Archive for the ‘Thomas Jefferson’ Category
Spring is always a noteworthy time at Coast Survey, as the hydrographic season gets underway. This year is no exception, with some neat projects ahead.
On the East Coast, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson continues her work with the multi-state, multi-agency Long Island Sound Seafloor Mapping Initiative, as well as acquiring data over 87 square nautical miles in the approaches to New York to update nautical charts. In June, Thomas Jefferson begins some of her summer-long extensive 2013 post-Sandy surveys in Delaware Bay (supported by Title X, Chapter 2, of H.R. 152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013).
As our newest survey vessel, NOAA Ship Ferdinand Hassler, prepares for a long survey career, the crew is taking her through final repairs, upgrades, training, and inspection this spring. If all goes well, Hassler will then survey approaches to Chesapeake Bay in July, before heading to her new homeport in New Castle, New Hampshire. Once there, Hassler plans to survey approaches to New Hampshire and conduct some tests and evaluations of a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for surveying.
Families give the Rainier a heartfelt sendoff. (We’ve blocked the children’s faces to protect online identities.)
On the West Coast, NOAA Ship Rainier will spend part of her season in southeast Alaska, surveying numerous locations, and moving to the Southern Alaska Peninsula in late summer. Rainier will survey 183 SNM of Chatham Strait, which is used regularly by cruise liners, ferries, military vessels, and tugs and barges – and provides larger ships with refuge when they need to avoid storms in the Gulf of Alaska. Rainier also plans to survey 70 SNM at Behm Canal, and 165 SNM at Sumner Strait and Affleck Canal. Later in the summer, Rainier will survey around Cold Bay and the Shumagin Islands. During the transit from their homeport at Newport, Oregon, Rainier will also acquire multibeam backscatter data off the Washington and Oregon coast.
We had to change plans for NOAA Ship Fairweather, which was originally scheduled to tackle some work in the Arctic this summer. This 45-year-old ship needed repairs, and won’t be available for surveys until late August – which is too late for the long haul up to the Arctic. Instead, as soon as she gets underway, Fairweather will assist with an ocean acidification project along the California coast, which will help inform climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Fairweather may also survey around Los Angeles / Long Beach and San Diego.
Even though Fairweather won’t be headed north this year, we continue our commitment to the Arctic by using a commercial hydrographic contractor for the essential survey work needed in the approaches to Red Dog Mine and around Krenitzin Island. We are also planning for additional contractor surveys as part of our post-Sandy survey work in New York and New Jersey waters, and for chart updates in the approaches to Mississippi Sound, approaches to Barataria Bay, and along the Louisiana coast.
Additionally, Coast Survey’s navigation response teams are surveying this year in Panama City, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine, Florida; Galveston and Sabine Pass, Texas; Eastern Long Island Sound; and San Francisco Bay. Of course, prime survey season is also prime hurricane season, so the navigation response teams are also updating hurricane plans and performing preventive maintenance so they are ready to deploy as needed for post-hurricane rapid maritime response.
By Ensign Brittany Anderson, Junior Officer, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson
After a quiet winter at home port, the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson completed her sea trials this week in preparation for the 2013 field season.
Each year, prior to departing for working grounds, the Thomas Jefferson transits to the Chesapeake Bay to perform tests on the ship’s and launches’ systems and hydrographic survey equipment. Crews conduct numerous tests to check the accuracy and precision of multibeam echosounders, side scan sonar, and the sophisticated suite of programs that process all the data. Additionally, this is an opportunity to ensure the safety of the vessel and her crew by performing numerous safety drills and readdressing safety standards and operating procedures.
This is a screen capture of the simultaneous multibeam and side scan coverage of an obstruction used to verify the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson’s imaging and bathymetric sonars.
But it wasn’t all just tests and drills. During her transit, the Thomas Jefferson also deployed a GPS tide buoy to make real-time tides more accurate and efficient for the region.
Jack Riley and Brian Murray from Coast Survey’s Hydrographic Systems and Technology Programs Branch assist with GPS tide buoy deployment.
