data

Oct 24, 2019

Visiting scientist to focus on marine geohazard research and data

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Dr. Phil Hill, former director at the Geological Survey of Canada’s Pacific division, is ONC’s latest visiting scientist. Hill has a long-standing connection with ONC—he was one of the original principal investigators of ONC’s inshore observatory project proposal and the Delta Dynamics platform—and is looking forward to using ONC data to advance his research on marine geohazards, including submarine landslides and related processes.

Read more about Dr. Hill ...

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visiting scientist | Delta Dynamics platform | Science | data

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Experience ocean data through interactive art

Our first artist-in-residence program was an exciting, innovative and fruitful venture that helps the public understand and engage with ocean data in the Salish Sea and Fraser Delta.

Visual artist and University of Victoria alum Colton Hash recently completed a six-month residency working with Ocean Networks Canada scientists and data specialists to create artistic visualizations from ocean data.

“I think interactive art has an opportunity to engage with environmental data in a way that is intuitive and interactive, that allows people to form their own connections,” comments Colton. The Atmospheric Ocean visualizes the carbon dioxide exchange between air and sea...

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Colton Hash | artist-in-residence | data | art visualization

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Real-time radar data spurs international gathering

In June 2017 Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) hosted a WERA high frequency oceanographic radar workshop to discuss “first ever” real-time data that detected tsunami waves when Typhoon Songda hit the west coast of Canada in October 2016, triggering a tsunami alert on the WERA system.

The storm caused Tofino’s Emergency Program Coordinator Keith Orchiston to close beaches in the famous surfing location. “It is always a hard decision to close beaches, but that day we decided to play it safe. Real-time data from an instrument like the WERA radar (Figure 1) would support critical and lifesaving decision making for coastal communities.”

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WERA | radar | workshop | tsunami | data | Wave Radar | Tofino

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Canada’s first three-glider mission maps whale habitat

For the first time in Canada, a triple glider project has successfully mapped out critical gray whale habitat off the west coast of Vancouver Island. While previous missions have deployed one or two gliders, this Whales, Habitat, and Listening (WHaLe) project—funded by the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction, and Response (MEOPAR) and the Deparment of Fisheries and Oceans—is the first to fly three coordinated gliders.

In late January, the three gliders...

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Glider | data | whale | habitat | triple glider project | gray whale | MEOPAR | WHaLe project | Ocean Tracking Network

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Are earthquakes on the rise?

With media coverage of the recent earthquakes in Italy (M6.6), New Zealand (M7.8), Japan (M6.9), and Papua New Guinea (M7.9), you might be wondering whether earthquake activity is increasing. Long-term earthquake statistics in the last 12 months indicate that it was an average year: there were no earthquakes of M8.0 or higher (one M8.0+ is the annual average) and 19 earthquakes with M7.0 - 7.9 (17...

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earthquake | earthquake early warning | statistics | data | megathrust earthquake

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A Canadian First: NOAA brings tsunami Digital Elevation Model training to Victoria, BC

When Kelly Carignan, University of Colorado scientist, visited Victoria, British Columbia for the first time in April 2016, she was surprised that no tsunami evacuation routes were posted in this coastal city. “In northern California you see a lot of tsunami hazard zone signs,” says Kelly.

Fortunately for Victoria, Kelly was in town to lead a ground-breaking workshop that will contribute to improved emergency preparedness efforts in Canada’s coastal communities.

...
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tsunami | data | digital elevation modelling

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Sea Ice Research and its Benefits

Understanding Sea Ice: Ocean Networks Canada Coordinates POLAR Safe Passage Project.

Imagine an area of the size of Ontario ‒ gone. That’s roughly the amount of Arctic sea-ice that has melted in the last 30 years: over 1 million square km. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: some climate change forecasts are predicting an ice-free summer Arctic Ocean by as early as 2030.

Understanding sea-ice change is critical to life in the high north, particularly when it comes to getting around. Local transportation and commercial shipping are defined by the Arctic’s shifting seasonal extremes, which is becoming harder to predict. Not only is the thickness and extent of the frozen ocean shrinking, but the dates of freeze-up, break-up and the duration of solid...

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Arctic | POLAR | Safe Passage | sea ice | Cambridge Bay | community observatories | data

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VENUS Data Now Available via Oceans 2.0

Some data archives from the VENUS Observatory in the Salish Sea, encompassing the Strait of Georgia and Saanich Inlet can now be accessed via Oceans 2.0 software tools including:

The Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) has been in continual operation since February,...

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data | Oceans 2.0 | data search | plotting utility

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Sharing Ocean Data

- Dr. Kim Juniper,  Director of User Engagement

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operates the world’s largest civilian observatory network for monitoring the oceans. Maintaining ONC’s nearly 900 kilometres of networked underwater sensors requires the cooperation of other major ocean stakeholders in the northeast Pacific, Salish Sea and western Arctic. The fishing industry and the Canadian Coast Guard are kept up to date on locations of infrastructure to minimize the risk of strikes by trawl gear or interference with safe navigation. 

In addition to the physical infrastructure, ONC has agreements with other ocean stakeholders related to protection of sensitive...

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hydrophones | navy | seismometer | data divert | field testing | Oceans 2.0 | data | policy

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Ocean Acoustics

Example of the readout from the Zooplankton Acoustic Profiler (ZAP).

In the terrestrial world, we rely heavily on optics and our vision, and less so on acoustics and hearing. In the ocean, the opposite is true. In coastal waters, light only travels relatively short distances (5-20m), so marine animals use light for sensing only the very near-field environment, while sound can travel huge distances (1-1000km), and informs marine animals of distant features and events. Marine scientists also take advantage of the efficiency with which sound travels in the ocean, and use it to both investigate and...

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ZAP | Zooplankton Acoustic Profiler | acoustic | data | active acoustics | passive acoustics | hydrophones | sonar | adcp

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