Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Analysis Of Aircraft And Satellite Measurements From The Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (Intex-B) To Quantify Long-Range Transport Of East Asian Sulfur To Canada, Aaron Van Donkelaar, R V. Martin, W R. Leaitch, A M. Macdonald, T W. Walker, David G. Streets, Q Zhang, E J. Dunlea, Jose L. Jimenez, Jack E. Dibb, L Gregory Huey, Rodney J. Weber, M O. Andreae

Earth Sciences

We interpret a suite of satellite, aircraft, and ground-based measurements over the North Pacific Ocean and western North America during April–May 2006 as part of the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Phase B (INTEX-B) campaign to understand the implications of long-range transport of East Asian emissions to North America. The Canadian component of INTEX-B included 33 vertical profiles from a Cessna 207 aircraft equipped with an aerosol mass spectrometer. Long-range transport of organic aerosols was insignificant, contrary to expectations. Measured sulfate plumes in the free troposphere over British Columbia exceeded 2 μg/m3. We update the global anthropogenic emission inventory in a …

Local Anthropogenic Impact On Particulate Elemental Carbon Concentrations At Summit, Greenland, Gayle S.W. Hagler, M Bergin, E A. Smith, M Town, Jack E. Dibb

Earth Sciences

Summit, Greenland is a remote Arctic research station allowing for field measurements at the highest point of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Due to the current reliance on diesel generators for electricity at Summit, unavoidable local emissions are a potential contamination threat to the measurement of combustion-related species in the air and snow. The effect of fossil-fuel combustion on particulate elemental carbon (EC) is assessed by a combination of ambient measurements (∼1 km from the main camp), a series of snow pits, and Gaussian plume modeling. Ambient measurements indicate that the air directly downwind of the research station generators experiences particulate …

U.S. Law Of The Sea Cruise To Map The Foot Of The Slope Of The Northeast U.S. Atlantic Continental Margin: Leg 6, Brian R. Calder, James V. Gardner

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

U.S. Law of the Sea Cruise to Map the Foot of the Slope of the Northeast U.S. Atlantic Continental Margin: Leg 6

Cruise KNOX17RR

May 1 – 31, 2008

Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Woods Hole, MA

From The Arctic To The Tropics: The U.S. Unclos Bathymetric Mapping Program, James V. Gardner, Larry A. Mayer, Andy Armstrong

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Since CHC2006, the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center has mapped with multibeam, the bathymetry of an additional ~220,000 km2 of seafloor in areas as diverse as the Arctic, the Northern Marianas of the western Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. The mapping supports any potential U.S. submission for of extended continental shelves under Article 76 of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. Consequently, the mapping has concentrated on capturing the complete extent of the 2500-m isobath and the zone where the Article 76-defined foot of the slope exists. In …

Iho S-100: The New Hydrographic Geospatial Standard For Marine Data And Information, Robert Ward, Lee Alexander, Barrie Greenslade, Anthony Pharaoh

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental consultative and technical organization established in 1921 to support the safety of navigation, and to contribute to the protection of the marine environment. One of its primary roles is to establish and maintain appropriate standards to assist in the proper and efficient use of hydrographic data and information. This paper describes the new IHO Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data to be known as S-100, together with the Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII) that is in the course of development and implementation by the IHO. In both cases, details have yet to be finalised …

Environmental Response Management Application, Michele Jacobi, Nancy E. Kinner, Rob Braswell, Kurt Schwehr, Kimberly S. Newman, Amy A. Merten

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC), a partnership between the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (ORR), is leading an effort to develop a data platform capable of interfacing both static and real-time data sets accessible simultaneously to a command post and assets in the field with an open source internet mapping server. The Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA™) is designed to give responders and decision makers ready access to geographically specific data useful during spill planning/drills, incident response, damage assessment and site restoration. In addition to oil spill and chemical release response, this …

