Measurement For The Sea

In the history of humankind, the sea has always played a key role as a privileged medium for communication, commerce and contact among population centers. It constitutes an essential ecosystem, and an invaluable reservoir and source of food for all living beings. Therefore, its heath is a critical challenge for the survival of all humanity, particularly as one the most important environmental components targeted by global warming. Measuring and monitoring techniques are key tools for managing the marine environment and for supporting the Blue Economy. With this perspective, a series of annual international events, entitled Metrology for the Sea (MetroSea for short) was begun in 2017. Their increasing success inspired this book, which provides an anthology of tutorials dealing with a representative selection of topics of concern to a broad readership. The book covers two broad application areas, marine hydrography and meteorology, and then deals with instrumentation for measurement at sea. Typical metrological issues such as calibration and traceability, are considered, for both physical and chemical quantities. Key techniques, such as underwater acoustic investigation, remote sensing, measurement of waves and monitoring networks, are treated alongside marine geology and the monitoring of animal species. Economic and legal aspects of metrology for navigation are also discussed. Such an unparalleled wide vision of measurement for the sea will be of interest to a broad audience of scientists, engineers, economists, and their students.

Tide gauges show that global sea level has risen about 7 inches during the 20th century, and recent satellite data show that the rate of sea-level rise is accelerating. As Earth warms, sea levels are rising mainly because ocean water expands as it warms; and water from melting glaciers and ice sheets is flowing into the ocean. Sea-level rise poses enormous risks to the valuable infrastructure, development, and wetlands that line much of the 1,600 mile shoreline of California, Oregon, and Washington. As those states seek to incorporate projections of sea-level rise into coastal planning, they asked the National Research Council to make independent projections of sea-level rise along their coasts for the years 2030, 2050, and 2100, taking into account regional factors that affect sea level. Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington: Past, Present, and Future explains that sea level along the U.S. west coast is affected by a number of factors. These include: climate patterns such as the El Niño, effects from the melting of modern and ancient ice sheets, and geologic processes, such as plate tectonics. Regional projections for California, Oregon, and Washington show a sharp distinction at Cape Mendocino in northern California. South of that point, sea-level rise is expected to be very close to global projections. However, projections are lower north of Cape Mendocino because the land is being pushed upward as the ocean plate moves under the continental plate along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. However, an earthquake magnitude 8 or larger, which occurs in the region every few hundred to 1,000 years, would cause the land to drop and sea level to suddenly rise.

This book covers the fundamental principles of measuring oceans from space, and also contains state-of-the-art developments in data analysis and interpretation and in sensors. Completely new will be material covering advances in oceanography that have grown out of remote sensing, including some of the global applications of the data. The variety of applications of remotely sensed data to ocean science has grown significantly and new areas of science are emerging to exploit the gobal datasets being recovered by satellites, particularly in relation to climate and climate change, basin-scale, air-sea interaction processes (e.g. El Nino) and the modelling, forecasting and prediction of the ocean.

Measuring Ocean Currents: Tools, Technologies, and Data covers all major aspects of ocean current measurements in view of the implications of ocean currents on changing climate, increasing pollution levels, and offshore engineering activities. Although more than 70% of the Earth is covered by ocean, there is limited information on the countless fine- to large-scale water motions taking place within them. This book fills that information gap as the first work that summarizes the state-of-the-art methods and instruments used for surface, subsurface, and abyssal ocean current measurements. Readers of this book will find a wealth of information on Lagrangian measurements, horizontal mapping, imaging, Eulerian measurements, and vertical profiling techniques. In addition, the book describes modern technologies for remote measurement of ocean currents and their signatures, including HF Doppler radar systems, satellite-borne sensors, ocean acoustic tomography, and more. Crucial aspects of ocean currents are described in detail as well, including dispersion of effluents discharged into the sea and transport of beneficial materials—as well as environmentally hazardous materials—from one region to another. The book highlights several important practical applications, showing how measurements relate to climate change and pollution levels, how they affect coastal and offshore engineering activities, and how they can aid in tsunami detection. Coverage of measurement, mapping and profiling techniques Descriptions of technologies for remote measurement of ocean currents and their signatures Reviews crucial aspects of ocean currents, including special emphasis on the planet-spanning thermohaline circulation, known as the ocean's "conveyor belt," and its crucial role in climate change