIS Divide ice core will provide the first Southern Hemisphere climate and greenhouse gas records of comparable time resolution and duration to the Greenland ice cores enabling detailed comparison of environmental conditions between the northern and southern hemispheres, and the study of greenhouse gas concentrations in the paleo-atmosphere, with a greater level of detail than previously possible.

For location and more details, please see the CCOM seminars page

All are welcome to attend!

CCOM SEMINAR SERIES: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:00 P.M.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Virtual Ocean: A venue for discovery and visualization of the ocean interior and its substrate via the WEB

Virtual Ocean takes advantage of OGC-compliant Web Services and distributed servers to let users explore and manipulate a growing inventory of data resources from the global ocean, its seas, estuaries and rivers for scientific research, education and public outreach. The exploration is accomplished through a choice of viewports, including Mercator and polar stereographic projections and a 3-D virtual globe. Virtual Ocean opens directly from a browser window using Java Web Start and runs in operating systems common in laboratories, schools, libraries and homes. It offers multi-resolution global topography and bathymetry with eight successive doublings of magnification using terrestrial elevations derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and seafloor depths derived from satellite altimetry and multibeam swath mapping by ships. Gridded datasets can be exaggerated, colored, illuminated, shaded, contoured and adjusted for transparency. Tabular data appear in a spreadsheet interface that interacts with the icons in the map window and graphs. Datasets open automatically from searchable cascading menus and from browsing the capabilities of external Web Feature and Web Mapping services. Virtual Ocean integrates Java classes from Columbia University's GeoMapApp application with the NASA World Wind Java SDK.

For location and more details, please see the CCOM seminars page

All are welcome to attend!

CCOM SEMINAR SERIES: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:00:00 P.M.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Tagging whales in Fjords of the West Antarctic Peninsula

For location and more details, please see the CCOM seminars page

All are welcome to attend!

Indiana School Welcomes Home NOAA 'Teacher at Sea' from Arctic Voyage Teacher Discovers New Seamount

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: NOAA
Students from Carmel Middle School in Carmel, Ind., welcomed home Christine Hedge, a seventh-grade science teacher who spent six weeks in the Arctic Ocean on board the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy as part of a multi-year, multi-agency effort to collect seafloor mapping and oceanographic data along the North American Extended Continental Shelf.

'The discovery of this seamount is a prime example of how little we know about the Arctic Ocean,' said retired NOAA Capt. Andy Armstrong, the mission's co-chief scientist and co-director of the NOAA-University of New Hampshire Joint Hydrographic Center. 'Christine's keen observations allowed us to react in time to turn the ship and explore this important seafloor feature in closer detail.'

Teacher's mission through Arctic Ocean

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

CARMEL (WISH) - This year, some students in Central Indiana got lessons from the top of the world. A Carmel Middle School teacher spent several weeks on a mission to and through the Arctic Ocean. 24 hour news 8’s Scott Sander sat down with Captain Andy Armstrong, the chief scientist on the mission, and teacher Christine Hedge to talk about how the state is recognizing her efforts.

CCOM SEMINAR SERIES: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:00:00 P.M.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Airborne sampling in the North American Arctic to assess the impact of long-range transport of pollutants on the composition of the Arctic troposphere and climate

POLARCAT was a very large international campaign, organized as part of IPY, targeting improved understanding of atmospheric transport of pollutants into the Arctic and the impact of these pollutants on climate in the region. Hundreds of research teams contributed to POLARCAT, including US teams supported by NASA, NOAA, NSF and DOE. The NASA contribution to POLARCAT was named ARCTAS, and it involved airborne sampling from three aircraft, close coordination with satellite-based remote sensing teams, and multiple modeling teams for both forecasting and analysis. This presentation will provide overviews of POLARCAT and ARCTAS, but will focus largely on the specific objectives targeted by, and preliminary findings that were obtained from, the NASA DC-8. Emphasis on the DC-8 reflects the fact that two teams from UNH were onboard this platform for ARCTAS. Thus, we understand the multiple considerations that guided each flight, and the implications of the observations that were made.

For location and more details, please see the CCOM seminars page

All are welcome to attend!

Atlis Informatie Systemen BV, CCOM's newest Industry Partner.

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

ATLIS is a knowledge organisation specialised in Spatial Information Systems, project management, and Enterprise Java. ATLIS supports these disciplines with three separate service-lines.

Technology shows local ocean maps outdated

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: SeacoastOnline.com
CCOM alumn Cmdr. Shepard Smith Cmdr. of the Thomas Jefferson said Monday the Hassler will be the fourth NOAA hydrographic survey ship, with equipment to map the ocean floor to provide accurate nautical charts to commercial and recreational boats.

Fledermaus Technology Used in 1400 Meter Plume Discovery Off the Northern California Coast

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: PR-USA.net
James V. Gardner and Mashkoor Malik (of The Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping (CCOM) UNH and NOAA, respectively) participated on the cruise, and provided details of the discovery in the August 11, 2009 issue of EOS.

Healy makes stop in Kodiak

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: Kodiak Daily Mirror
The crew of the Healy has spent the past three months underway studying Arctic Ocean hydrography and mapping the Extended continental shelf.

Scientists collaborate in exploring continent's extended continental shelf

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: Media-Newswire
One of the highlights of the 2009 mission was the August 25 discovery of an underwater mountain, known as a seamount, by scientists aboard the Healy. ( An underwater geologic feature needs to extend at least 1,000 meters above the seafloor to quality as a seamount. ) The not-yet-named seamount is the first discovered in the Arctic since 2003.

CCOM Newsletter (the Anchor) now online!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

In This Issue *Tagging Whales in the Antarctic Seas
*AUV Boot Camp
*Tech Talk
*Wiki Quickies
*New Grant...and more!

Andy's blog on discovering the seamount.

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

Read Andy's blog on discovering the seamount on August 25th, 2009.

Welcome to Earth's "New" Ocean: The Arctic

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: The New York Times - DOT EARTH
Larry Mayer, an oceanographer from the University of New Hampshire scouring the sea bottom from the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, said this: The new seamount is small but unusual in its isolation (at least we think it's isolated - remember we didn't know it was there - and I suspect there are many others that we don't know about) - but this one is sitting in the middle of nowhere in the abyssal plain and will only add to the mysteries of the origin of this part of the Arctic.

Fledermaus - It's Like a Video Game for Science - blog entry by ARMADA teacher Jonathan Pazol

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST

Every minute spent aboard the Healy during this expedition, we have been collecting data. The multibeam echosounder and the "Chirp" system run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Millions of data points have been collected and then processed by the 7 scientists assigned that task during their watches. That data then get uploaded into a computer software program that puts them all together.

This program, called Fledermaus, which Chief scientist Larry Mayer helped to develop, is an interactive three-dimensional (3D) tool that provides a way to prepare, analyze and present data. It was designed for the display of geographic features, such as mountains or ocean floors but has many other uses as well.

NOAA Joins Other U.S. Agencies and Canada to Survey the Arctic Continental Shelf

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST

Article source: NOAA
Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center, is the chief scientist for the U.S. mission. NOAA's Andy Armstrong, a physical scientist and co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center, is the co-chief scientist. NOAA and the University of New Hampshire jointly operate the Joint Hydrographic Center.

The 41-day joint mission runs from August 7 to September 16 and will see the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent operating together to obtain a variety of data.