Sea Technology

AUG 2012

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Scientists Study Geoengineering Projects in the Baltic Sea The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management published in July a report evaluating two projects that use wind-powered turbines to mix oxygen into the hypoxic waters of the Baltic Sea: BOX (Baltic Deepwater Oxygena- tion) and PROPPEN (Control ling ben- thic release of phosphorus in different Baltic Sea scales). The agency praised the "pioneering work," which showed the oxygenation of below-pycnocline water in stagnant or semistagnant brackish-water coast al basins is feasible, but questioned the en- vironmental effects and feasibility of scaling these pilot projects to the larger dimensions required for the Baltic Proper. Researchers from Lund University re- cently called for these geoengineering efforts to be abandoned. In the past decade, an average of 60,000 square kilometers of the Baltic Sea bottom has suffered from hypoxia, professor Daniel Conley said in Nature in June. Citing geoengineering's ecological risks (i.e., changes in large-scale mixing, reduc- tion in salinity), expensive implementa- tion and lack of focus on nutrient reduction, Conley suggests implement- ing the nutrient reductions outlined in the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Anders Stigebrandt, an oceanography professor at the Uni versity of Goth - enburg and head of the Marine System Analysis Group that maintains the BOX project, said possible ecological effects, such as mobilizing toxic substances, are not specific to oxygenation by geoengi- neering. "For example, if one believes that oxygenation of the Baltic proper's deep- water can be a problem, one should of course avoid even natural oxygenation by decreasing the outlet of nutrients," he said. Study Finds Winds Helped Keep Oil Spill Away From South Florida Wind was a major factor in prevent- ing spilled oil from the Deepwater Hori- zon from reaching South Florida and East Atlantic coastal areas in spring 2010, scientists reported in July. At the time of the spill, the proximity of the Loop Current, flowing from the Yucatan Channel to the Florida Straits, raised concerns that oil on the ocean surface would head toward the South Florida and East Atlantic coasts. How- Model S16-20 20kVA continuous; 50kVA 20% duty 35 x 31.5 x 35.5 inches; 985 lbs. Visit our Web site www.instrumentsinc.com 7263 Engineer Rd., San Diego, CA 92111-1493 (858) 571-1111 FAX (858) 571-0188 info@instrumentsinc.com Copyright 2012 www.sea-technology.com AUGUST 2012 / st 63 ever, the dominant transport of oil was toward the Northern Gulf coastline, and no oil was observed in the Atlantic Ocean. This is because northward winds led the surface oil to be pushed onto the Northern Gulf shelf areas, away from the gulf's interior and the Loop Current. In a study published in Environment - al Science & Technology, University of Miami scientists used numerical simu- lations that accounted for the influence of winds on the surface of ocean waters through the generation of waves and ad- ditional circulation. These wind effects are generally not represented in ocean circulation mod- els, and they were missing from real- time ocean circulation predictions during the spill. The oil spill simulations were verified through observational composites from the University of Miami and Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecast Service Inc.'s (Melbourne, Florida) Ocean Fishing Forecasting System. POWER AMPLIFIERS SWITCHING & LINEAR For more than 30 years we have been building amplifiers to drive reactive loads.

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