The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community
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www.sea-technology.com March 2015 / st 9 soundings )) Naval Espionage Pioneer Passes. Dr. John P. Craven, a major fgure in U.S. naval espionage, died in February at the age of 90, The New York Times reported. He served as the U.S. Navy Special Projects Offce's chief scientist from 1959 to 1969, helping to expand the Navy's presence into greater ocean depths. He is responsible for transforming submarines into spy vessels able to examine and retrieve enemy material miles below the ocean's surface. Craven came from a family of naval offcers and traced his lineage back to Moorish pirates. He joined the Navy in World War II and undertook his offcer train- ing at Cornell University, later earning a doctorate in mechanics and hydraulics, and eventually a law degree. Craven's career highlights include helping to develop the frst ever submarine intercontinental ballistic missile; devising undersea search, rescue, salvage and intelligence-gathering gear; and helping to devise a nuclear submarine with crablike claws and the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. Craven was honored twice with the Distinguished Civilian Service Award. He founded the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii in 1974 to investigate how to make electricity via the temperature differ- ence between the Earth's surface and the cold depths of the ocean. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, a son, a daughter and fve grandchildren. )) McMurdo Joins IMRF. McMurdo Group (Valbonne, France) has become the frst search and rescue technologies and so- lutions provider to join the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF), which seeks to improve maritime search and rescue capability worldwide by analyzing problems and identifying solutions for faster recovery. According to the World Health Organization, 372,000 lives are lost worldwide due to drowning each year. Mass rescue operations remain too big for search and rescue organizations to handle routinely: extraordinary capabilities have to be identifed and applied. By partnering with the IMRF and other organizations around the globe, McMurdo will be able to help develop a more cost- effective rescue capability to meet ever-growing challenges, especially that of mass rescues at sea. )) Progress in Global Climate Negotiations. U.N. climate talks in Geneva, Switzerland, ended with an agreement on a formal draft negotiating text for the COP21 summit in Paris in December. It builds on the 2014 negotiations in Lima, Peru, and covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, fnance, technology and capacity building. The aim is to have a new global, binding climate deal signed in December. Governments from the U.N. member states are due to submit national plans from March to June. The U.N. is hoping to limit the increase of the average global surface temperature to no more than 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels, with the aim of avoiding dangerous levels of climate change. The next step is for negotiators to reach consensus on the content of the new climate deal, and formal negotiations on the text will continue in Bonn, Germany, in June. The World Meteorological Organization confrmed that 14 out of the 15 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000 and 2014 was the warmest year on record. )) G Dwarfs Should be Focus of Search for Earth-Like Planets. Simulations by researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University indicate that Earth-like planets, in terms of water content, are more likely to be found orbiting Sun- like stars rather than lower-mass stars. The search for habitable planets currently focuses on M dwarfs, stars with less than half the mass of the Sun. These stars are thought to have more habitable orbiting planets that are easier to fnd compared with G dwarfs, stars that have a similar mass to the Sun. However, the recent simulations indicate M dwarf systems may not be the best places to look. The simulations involved planet distributions around stars with 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 times the mass of the Sun. The fnding was that Earth-mass planets with Earth-like water contents occur 10 to 100 times less frequently around M dwarfs than around G dwarfs. The conclusion is that stars close to the size of the Sun should be the primary targets for detecting Earth-like planets. )) First Satellite to Observe Earth From Lagrange-1 Point. A satellite to be positioned between Earth and the Sun was scheduled for launch in February. The scientifc objectives and instrumental payload were originally proposed and designed by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The NOAA-led Deep-Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) will measure the solar energy refected back to space by Earth, as well as the infrared radiation emitted by the planet; observa- tions essential to determine Earth's energy budget, which is the fundamental driver of climate. A suite of solar instruments designed and built by NASA will observe solar fares, solar wind and the Sun's magnetic feld variations during solar fare activity; these phenomena can disrupt a wide variety of processes on Earth. DSCOVR will be the frst satellite to observe Earth from a vantage point 1.5 million kilometers away, known as Lagrange-1 point (L-1), where Earth's gravity reduces the Sun's gravity such that the orbital angular velocity of an object positioned there matches the orbital angular velocity of Earth. At L-1, a satellite maintains a steady view of the Earth, providing a constant view of the entire sunlit portion of Earth. DSCOVR's data should advance understanding of atmospheric physics, aerosol chemistry and other climate-related felds. )) Oceaneering Scoops Up C & C. Oceaneering International, Inc. (Houston, Texas) will acquire C & C Technologies. The transaction is anticipated to be completed in early April. C & C Technologies and Oceaneering both have strong fnancial and operational histories, and both have concentrations in global deepwater energy arenas. C & C Technologies will retain its name and continue to be headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. n