Now that the vessels and equipment are ready for the season and the crew has their sea legs back, the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson will be returning to the Northeast this year to further update nautical charts for critical shipping and transportation regions.
by Ensign Brittany Anderson, Junior Officer, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson
The NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson wrapped up her field season last week.
After 193 days away from home, the hydrographic survey vessel completed 14, 768.9 linear nautical miles of survey. This covered 352 square nautical miles of area in Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound. Due to this work, 38 dangers to navigation (DTONs) were issued, protecting maritime traffic in the area.
Additionally, the Thomas Jefferson was in prime position to respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in October and November. The U.S. Coast Guard requested assistance from NOAA after New York Harbor was closed to all traffic, preventing crucial goods and services from reaching the citizens of New York City. The Thomas Jefferson and her two launches ran 170.74 linear nautical miles of side scan sonar and multibeam echo sounder operations (MBES), while also surveying 53.82 linear nautical miles of object detection MBES.
Thomas Jefferson has returned to homeport for the winter. On November 9, after an exceedingly successful field season, the ship and her crew arrived at NOAA’s Marine Operation Center – Atlantic in Norfolk.
See WAVY-10 TV coverage of the Thomas Jefferson arrival at Norfolk, with some great explanations of their work responding to requests for help following Hurricane Sandy.
Also see earlier posts, Thomas Jefferson finds two divers in Block Island Sound and Thomas Jefferson mapping Long Island Sound.
The Ferdinand R. Hassler and Thomas Jefferson are rafted together at NOAA’s Marine Operation Center – Atlantic.
NOAA continues to work in partnership with other federal, state, and local partners in response to the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. NOAA’s efforts are focused on navigation surveys to restore maritime commerce; aerial surveys to assist in those efforts and to aid on-the-ground responders from FEMA and local authorities; and in oil spill cleanup and damage assessment. NOAA’s National Weather Service is also keeping authorities aware of changing weather conditions that could impact recovery and response efforts.
NOAA’s hydrographic survey vessels, including two three-person navigation response teams (NRTs) and the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson with her two survey launches, have completed surveys of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Working over the past five days, the high-tech vessels searched approximately 20 square nautical miles of shipping lanes, channels, and terminals to search for dangers to navigation.
Coast Survey navigation managers were embedded with the Coast Guard Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit for the Port of NY/NJ, coordinating NOAA’s survey response. Lt. Brent Pounds, NOAA, explains ongoing survey operations to one of the port’s terminal operators during the height of operations.
Working with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit, NOAA surveyors provided near-real time updates on underwater object detection (including debris and shipping containers) that allowed the USCG Captain of the Port to make decisions on port status. (Note: Follow the status of port conditions at U.S. Coast Guard Digital News.)
In addition to aiding in the gradual reopening of the New York City-area port to shipping, including special emergency deliveries of needed petroleum fuels products, NOAA navigation survey response teams also provided valuable data to allow for: the reopening of the port at Hampton Roads, Virginia, home of the largest naval base in the world and one of the nation’s leading ports for the shipping of coal; the reopening of the ports of Baltimore and Philadelphia; and the resumption of the ferry that connects Lewes, Del., and Cape May, N.J.— an important access route to bring aid to stricken New Jersey and Delaware shore communities.
While NOAA’s navigation assets have completed their primary assignments, they remain available to continue to assist the U.S. Coast Guard, as needed, and will be conducting additional surveys in smaller navigational areas of South Jersey and Delaware in coming days.
The NRTs’ work helps speed the re-opening of ports and waterways, allowing the flow of relief supplies, and enabling the resumption of ocean commerce — valued at more than $1 trillion annually to the nation’s economy — to resume.
The processed images from multibeam echosounders provide critical images of the seafloor. This image of a sunken container was acquired during the post-Sandy survey of the Port of NY/NJ, processed by a survey technician on the Thomas Jefferson.
NOAA hydrographers and survey technicians will continue to process the billions of points of data collected by the five NOAA vessels since Sandy response operations began on Oct. 30 at the Port of New York and New Jersey. While initial assessments are based off on-scene observations, additional image processing may reveal further details.
