US Navy transitions global ocean forecast system for public use

This Image from the Navy Global Ocean Forecast System (GOFS) portrays sea surface temperature (SST) on Jan. 15, 2014. 

The warm tropical waters can be seen to flow through the Gulf of Mexico and northward along the eastern US seaboard where the Gulf Stream separates at Cape Hatteras, off the coast of North Carolina, and flows to the east. 

This warm water "conveyer-belt" alters the ice cover across the north Atlantic. 

Without the ocean transport of heat, global climate and weather would be dramatically changed. 

Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory-Oceanography Division

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) within the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have entered into a formal agreement that results in NCEP using Navy developed global ocean forecast model technology to make environmental ocean forecasts for public use.

"Development of an advanced global ocean prediction system has been a long-term Navy interest," said Dr. Gregg Jacobs, head, NRL Ocean Dynamics and Prediction Branch.

"This use of Navy developed systems for global ocean forecasting represents dual use technology that will benefit civilian interests and is an excellent example of the cutting edge research that is enabled through Navy sponsored investments."

The Navy has had requirements for predicting the ocean environment for its purposes including estimating acoustic propagation, placement of sonar arrays, determining currents for mine drift and burial, drift for search and rescue, and safety of operations on and under the ocean surface.

NRL has enabled Navy operational ocean prediction of tactically relevant information.

To accomplish this task, Jacobs says three critical components are necessary to predict the open ocean environment.


Ocean Circulation Models - Gregg Jacobs.

"The first is access to satellite observations that measure precise sea surface height, sea surface temperature and ice concentration with in situ observations from public sources and Navy ships; second, numerical models representing the dynamical processes capable of understanding the physics of the ocean and numerical methods for efficiently representing those physics; and lastly, the third critical component is the technology to correct the numerical models using the observations through data assimilation."

The new agreement will allow NCEP to use software developed by NRL to assimilate data necessary to maintain daily forecast accuracy that enables safe, at-sea operations, hazard mitigation, resource management, and emergency response.

"This is an example of complementary missions across agencies that through coordinated application leads to protecting our service personnel, who ensure the high seas are safe, and protecting our resources and citizens at home." Jacobs said.

Aerion: Are there supersonic business jets (SSBJ) in the future

Could supersonic travel be available again before then? 

Quite possibly, if Aerion has anything to do with it and it will be in the form of supersonic business jets (SSBJ). 

Several companies have been working on these concepts, and while the credit crunch of 2008 slowed down progress, now it looks possible that an SSBJ could be in service by the end of the decade.

It should be a lot easier to get an SSBJ project off the ground. A smaller SST is less complex, and could use off-the-shelf components such as engines, so development costs should be lower.

In addition, advances in materials, especially carbon composites, mean advanced aerodynamics can now be converted from the CAD-CAM computer to reality.

For the business customer, the appeal is clear. Rather than being tied to an airline schedule, you can fly wherever – and whenever you want.

So even if an SSBJ wouldn’t quite match Concorde’s Mach 2 performance, the door-to-door time is likely to be much faster.

And aircraft manufacturers may find it easier to persuade multinational CEOs to buy SSBJs as a productivity tool than to convince the stony-faced airline accountants to invest millions in a fleet of supersonic airliners.

The race is on
Leading the race to get the first SSBJ to market is Aerion, which unveiled its radical concept in 2007.

Unlike most SST designs, the Aerion SBJ has been designed to operate subsonically as well as supersonically.

It uses supersonic laminar flow wings – short, unswept wings, rather than delta wings favoured by most SST concepts.

Aerion says this gives it the ability to cruise smoothly at just below the sound barrier, as well as supersonically at its maximum speed of Mach 1.6.

The subsonic performance is necessary as it is still illegal to operate supersonically over many land areas – such as the US, or western Europe.

With a range of around 7,500km it would be possible to fly directly from, say, Frankfurt to Chicago – flying subsonically over land and supersonically over sea.

This would take less than five hours, compared with around nine hours by conventional subsonic jet.

The Aerion SBJ uses carbonfibre composites for the wings, and a section of the wing has been tested successfully already, mounted underneath one of Nasa’s Boeing F-15 supersonic test planes.

As a result of its straight wing design and full-span flaps, typical approach speed will be 120 knots, similar to a regular bizjet, and the aircraft will be able to operate routinely from business airports with 2,000m-long runways – removing the need to join security queues at major airports.