NOC News Round Up - 15 September 2017

The 1st international workshop on waves, storm surges and coastal hazards comes to a close The 1st International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards in Liverpool was a great success and a fantastic opportunity for knowledge sharing and research collaboration. Joint organisers Kevin Horsburgh of the NOC, Don Resio of the University of North Florida and Val Swail of Environment Canada all emphasised the value of predicting coastal hazards accurately and the recent, devastating effects of Hurricane Irma make the need for this all too clear. Full review of the conference will be on the NOC website shortly. Habitat mapping in Vanuatu This week NOC's Dr Tim Le Bas and David Price are preparing a small ROV (left of the photo) and UAV (to the right) to help create an environmental map in an area in Vanuatu. The mini ROV will create underwater photography of habitats in high resolution, which will be used alongside good aerial photography from the UAV in addition to bathymetry and backscatter data collected by the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) earlier this year. This will create a full environmental map, with a specific focus on seagrass and coral reef health, to aid planning. For example, a bay in the mapped area may become a marine protected area but the local government also hopes to build a jetty for large cruise ships there, to enable people to easily visit the nearby volcano, Mt Yasur. This could become a major source of income for the area but requires a basic understanding of the local environment. NOC's response to the recent hurricanes and storm surges This week the NOC's Dr David Smeed pointed to the role of ocean currents in changing hurricane frequency "Since the mid 1990's the occurrence of hurricanes has increased compared with the 1970's and 80's. This change has been linked to a cycle of Atlantic sea-surface temperatures known as the Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation (AMO), which is mainly controlled by the northward transport of heat by ocean currents. However, recently an array of instruments, known as the RAPID array, have measured a reduction in the northward transport of heat, which would impact the AMO and may lead to a reduction of hurricanes in the future." Read the full statement, including a response from NOC's Executive Director, Professor Ed Hill, on our website here. 80 year old 'Computer' visits NOC Liverpool On Monday we welcomed Brenda Finch (nee Pickering) to the Tide and Time exhibition in NOC Liverpool on the occasion of her 80th birthday, so that she could get reacquainted with the Doodson-Lége tidal prediction machine, the machine that she started working on 64 years earlier on her 16th birthday. The women who worked on and set the machines up were called 'Computers', and Brenda remembered the care and attention required to set the tidal prediction machines to run and also recalled the trouble you would find yourself in if the machine was set incorrectly! Brenda worked in Bidston on the Doodson-lége machine from 1953-56. Brenda reminisced about her time at Bidston and the people she worked with, particularly Prof. Doodson's homemade hearing aid and taking observations at Bidston on Christmas Day. It was a pleasure to have Brenda visit the exhibition on her birthday and we look forward to welcoming her again on her 90th birthday!   This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Oceanography Centre · Waterfront Campus · European Way · Southampton · SO14 3ZH · United Kingdom