Once processed, Sandy response hydrographic data collected by all NOAA survey vessels in N.Y., N.J., Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake Bay will be available from the National Geophysical Data Center. This data is valuable for contemporary use—but also for reference if NOAA vessels need to re-survey the same areas in future years.
The National Ocean Service has more information on the status of post-Sandy operations for damage assessment, pollution response, and weather reporting.
Example of depth measurements of Sandy Hook Channel from one of NOAA’s post-Sandy surveys.
Coast Survey’s major survey operations in response to Sandy are completed in Port of Virginia, allowing port operations to resume. That timely resumption is proving to be vital for East Coast shipping, as the port is now receiving cargo diverted from the Port of New York and New Jersey. Associated Press is reporting that more than a thousand containers were offloaded in Virginia yesterday, with more on the way.
Meanwhile, critical survey work continues in the Port of New York and New Jersey, with two of Coast Survey’s navigation response teams (NRT) and two of the Thomas Jefferson launches continuing their search for dangers to navigation in shipping channels and terminals. Today, the high tech survey boats attached to the Thomas Jefferson surveyed the East River, as the ship processes data for delivery to the Coast Guard. One of the boats then went to survey Church Hill Channel this afternoon, while the other went to Gravesend Bay. NRT 2 is surveying Port Elizabeth and Port Newark in Newark Bay. NRT 5 surveyed Kill Van Kull and then proceeded to Author Kill.
(Note: Follow the status of port conditions at U.S. Coast Guard Digital News.)
Getting the surveys done, quickly but thoroughly, is extremely important to the nation’s economy. Over $200 billion of imports and exports moved through the Port of NY/NJ in 2011. It is the country’s third largest port, by value of cargo (fourth largest, by volume). The flow of trade at the port reaches from America’s heartland, with exports like automobiles and meat, in addition to many other commodities. (See PANYNJ Trade Statistics.)
This graphic, compiled by NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, Navigation Services Division, depicts the surveys at the Port of NY/NJ. NOAA’s planned and completed surveys (shown in blue) are 82% of the total survey requests for the port.
Bonus photo for the day: Ensign Brittany Anderson, onboard the Thomas Jefferson, captured this picture of one of the TJ’s high-tech survey boats (called a “launch”), as they left to survey the East River this morning.
A Thomas Jefferson launch heads out to survey the East River. Photo by Ensign Brittany Anderson, NOAA
As the sun comes up in New York this morning, Ensign Lindsey Norman retrieves the side scan sonar that NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson used to survey the Hudson River, so fuel barge traffic could resume. Photo by Lt. Cmdr. Denise Gruccio, NOAA
Even before Sandy hit the New Jersey shore, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey was mobilizing to respond to the emergency, preparing vessels, personnel, and equipment to conduct hydrographic surveys of hard-hit areas, searching for the underwater debris and shoaling that can paralyze shipping at the nation’s ports.
Restoring fuel flow into the New York area has been a top priority — but barge deliveries have been hampered by water borne obstructions that forced a partial closure of the port. NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson mobilized through the night to New York Harbor (see NOAA Chart 12327), where they began surveying at 3:12 this morning, looking for the sunken containers, debris, and shoaling that pose dangers to ships and lives. In the darkness, using high tech side scan sonar equipment, Thomas Jefferson conducted the hydrographic survey of the designated areas on the Hudson River. With the information provided by the Thomas Jefferson’s survey, combined with earlier work conducted by Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Team 5, the U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port was able to open the port to fuel barge traffic this morning.
Tank barges and tank ships carries tens of millions of tons of petroleum products through the Port of New York and New Jersey. According to a report by the American Waterways Operators, the barges carry the product throughout the state, from Buffalo to Long Island. “Specific petroleum products transported by barge include gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, lube oil and greases, distillate fuel, and residual fuel. These and other products are used by both consumers and industry to keep New York’s economy moving and growing.”