The Impact Of Local Sources And Long-Range Transport On Aerosol Properties Over The Northeast U.S. Region During Intex-Na, K L. Thornhill, Gao Chen, Jack E. Dibb, C. Jordan, Ali Omar, E L. Winstead, Greg Schuster, A D. Clarke, Cameron Mcnaughton, Eric Scheuer, D R. Blake, Glen Sachse, L Gregory Huey, H B. Singh, Bruce E. Anderson

Earth Sciences

We use data collected aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the summer 2004, Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Evolution Experiment over North America (INTEX-NA) field campaign to examine the origin, composition, physical and optical properties of aerosols within air masses sampled over and downwind of the northeastern U.S. We note that aerosol concentrations within the region exhibited steep vertical gradients and significant variability in both time and space. An examination of air mass chemical signatures and backward trajectories indicates that transport from four, significantly different source regions contributed to the variability: the subtropical Atlantic Ocean (AO); the U.S. west coast and …

Factors Influencing The Large-Scale Distribution Of Hg° In The Mexico City Area And Over The North Pacific, Robert W. Talbot, Huiting Mao, Jack E. Dibb, M A. Avery, E V. Browell, G W. Sachse, S Vay, D R. Blake, L Gregory Huey, H Fuelberg

Earth Sciences

Gas-phase elemental mercury (Hg°) was measured aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Phase B (INTEX-B) campaign in spring 2006. Flights were conducted around Mexico City and on two subsequent deployments over the North Pacific based out of Honolulu, Hawaii and Anchorage, Alaska. Data obtained from 0.15–12 km altitude showed that Hg° exhibited a relatively constant vertical profile centered around 100 ppqv. Highly concentrated pollution plumes emanating from the Mexico City urban agglomeration revealed that mixing ratios of Hg° as large as 500 ppqv were related to combustion tracers such as CO, but not SO2 which …

Use Of Portable Piloting Units By Maritime Pilots, Lee Alexander, Michael J. Casey

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The use of electronic navigation equipment onboard maritime vessels continues to increase, worldwide. The results of a recent Canadian study provide clear evidence that maritime pilots know what types of equipment to use -- and how to use them.

High-Precision, High-Accuracy Timekeeping In Distributed Survey Systems, Brian R. Calder, Rick Brennan, J Marcus, C Malzone, Peter Canter

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Accurate and precise timekeeping between computers in a distributed survey system is essential to ensure adequate data quality, especially with Multibeam Echosounders (MBES) which can otherwise suffer from significant motion artefacts. We show that clock synchronisation on the order of 100-150ns (rms) is readily achievable in a modern MBES-based survey system utilising an Ethernet-based time synchronisation mechanism and some custom timekeeping software. We also show that improving the timekeeping eliminates motion artefacts in the observed bathymetry, and simplifies the patch-test procedure.

Production Of Marine Information Overlays (Mios), Lee Alexander, Michael Huet

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

No abstract provided.

Mosaicing Tool For Aerial Imagery From A Lidar Bathymetry Survey, Shachak Pe'eri, Yuri Rzhanov

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Aerial imagery collected during lidar bathymetry surveying provides an independent reference dataset for ground truth. Mosaicing of aerial imagery requires some manual involvement by the operator, which is time consuming. This paper presents an automatic mosaicing procedure that creates a continuous and visually consistent photographic map of the imaged area. This study aimed to use only the frames from the aerial camera without additional information. A comparison between the features in the resultant mosaic and a reference chart shows that the mosaic is visually consistent and there is good spatial-geometric correlation of features.

