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www.sea-technology.com January 2018 | ST 15 Review&Forecast; The Ocean Observation And Exploration Imperative By Craig McLean Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Acting Chief Scientist NOAA D emand for ocean data is growing, fueled by societal need. Within six weeks in 2017, four ma- jor hurricanes swept across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Three of them— Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria—were among $15 billion weather and climate disasters in the first nine months of the year. Frequent tidal flooding is occurring in 25 U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coast cities. Ocean observations from space, air and sea are es- sential to helping communities and businesses prepare for weather and climate events. Ocean data contribute to subseasonal and seasonal forecasts and beyond. Sci- entists use data from sustained ocean observations to more fully understand the Earth's climate system, devel- data collection and analysis, and develop purpose-built, cost-effective tools ready to be used for environmental monitoring by the marine energy industry. One successful hardware project is iAMP (Intelli- gent Adaptable Monitoring Package), a multisensor de- vice designed by the University of Washington, which demonstrated operation in wave and river energy sites. iAMP used cameras, sonar, hydrophones and water motion profilers to successfully track the movements of fish, demonstrating 90 percent uptime at PNNL's Marine Sciences Laboratory. The University of Washington also set the stage for future environmental monitoring with an open-source software framework that uses machine learning to reduce data mortgages. The software, avail- able on GitHub, detects and classifies images so only important ones are saved for human review. Looking Ahead Marine energy is a predictable, forecastable energy resource with a generation profile complimentary to the seasonal or temporal variations of other resources, such as onshore wind and solar. These characteristics enhance marine energy's potential contributions to grid resilien- cy and reliability. The near-load nature of marine ener- gy generation also decreases the cost and complexity of electricity transmission. In addition, marine energy has the potential to supply reliable, least-cost power in the near term for a number of coastal or offshore applica- tions, such as remote communities currently importing diesel, desalination or charging underwater vehicles. In 2017, WPTO hosted the "Marine Energy Technologies Forum: Distributed and Alternate Applications," which brought together experts in marine energy and those from ocean industries who might benefit from local, re- liable energy from waves and currents. Attendees eval- uated high-potential alternate markets for developing marine energy technologies. A full report will be avail- able in 2018, supporting WPTO's goal of aligning marine energy technology research and development initiatives with high-priority opportunities. WPTO will continue investing in science and engineering research that will help the United States lead the way in developing this cutting-edge technology, including work in prototype evaluation. For example, two companies, Ocean Energy USA and Dresser-Rand, will combine expertise to build and test a 500-kW wave energy device. This will be the first grid-connected wave energy converter (WEC) system test- ed in one of Hawaii's open-ocean WETS deep berths. The testing is planned for one-year duration. Dresser-Rand, a part of Siemens AG, is contributing an advanced air tur- bine that can be used as a building block in a variety of wave energy devices. The innovative power take-off will be integrated with the OE Buoy, a deepwater oscillating water column device. With advances in engineering and materials, researchers are expecting to see improvements in efficiency, reliability and survivability. For a complete listing and details about WPTO-fund- ed projects, visit our project map at energy.gov/eere/wa ter/projectmap. ST NEW Mini Rosette ® /CTD Water Sampler 1018 M with Model 316 or 320 Idronaut CTD • Lightweight, small, compact • Allows operation from a small boat • Conducting cable or battery-powered • Programmable timed operations • Pressure-activated bottle closing (optional) • Deep & shallow water models available • Optional Teflon®-coated Water Sampler • CTD compatible • Flag Pulse to CTD A/D input Improved Electronics Low Power Consumption General Oceanics Inc. 1295 N.W. 163 St., Miami, FL 33169 Tel: (305) 621-2882, Fax: (305) 621-1710 E-mail: Sales@GeneralOceanics.com http://www.GeneralOceanics.com