Thomas Jefferson has now moved to the Anchorage Channel, and two of her smaller vessels – also equipped with high-tech survey equipment – started surveying at daybreak; one conducting a reconnaissance survey in the Buttermilk Channel, to locate sunken containers; and the other checking for shoaling in Sandy Hook Channel.
Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Team 5 got in a full day of surveying yesterday, on the Anchorage Channel. They processed their data overnight, for early delivery to the Captain of the Port, and have started their second day of surveying. Their work will help open the deep draft channel.
Navigation Response Team 2, mobilized from Florida, arrived at the New York Coast Guard station last night, and started their first surveying at daybreak this morning. They will be searching for dangers to navigation between Global Marine Terminal and Port Newark.
NOAA’s navigation response teams and other survey assets are in the water (or soon will be) as they respond to SANDY’s destruction, checking for underwater debris and shoaling that may pose a risk to navigation. Tasked by the U.S. Coast Guard Captains of the Port, NOAA vessels can use multibeam echo sounders or side scan sonar, as conditions warrant, to search for the answers that speed resumption of shipping and other vessel movements.
As of noon today:
NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson started out this morning for New York Harbor, where they will survey for obstructions in waterways, starting at daybreak tomorrow. Visual reconnaissance indicates debris and missing containers may pose a danger to shipping.
Navigation Response Team 5 mobilized from Connecticut and got underway in New York at first light this morning, surveying Anchorage Channel. Their next priorities are the route up to the Manhattan cruise ship terminal, Sandy Hook Channel, and then the Global Marine Terminal.
NOAA Ship Ferdinand Hassler spent yesterday and today surveying deep draft ship channels in Chesapeake Channel and Thimble Shoal Channel, as 78 large vessels, including portions of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, waited to transit through the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
NOAA R/V Bay Hydro II is surveying in the Hampton Roads area yesterday and today, checking channels needed by coal shipments and aircraft carriers at Norfolk.
Navigation Response Team 2 is on its way from their regularly scheduled surveying off Florida’s coast, headed to help out in NY/NJ. Additionally, an operations manager is transporting mobile survey equipment to New York, as an additional survey resource on a vessel of opportunity.
NOAA R/V Potawaugh mobilized this morning to Lewes, Del., to survey for shoaling that may pose a risk to safe navigation for the Cape May – Lewes Ferry and other vessels. They started surveying, using their multibeam echo sounder, at 1 pm today.
Follow NOAA Office of Coast Survey on Twitter @nauticalcharts, for updates.
How many geospatial products can be developed by one seafloor mapping project? As a phased-in project for Long Island Sound shows, a strong collaboration among diverse groups of researchers and technology developers can integrate temporal and geospatial data sources to produce dozens of products. In addition to updating NOAA’s nautical charts, ongoing collaborations in Long Island Sound will create products that depict physical, geological, ecological, geomorphological, and biological conditions and processes – all to balance the development of new ocean uses while protecting and restoring essential habitats.
In 2011, the Long Island Sound Program (representing a partnership between the State of Connecticut, State of New York, Connecticut and New York Sea Grant, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) requested assistance from NOAA. They asked for help in providing management and technical expertise; acquiring data; and developing products. They required key temporal and spatial information about seafloor conditions in the Sound. They needed bathymetry and backscatter, and biological and physical observational and sampling data, to produce all the products needed by governments, industry, academia, and the public.
Coast Survey already had plans for NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson to survey in Long Island Sound, to acquire new bathymetry for chart updates. With some adjustments to survey areas and project parameters, a mutually beneficial partnership was formed for long-term seafloor mapping of Long Island Sound habitats over the next several years, as an integrated ocean and coastal mapping project.
This summer, Thomas Jefferson conducted hydrographic surveys in the mid-Sound area of Stratford Shoal and vicinity, extending from New York on the north shore of Long Island to the Connecticut shoreline.
