News and Updates
By ENS Cullen Hauck
NOAA Ship Fairweather went farther north than ever before for the U.S. Coast Guard’s Port Access Route Study, a multi-year effort to establish new maritime traffic routes, safety zones, and use areas in the U.S. Arctic waters.
Alaska’s Kuskokwim River is both unpredictable and essential. Shifting sandbars, variable tides, and seasonal ice dramatically reshape the waterway, requiring frequent updates to the navigational channel. It remains a lifeline for communities like Bethel, Alaska. NOAA’s Coast Pilot describes the waterway as a “maze of shifting sandbars…and blind channels” with navigation conditions that can change daily.
Currently, the U.S. Coast Guard maintains over 50 aids to navigation, or ATONs, along the river to guide vessels. Mariners use these ATONs to travel safely through the channels. The Coast Guard Cutter Aspen requested support from NOAA to provide updated bathymetric data to help them to validate and adjust ATONs–a mission critical function to ensure safe navigation for vessels traversing one of the state’s most dynamic and economically vital waterways.
Continue reading “Surveying the Kuskokwim River, Alaska’s Most Dynamic Waterway”
In October through early November 2024, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, the University of New Hampshire, U.S. National Science Foundation, and U.S. Coast Guard partnered to complete a coordinated mapping mission along the north slope of Alaska aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy. Advancing the 2020 National Strategy on Ocean Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, the mission acquired depth data in uncharted waters along the Coast Guard-proposed Arctic shipping route, deployed a series of oceanographic buoys, and provided at sea training on interdisciplinary scientific expeditions for junior scientists. The mission capitalized on a rare opportunity to maximize data observations within a data-starved region in support of Seascape Alaska, a regional mapping campaign.
Annie Raymond, a member of one of NOAA’s navigation response teams, spent time in late summer aboard Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) icebreaker Henry Larsen in the Canadian Arctic with the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS). Her time aboard the ship was part of an exchange program designed as an opportunity for the Office of Coast Survey and CHS to gain exposure to each other’s field operations, particularly highlighting challenges for Arctic operations. Throughout the experience, she observed similarities and differences between Coast Survey and CHS data acquisitions and operations.
Continue reading “Surveying the Canadian Arctic aboard the icebreaker Henry Larsen”
In August and September 2021, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy transited through the Northwest Passage, from Alaska to Greenland. This voyage provided members of the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC) the opportunity to collect data, helping to fill gaps in current hydrographic coverage in the passage and in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Data in the Arctic where sea ice impedes ships is sparse. This is concerning as the Arctic nations, especially the United States, Canada, and Greenland evaluate both extended continental shelf claims and the potential for shipping routes through the Northwest Passage.
Continue reading “Alaska to Greenland via the Northwest Passage”
On May 28, 2020, four uncrewed vessels departed Alameda, California, to begin their transit across the Pacific Ocean, through Unimak Pass, across the Bering Sea, and into the Arctic. These small, uncrewed vessels, powered only by wind and sun, arrived at Point Hope, Alaska, in early August to start an ambitious project acquiring new depth data along the 20 and 50 meter depth contours from Point Hope to the Canadian border. This was the start of a challenging Arctic project that would contend with weather, sea ice, and equipment failures, all while avoiding potential conflicts with indigenous subsistence hunting.
Continue reading “Autonomous vessel operations in the Arctic: Lessons learned from the Summer 2020 Mapping Mission”
There are three opportunities in the coming month to provide input to NOAA on its navigation services and the future implementation of national ocean and coastal mapping strategies, development of standard ocean mapping protocols, and precision marine navigation.
Continue reading “NOAA wants to hear from you on ocean and coastal mapping topics”
There are many benefits to working on a hydrographic survey project for NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. Some would say having the opportunity to visit amazing landscapes, work with talented people, and collect important environmental data are just a few of them. Recently, Coast Survey’s Hydrographic Surveys Division hosted an internal photo contest inviting employees and contractors to submit images in the categories of Ships and Boats, Landscapes, People, and Data. On this Earth Day 2020, we thought we would share our contest winners with you.
Continue reading “Capturing scenes from hydrographic surveying”
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is the nation’s nautical chartmaker, and maintains a suite of more than a thousand nautical charts. Coast Survey is responsible for charting U.S. waters and Great Lakes covering 3.4 million square nautical miles (SNM) of water and 95,000 miles of coastline.
NOAA’s hydrographic survey ships along with hydrographic contractor vessels, recently kicked off the 2019 hydrographic survey season. These surveys not only update the suite of nautical charts, but also help to maintain the safety of maritime commerce, recreational boaters, natural ecosystems, and much more. Operations are scheduled for maritime priority areas around the country and are outlined in Coast Survey’s “living” story map. Here is a list of where they are headed this year:
Continue reading “NOAA releases 2019 hydrographic survey plans”
By Cmdr. Mark Van Waes, former commanding officer of NOAA Ship Fairweather
Mount Fairweather stands tall above Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, dominating the skyline for miles around (when weather permits visibility). Only about 12 miles inshore from the Gulf of Alaska and soaring to 15,325 feet, it is one of the highest coastal peaks in the world.
Continue reading “From NOAA Ship Fairweather to Mt. Fairweather: Commanding officer summits ship’s namesake”