U.S. Law Of The Sea Cruise To Map The Western Insular Margin And 2500-M Isobath Of Guam And The Northern Mariana Islands. Cruise Report, James V. Gardner

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

U.S. Law of the Sea cruise to map the western insular margin and 2500-m isobath of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. CRUISE BD07-1 November 16, to December 17, 2007 Garapan, Saipan, to Garapan, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Seismic-Py: Reading Seismic Data With Python, Kurt Schwehr

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The field of seismic exploration of the Earth has changed dramatically over the last half a century. The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) has worked to create standards to store the vast amounts of seismic data in a way that will be portable across computer architectures. However, it has been impossible to predict the needs of the immense range of seismic data acquisition systems. As a result, vendors have had to bend the rules to accommodate the needs of new instruments and experiment types. For low level access to seismic data, there is need for a standard open source library …

Development And Assessment Of Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Products For Shoreline Mapping, Lynnette V. Morgan, Shachak Pe'eri, Andy Armstrong

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Accurate and consistent shoreline determinations play a major role in nautical charting and coastal management boundary assessment. Delineations along this dynamic margin are dependent upon the stage of tide and are demarcated by tidal datums such as Mean High Water (MHW) and Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW). This study investigated airborne lidar bathymetry (ALB) as a potential tool to support shoreline mapping. A computerized process was devised to obtain shoreline determinations from a lidar dataset processed using various algorithms and by devising a threshold to distinguish land and water. The algorithm-derived land-water interfaces are analyzed against the reference shoreline constructed …

Validation Of The Aura Microwave Limb Sounder Hnomeasurements, M L. Santee, A Lambert, W G. Read, N J. Livesey, R E. Cofield, D T. Cuddy, W H. Daffer, B J. Drouin, L Froidevaux, R A. Fuller, R F. Jarnot, B W. Knosp, G L. Manney, V S. Perun, W V. Snyder, P C. Stek, R P. Thurstans, P A. Wagner, J W. Waters, G Muscari, R L. De Zafra, Jack E. Dibb, D W. Fahey, P J. Popp, T P. Marcy, K W. Jucks, G C. Toon, R A. Stachnik, P F. Bernath, C D. Boone, K A. Walker, J Urban, D Murtagh

Earth Sciences

We assess the quality of the version 2.2 (v2.2) HNO₃ measurements from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Earth Observing System Aura satellite. The MLS HNO₃ product has been greatly improved over that in the previous version (v1.5), with smoother profiles, much more realistic behavior at the lowest retrieval levels, and correction of a high bias caused by an error in one of the spectroscopy files used in v1.5 processing. The v2.2 HNO₃ data are scientifically useful over the range 215 to 3.2 hPa, with single-profile precision of ∼0.7 ppbv throughout. Vertical resolution is 3–4 km …

Total Depletion Of Hg° In The Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere, R. Talbot, Huiting Mao, Jack E. Dibb, M A. Avery

Earth Sciences

Our current understanding of atmospheric mercury lacks fundamental details. Gas phase elemental mercury (Hg°) was measured aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-Phase B (INTEX-B) conducted in spring 2006 over the North Pacific. Our data confirm efficient chemical cycling of Hg° in the tropopause region and show that it is strongly anti-correlated with O₃ there, yielding a tropospheric-stratospheric mixing curve of ∼−0.20 ppqv Hg°/ppbv O₃. In addition, we found frequent total depletion of Hg° in upper tropospheric (8–12 km) air masses impacted by stratospheric influence. When O₃ mixing ratios were >300 …

A Summer Time Series Of Particulate Carbon In The Air And Snow At Summit, Greenland, Gayle S.W. Hagler, M Bergin, Eugene A. Smith, Jack E. Dibb

Earth Sciences

Carbonaceous particulate matter is ubiquitous in the lower atmosphere, produced by natural and anthropogenic sources and transported to distant regions, including the pristine and climate-sensitive Greenland Ice Sheet. During the summer of 2006, ambient particulate carbonaceous compounds were characterized on the Greenland Ice Sheet, including the measurement of particulate organic (OC) and elemental (EC) carbon, particulate water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), particulate absorption coefficient (σ_ap), and particle size-resolved number concentration (PM_0.1–1.0). Additionally, parallel ∼50-day time series of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC), and elemental carbon (EC) were quantified at time increments of 4–24 …

