NOC News Round Up - 23 October 2017

Red sky, green sea? Did you notice the red sky last Monday? This eye-popping phenomenon was caused by red Saharan dust dragged here by weather conditions associated with hurricane Ophelia. In 2014 NOC's Professor Richard Lampitt published research on how the iron that gives Saharan dust its red colour also fertilizes the oceans, providing food for blooms of tiny marine plants to grow. This sudden, lush growth of plant life is as significant to controlling the amount of greenhouse gases in the world as the contribution of tropical rainforests. Read more about this on our website here.   Could a flank collapse on La Palma cause a tsunami? To answer any questions you may have on this topic, NOC scientists have put together a question and answer feature based on evidence from NOC's on-going research into marine geohazards. To read this Q&A on our website click here. NOC computer models to help inform Pearl delta planning Last Tuesday the NOC announced its involvement in a new, internationally collaborative project that will inform planning for the Pearl River Delta in China by combining measurements of salt contained in estuarine waters and computer modelling. Currently high levels of salt in the Pearl River Delta are stopping desalination plants from working well enough to meet demands for clean freshwater in this region, which is the world's largest urban area. As part of this project, computer models will provide projections of salt levels under a range of human and environmental scenarios. Click here to read more about this project. TICTOC kick-off meeting On Wednesday and Thursday last week, the NOC hosted the TICTOC kick-off meeting. TICTOC is a NERC-funded collaborative project lead by Elaine McDonagh. The project aims to estimate the rate at which heat is being absorbed into and re-distributed within the ocean in order to assess and improve climate model predictions of regional sea-level rise. TICTOC will embark scientists on research cruises to make observations of tracers in the ocean that are the result of nuclear bomb tests and aerosol can use as well as simulating these tracers in computer models. NOC at the European Marine Board meeting in Galway Last week saw the NOC attend the European Marine Board (EMB) Autumn meeting in Galway. Despite the best efforts of ex-Hurricane Ophelia, the EMB Communications Panel met on Monday to discuss the latest initiatives of the EMB, to share ideas, and to plan for the next CommOCEAN conference, which will be hosted by the NOC and held in Southampton in December 2018. Also, NOC's Head of Communications, Lucy Calvert, was voted the next chair of the panel.  The main board meeting was held at the, thankfully undamaged, Marine Institute of Ireland, where NOC's Marine Science Policy Adviser, Alan Evans, attended a series of meetings discussing the next areas of focus for the board, as well as receiving presentations about marine renewable energy and the marine science policy landscape in Europe and beyond.   This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Oceanography Centre · Waterfront Campus · European Way · Southampton · SO14 3ZH · United Kingdom