NOC news round-up 8th Sept 2017

Statement by NOC scientists about hurricane Irma Following the devastating impact of hurricane Irma, NOC's Professor Kevin Horsburgh and Dr Judith Wolf made the following statement earlier this week: "Irma is the strongest storm in over 10 years and formed further east than usual. This hurricane will bring life-threatening wind, storm surge, and rainfall hazards to portions of the northern Leeward Islands today. Coastal flooding and wave impacts caused by hurricanes, such as Irma, have major social and economic impacts for coastal communities. This underlies the value of constantly improving coastal flood forecasting across the world, which is one of the aims of the next week's 1st international workshop on waves, storm surges and coastal hazards. Whereas specific hurricanes are not caused by climate change, they may be worsened by the higher surface heat content in the tropics, which provides the driving force for hurricanes. Another aspect of this year's hurricane season to note is that it started earlier than usual, with Hurricane Arlene in April as opposed to early June." Read the full statement on our website by clicking here Major European grant awarded to NOC Scientist Oceanographer Dr Stephanie Henson has been awarded a major research grant from the European Research Council (ERC).  GOCART (Gauging Ocean organic Carbon fluxes using Autonomous Robotic Technologies) is an ambitious 5-year project that will use autonomous underwater vehicles to investigate the variability of the ocean's "biological carbon pump", without which, atmospheric CO2 levels would be 50% higher than they are now. Professor Ed Hill, Director of the NOC commented, "We are delighted that Dr Henson has received such a prestigious award. These independent grants are vital for our scientists to become world-leaders in their field and we look forward to supporting Dr. Henson and her team." Read more about the project here Challenger Society Special Interest Groups NOC researchers and engineers have been contributing the Challenger Society Special Interest Groups at the Scottish Association from Marine Science, in Oban. Members from Ocean Technology and Engineering contributed to presentations at the Advances in Marine Biogeochemistry (AMBIO) working group and NOC's Dr Julie Robidart, Dr Geraldine Clinton-Bailey and Dr Socratis Loucaides led a workshop on "Autonomy in oceanography: New tools to address big questions in biogeochemistry" At the same time, NOC scientists Dr Brian Bett and Dr Aurelie Goineau contributed to the Deep-Sea Ecosystems working group, with Aurelie presenting work on deep-sea foraminifera. The next biennial Challenger Society conference will be held in Newcastle, September 2018 NOC hosts hazard hackathon This week the NOC hosted a hackathon that brought together scientists, industry representatives, statisticians and others to tackle issues concerning how natural hazards interact with each other and important infrastructure. Dr Mike Clare from the NOC, said "By collectively analysing real data we hope to address real problems with new and untested methods. One problem is how to understand the impact of combined extreme rainfall, river floods, and storm surge events. We hope to transfer learnings from different disciplines, fields and sectors. For example, can approaches used in the modelling of volcanic eruptions be transferred to flood forecasting?"  This diverse group of individuals enabled new views on existing questions and problems. To find out more click here to visit the event website. NOC attends the 4th International Marine Protected Area Conference in Chile This week the NOC is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other UK Partners in Chile discussing how NOC's technology and scientific expertise can help to inform management of marine protected areas.  Find out more on the event from @UKinChile here   This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Oceanography Centre · Waterfront Campus · European Way · Southampton · SO14 3ZH · United Kingdom