Encoding Ais Binary Messages In Xml Format For Providing Hydrographic-Related Information, Schwehr Kurt, Lee Alexander

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

A specification is proposed to enable hydrographic and maritime safety agencies to encode AIS messages using Extensible Markup Language (XML). It specifies the order, length, and type of fields contained in ITU-R.M.1371-1. A XML schema validates the message definitions, and a XSLT style sheet produces reference documentation in 'html' format. AIS binary messages in XML are an effective means to communicate dynamic and real-time port/waterway information. For example, tidal information can be continuously broadcast to maritime users and applied to a "tide-aware" ENC. The XML format aligns with the type of data encapsulation planned for the IHO Geospatial Standard for …

Ais Binary Messages, Domain Examples And A Case For A Xml Message Definition Language, Schwehr Kurt

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

No abstract provided.

Relationship Of Marine Information Overlays (Mios) To Current/Future Iho Standards, Lee Alexander, Michael Huet

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

No abstract provided.

U.S. Law Of The Sea Cruise To Map The Foot Of The Slope And 2500-M Isobath Of The U.S. Arctic Ocean Margin. Cruise Report For 2007, Larry A. Mayer, Andy Armstrong

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

USCGC Icebreaker Healy (WAGB-20) U.S. Law of the Sea cruise to map the foot of the slope and 2500-m isobath of the US Arctic Ocean margin

CRUISES HE-0703

August 17 to September 15, 2007

Barrow, AK to Barrow, AK

Marine Ship Automatic Identification System (Ais) For Enhanced Coastal Security Capabilities: An Oil Spill Tracking Application, Kurt Schwehr, Philip A. Mcgillivary

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

National and international trade via shipping is already significant, and expected to continue increasing rapidly over the next decade. Both more ships and larger ships will contribute to this trade, includingships from countries with less rigorous shipping maintenance and inspection standards than the United States, and less strict pollution monitoring regulations. Changes in ship traffic management protocols have been implemented in recent years in the U.S. to minimize damage to coastlines, particularly near sensitive or protected marine environments. For example, to reduce risk to coastal resources off central California, shipping lanes for larger vessels were moved further offshore to allow …

Acoustic Positioning And Tracking In Portsmouth Harbour, New Hampshire, Michelle Weirathmueller, Thomas C. Weber, Val E. Schmidt, Glenn Mcgillicuddy, Larry A. Mayer, Lloyd C. Huff

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire, is frequently used as a testing area for multibeam and sidescan sonars, and is the location of numerous ground-truthing studies. Having the ability to accurately position underwater sensors is an important aspect of this type of work. However, underwater positioning in Portsmouth Harbor is challenging. It is relatively shallow, approximately one kilometer wide with depths of less than 25 meters. There is mixing between fresh river water and seawater, which is intensified by high currents and strong tides. This causes a very complicated spatial and temporal sound speed structure. Solutions that use the time-of-arrival of an …

Enhancement Of Underwater Video Mosaics For Post-Processing, Yuri Rzhanov, Fan Gu

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Mosaics of seafloor created from still images or video acquired underwater have proved to be useful for construction of maps of forensic and archeological sites, species' abundance estimates, habitat characterization, etc. Images taken by a camera mounted on a stable platform are registered (at first pair-wise and then globally) and assembled in a high resolution visual map of the surveyed area. While this map is usually sufficient for a human orientation and even quantitative measurements, it often contains artifacts that complicate an automatic post-processing (for example, extraction of shapes for organism counting, or segmentation for habitat characterization). The most prominent …

Particulate And Water-Soluble Carbon Measured In Recent Snow At Summit, Greenland, Gayle S.W. Hagler, M Bergin, Eugene A. Smith, Jack E. Dibb, Casey Anderson, Eric J. Steig