“Ocean floors are amazingly dynamic, and we have to chart those changes to provide precise and accurate navigational data for today’s maritime economy,” explained Cmdr. Lawrence Krepp, commanding officer of the Thomas Jefferson and the ship’s chief scientist. “Our data is used to update NOAA’s nautical charts, but the hydrographic information can also be used to support a number of non-navigation uses, ranging from benefits to fisheries management to support of regional ocean planning efforts like this.”
This digital terrain model, showing bathymetry in Long Island Sound, was created from Thomas Jefferson depth soundings.
This image is a digital terrain model that indicates the water depths in surveyed areas. In its final form, it will be geo-referenced to latitude and longitude. To produce this DTM, a NOAA Corps hydrographer, Lt.j.g. (sel) Anthony Klemm loaded Thomas Jefferson’s billions of depth soundings into an algorithum, powered by CARIS’s CSAR technology. By laying out a grid, and then using CUBE – combined uncertainty bathymetry estimator – Klemm is able to visually depict higher resolution depth measurements in shallow water, where the shapes on the seafloor may be navigationally significant, with resolution gradually decreasing as the depth increases.
Digital terrain models are useful for many environmental management activities. In this collaboration, seafloor topography products, like this DTM, will be the foundation for building products that address benthic habitats and other environmental conditions.
NOAA hydrographic survey vessels are valuable assets for search and rescue operations, as experienced crews use their knowledge of tides and ocean currents to develop science-based search patterns. Last month, two divers found out just how valuable NOAA’s expertise can be. — DF
Report submitted by Ensign Brittany Anderson, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson
On the morning of August 26, 2012, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson was conducting routine hydrographic survey operations south of Block Island. At 0904 hours, a distress call was made on the very high frequency (VHF) radio to the Coast Guard Station. The caller reported two divers lost in the water at Southwest Ledge, a popular recreational point off Block Island. The coordinates were a mere seconds north of the Thomas Jefferson.
A third diver was on a private boat with no VHF radio. He hailed the fishing boat Captain Ron, and that boat called the U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Long Island Sound. The third diver continually returned to the water to search for the two missing divers.
At 0907, the Coast Guard reported via VHF that one of their vessels was on its way, but was 25 minutes out. Cmdr. Larry Krepp, commanding officer of the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, contacted the Coast Guard and informed them of our location and ability to assist in the search for the missing divers. Numerous additional lookouts were called to the bridge to search all points off the ship. At 0908 our ship stopped logging hydrographic survey data, and we retrieved our moving vessel profiler from the water. We calculated the current set and drift from Southwest Ledge and began search lines in the vicinity of the divers’ expected location.
The divers’ initial location is indicated at Southwest Ledge. The red arrows indicate Thomas Jefferson’s search lines, and the red circle shows where the divers were retrieved.
Ensign Brittany Anderson, Ensign Anthony Klemm, Ensign Andrew Clos, Lt. Cmdr. Denise Gruccio, and Cmdr. Lawrence Krepp kept a heavy lookout on all sides. Chief hydrographic survey technician Peter Lewit and physical scientist James Miller updated the expected location of the divers based on current set and drift calculations. Able seaman Tom Bascom was at the helm, steering the course to search for the individuals. At approximately 0930, the Coast Guard rescue vessel arrived on scene and made contact with the third diver. At 0952, Lt. Cmdr. Gruccio spotted the two divers broad off the port beam at a bearing of 282° PGC (per gyrocompass.) We reported the position and distance to the Coast Guard rescue boat on scene; they promptly followed our pointing and bearing to the divers. They safely retrieved the two divers at 0955.
After receiving word from the Coast Guard that the divers were safe and our services were no longer needed, we came about to our survey course. We continued our hydrographic survey operations, relieved and pleased that our training and hydrographic knowledge gave us the ability to find the divers quickly and safely.
The U.S. Coast Guard picked up the two divers, after they were found by NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. (Photo by ENS Brittany Anderson.)
***
NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson is one of the most technologically advanced hydrographic survey vessels in the world. Equipped with high-resolution seafloor echo sounders, the 208-ft. Thomas Jefferson and its 36-person crew maps the seafloor in support of Coast Survey’s nautical charting mission.
NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson
