Ocean Observing in
Newfoundland & Labrador
- Some Practical
Applications
Maritime Collaboration Summit
Nov 18, 2009 – San Diego
Government of Canada
National Fisheries Aerial Surveillance Program
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•
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General:
– Private sector maritime surveillance program
– Complete, turn-key service
– Delivered by Provincial Aerospace Ltd.
– 24/7/365 operations
– 8,000 airborne maritime surveillance hours per
year
– Many countries use private sector companies to
create or augment maritime domestic
enforcement presence
Major Mission Equipment:
– Multimode military radar
– Gyrostabilized forward looking infrared
– Tactical data management system
– Real time SATCOM/Swiftbroadband
– Nighttime ship identification
– 6-pairs of mark-II human eyeballs
Missions:
– Fisheries, pollution, illegal migration, search &
rescue, counter narcotics, sovereignty, support
to military operations, etc.
Ice & Environmental Monitoring
North Atlantic Oil Production and Exploration Industry
• Background:
– Exploration and production activities
conducted in ice infested waters (pack ice
and icebergs)
– Significant threat to safety at sea
operations
• Provincial Aerospace Ltd. Provides:
– Program comprises ice detection,
mapping, reporting and management
– Fixed wing ice reconnaissance services
using special missions configured aircraft
– Missions executed on a daily basis during
the ice season (March – June)
– Ice management includes tracking, drift
prediction and where necessary
towing/deflection
– Also includes site specific weather
forecasting and observations, all tracked
electronically
Polar View – Satellite–based Ice Observation
Funded mainly through ESA,
Managed by C-CORE
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Estonia
France
Finland
Germany
Iceland
Italy
Norway
Sweden
Russia
United Kingdom
USA
Program Manager
C-CORE
Euro -Russian
Arctic Node
Manager: met.no
North American
Node
Manager: C-CORE
More than 80 partners from 16
countries
Baltic Node
Manager: FMI
Antarctic Node
Manager: BAS
WWW.POLARVIEW.ORG
Services
User Concerns
Sea Ice and Icebergs
Safety
High-resolution ice charts
Medium-resolution ice charts
Sea ice thickness charts
Ice forecasts
Floe edge maps
Iceberg detection reports
Global sea ice products
Shipping
Offshore operations
Hunting and fishing
River and Lake Ice
Ice classification maps
Ice cover change maps
Annotated imagery
Ice conditions history
Freeze-up/melt-onset timing
Glaciers and Snow
Glacier facies maps
Mass-balance modelling report
Glacier velocity maps
Snow cover maps
Snow water equivalent
Water and Environment
Water resources management
Flood forecasting
Hydropower management
Pollution transport
Adapting to Climate Change
Shipping
Offshore operations
Hunting and fishing
Water resources management
Flood forecasting
Hydropower management
Applied Ocean Observation supporting
‘Better Information….Better Decisions’
The SmartBay Vision
“Simple access by all stakeholders to data and
information in support of effective
management and sustainable development of
coastal ocean areas and the safety and
security of life at sea.”
or simply put:
Better Information….Better Decisions
Why Placentia Bay?
•
Economic importance
– Year round activity
– Fishery, oil and gas, transportation, tourism, new
heavy industry proposed and under development.
– 2nd to Vancouver in value of goods shipped
– Over 500 fishing enterprises
90 x125 kms
•
Environmental sensitivity
– Brander-Smith Report (1990), Transport Canada
(2008)
– 30+ years without a major incident
– 1200 tanker movements/yr. – 320 Mbbls
•
Rapidly becoming the Province’s industrial
heartland
– Location of choice for new heavy industry
Photo: Newfoundland LNG Limited
Fundamentals of
SmartBay
• Access to static and dynamic/real time
data from a variety of sources
• Focus on applications of the technology
• Outputs must be readily accessible and
practical – in other words useful to all
potential end users
• Applications from research to practical
Better Information….Better
Decisions
Value Added Products
• General weather synopsis
• High Resolution forecasts for areas of
interest
– SmartBay is the first commercial
application of the Weather Research
and Forecast (WRF) hi-res. forecast
model in Canada
• Prediction of wind, waves, air, sea
temperature, precipitation, icing potential
To come
• Current circulation model
• Spill trajectory modeling
Catalyst for Ocean Innovation
•Test-bed and demo. site for new technologies –
buoys can accommodate additional instrumentation
•Data source for other commercial and R&D
initiatives
•An operational ‘laboratory’ supporting innovation
and training through applied R&D with industry,
government and academia
www.SmartBay.ca