Earth Sciences

Water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), waterinsoluble particulate organic carbon (WIOC), and particulate elemental carbon (EC) were measured simultaneously for the first time on the Greenland Ice Sheet in surface snow and in a 3-meter snow pit. Snow pit concentrations reveal that, on average, WSOC makes up the majority (89%) of carbonaceous species, followed by WIOC (10%) and EC (1%). The enhancement of OC relative to EC (ratio 99:1) in Greenland snow suggests that, along with atmospheric particulate matter, gaseous organics contribute to snow-phase OC. Comparison of summer surface snow concentrations in 2006 with past summer snow pit layers (2002 – 2005) …

Impact Of Multiscale Dynamical Processes And Mixing On The Chemical Composition Of The Upper Troposphere And Lower Stratosphere During The Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment–North America, T D. Fairlie, Melody A. Avery, R B. Pierce, J Al-Saadi, Jack E. Dibb, G W. Sachse

Earth Sciences

We use high-frequency in situ observations made from the DC8 to examine fine-scale tracer structure and correlations observed in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during INTEX-NA. Two flights of the NASA DC-8 are compared and contrasted. Chemical data from the DC-8 flight on 18 July show evidence for interleaving and mixing of polluted and stratospheric air masses in the vicinity of the subtropical jet in the upper troposphere, while on 2 August the DC-8 flew through a polluted upper troposphere and a lowermost stratosphere that showed evidence of an intrusion of polluted air. We compare data from both flights …

An Overview Of Snow Photochemistry: Evidence, Mechanisms And Impacts, A M. Grannas, A E. Jones, Jack E. Dibb, M Ammann, Cort Anastasio, H J. Beine, M Bergin, J Bottenheim, C S. Boxe, G Carver, G Chen, J H. Crawford, Florent Domine, M M. Frey, M I. Guzman, D E. Heard, D Helmig, M R. Hoffmann, R E. Honrath, L Gregory Huey, Manuel Hutterli, H W. Jacobi, P Klan, Barry Lefer, J Mcconnell, J Plane, R Sander, J Savarino, P B. Shepson, W R. Simpson, J R. Sodeau, R Von Glasow, R Weller, E W. Wolff, T Zhu

Earth Sciences

It has been shown that sunlit snow and ice plays an important role in processing atmospheric species. Photochemical production of a variety of chemicals has recently been reported to occur in snow/ice and the release of these photochemically generated species may significantly impact the chemistry of the overlying atmosphere. Nitrogen oxide and oxidant precursor fluxes have been measured in a number of snow covered environments, where in some cases the emissions significantly impact the overlying boundary layer. For example, photochemical ozone production (such as that occurring in polluted mid-latitudes) of 3-4 ppbv/day has been observed at South Pole, due to …

U.S. Law Of The Sea Cruise To Map The Foot Of The Slope And 2500-M Isobath Of The Florida Escarpment And Sigsbee Escarpment, Northern Gulf Of Mexico Continental Marg. Cruise Report, James V. Gardner

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

U.S. Law of the Sea cruise to map the foot of the slope and 2500-m isobath of the Florida Escarpment and Sigsbee Escarpment, northern Gulf of Mexico continental margin

CRUISE NR07-1

Mobile, AL to Mobile, AL

June 21, 2007 to July 8, 2007

Exploiting Full-Waveform Lidar Data And Multiresolution Wavelet Analysis For Vertical Object Detection And Recognition, Christopher Parrish

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

A current challenge in performing airport obstruction surveys using airborne lidar is lack of reliable, automated methods for extracting and attributing vertical objects from the lidar data. This paper presents a new approach to solving this problem, taking advantage of the additional data provided byfull-waveform systems. The procedure entails first deconvolving and georeferencing the lidar waveformdata to create dense, detailed point clouds in which the vertical structure of objects, such as trees, towers, and buildings, is well characterized. The point clouds are then voxelized to produce high-resolution volumes of lidar intensity values, and a 3D wavelet decomposition is computed. Verticalobject …