Developing a Marine Information System by Integrating Existing Ocean Models Using Object-Oriented Technology

Information systems developed for different applications within the environmental domain have common characteristics, which can potentially be abstracted for sharing and reuse of design and software modules. This article presents an approach to designing for reuse by abstracting commonalities in the design of a Marine Information System (MIS), facilitating data management in a prototype operational monitoring, forecasting, and management system for the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas. A detailed study of the requirements and data analysis was carried out, and Object-Oriented Technology (OOT) is employed to encapsulate abstractions and to promote reuse of code and design. This article identifies the Object-Oriented Frameworks (OOFW) required to build the MIS. It also provides guidelines to environmental scientists for restructuring legacy software and employing modern programming techniques.     

Guidelines for navigation and overflight in the exclusive economic zone

Several significant international incidents in Asian exclusive economic zones (EEZs) have underscored the ambiguity and lack of agreement regarding the regime governing foreign military activities in coastal States’ EEZs. A group of senior officials and analysts participated in their personal capacities in a dialogue from 2002–2005 that discussed the issues with a view to improving mutual understanding of the regime and finding areas of agreement. The Tokyo meeting in September 2005 reached consensus on some voluntary, non-binding guidelines that are presented here. The guidelines are based selectively on the 1982 UNCLOS, State practice and emerging ‘soft’ law, and attempt to balance the interests of coastal States and user States. It is hoped that they may serve as the basis for discussion and eventual agreements between governments.     

气象卫星用于近海污染监测及赤潮预报方法探索

近年来，由于工农业和沿海养殖业的发展，我国近海污染逐年加重，赤潮发生频次增加。因此，监测近海污染和赤潮发生预报方法研究势在必行。本文用ＮＯＡＡ／ＡＶＨＲＲ数据，分析近海水域污染状况，并探索赤潮发生的预报方法。     

使用水块混合层模式模拟上层海洋的季节变化

使用块体混合层模式对一个固定海洋观测站所测的上层海洋之物理特性进行了模拟，结果发现了难以重复观测到的许多物理特征。文章提出了水块混合层模式，着重模拟了扩展湾流体系（ＥＧＳＳ）中的一个水块，在它被海流从佛罗里达海峡（２４°Ｎ，８０°Ｗ）带到挪威海（６８°Ｎ，１０°Ｅ）的过程中，其物理特性（其中包括温度、盐度、混合层深度和夹卷速度）随时间的变化。模拟结果较好地再现了所观测的物理特性的演化。     

Geographical distribution of fish catches and temperature variations in the northeast Atlantic since 1945

Warming of the northeast Atlantic is expected to affect the location and productivity of fish stocks. It is examined whether variations in catches of cod, herring, mackerel, anchovy and sardines in the ICES statistical areas are related to variations in ocean temperature. Temperatures at certain locations along the Norwegian coast are taken as proxies for temperatures in the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea. It is found that the catches of cod in the North Sea are inversely correlated with temperature and that recruitment and catches of cod in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea are positively related to temperature. There is also some indication of a positive correlation between temperature and the catches of mackerel in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, and between temperature and the catches of sardines in the North Sea.     

黄、渤海沿岸海冰测点代表性浅析

通过分析１９８０年以后的海冰资料和卫星云图照片，对黄、渤海沿岸１１个海冰测点的历史变迁进行了评述，浅析了测点的优劣及使用资料时应注意的事项。     

Seasonal and Spatial Variations of Iceberg Drift off Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, Detected by Satellite Scatterometers

Seasonal and spatial variations of iceberg drift were studied using continuous satellite scatterometer images off Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Generally, iceberg drift speed showed a westward increase to the Greenwich Meridian. Seasonal variations of the drift speed were high in autumn—early winter and low in spring, and their magnitudes also increased westward. Seasonal variations of the drift speed were significantly correlated with variations of sea levels at Syowa and Mawson Stations, and hence qualitatively consistent with geostrophic current variations. Thus, the scatterometer data are demonstrated to be useful in monitoring iceberg trajectory and oceanic current variations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Estimation of Contamination of ERS-2 and POSEIDON Satellite Radar Altimetry Close to the Coasts of Australia

It is broadly acknowledged that the precision of satellite-altimeter-measured instantaneous sea surface heights (SSH) is lower in coastal regions than in open oceans, due partly to contamination of the radar return from the coastal sea-surface state and from land topography. This study investigates the behavior of ERS-2 and POSEIDON altimeter waveform data in coastal regions and estimates a boundary around Australia's coasts in which the altimeter range may be poorly estimated by on-satellite tracking software. Over one million 20 Hz ERS-2 (March to April 1999) and POSEIDON (January 1998 to January 1999) radar altimeter waveform data were used over an area extending 350 km offshore Australia. The DS759.2 (5'resolution) ocean depth model and the GSHHS (0.2 km resolution) shoreline model were used together to define the coastal regions. Using the 50% threshold retracking points as the estimates of expected tracking gate, we determined that the sea surface height is contaminated out to maximum distance of between about 8 km and 22 km from the Australian shoreline for ERS-2, depending partly on coastal topography. Using the standard deviation of the mean waveforms as an indication of the general variability of the altimeter returns in the Australian coastal region shows obvious coastal contamination out to about 4 km for both altimeters, and less obvious contamination out to about 8 km for POSEIDON and 10 km for ERS-2. Therefore, ERS-2 and POSEIDON satellite altimeter data should be treated with some caution for distances less than about 22 km from the Australian coast and probably ignored altogether for distances less than 4 km.     

Integration of a Multi-Stage Bulk Materials Acquisition System from the Viewpoint of Dock Operations

A multi-stage bulk materials acquisition system is examined from the viewpoint of dock operations. The whole process can be divided into four stages and treated as four subsystems: ships scheduling planning, material yard planning, dock arrangement, and material discharging. Since the structure and the complexity of each subsystem is different, the solution approaches applied are also different with respect to each. To increase operations efficiency and data consistency, an integration of the subsystems by coordinating the operations sequence and data communications for the four subsystems is discussed. The four subsystems are illustrated by using the material docks of China Steel Corporation, and the models developed in this research are also validated. The results indicate that the models developed are capable of deriving solutions better than the existing ones. Although the discussions are confined to China Steel Corporation, the models can be applied to other companies with similar operations.     

Transformation of Lambert Conic Conformal Coordinates from a Global Datum to a Local Datum

This paper treats the problem of how to transform from global datum, for example, from the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS), to a local datum, for example, regional or national, for the practical case of the Lambert projection of the sphere or the ellipsoid-of-revolution to the cone. We design the two projection constants n(ϕ₁, ϕ₂) and m(ϕ₁) for the Universal Lambert Conic projection of the ellipsoid-of-revolution. The task to transform from a global datum with respect to the ellipsoid-of-revolution E_A,B² to local datum with respect to the alternative ellipsoid-of-revolution E_a,b², without local ellipsoidal height, is solved by an extended numerical example. Ideas in this paper could be of interest to those working with maps and coordinates transformation from global geodetic datum to local geodetic datum and vice versa, under the Universal Lambert Conic projection, and applicable to precise positioning and navigation, boundary demarcation and determination in the marine environment.