OS21A-01
OceanPollutionasaresultofOnshoreOffshorePetroleumactivitiesintheAfricanGulfofGuineaRegi on
The Gulf of Guinea region is located on the Atlantic side of Africa; the sub region has a total population of approximately 190million people. It comprises of five different countries and their territorial waters, which are as follows: Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Cameroon. The sub region is blessed with so many types of natural resources ranging from petroleum, Natural gas, Bitumen, Uranium Diamond and Gold to mention but a few. However the region since the last two decades started attracting the World's attention as a result of the continuous increasing discoveries of new oil fields on both its on shores and off shores. In view of this extra ordinary increasing discoveries of new oil fields in the region, the Gulf of Guinea has become a "Gold rush" to the oil companies and it has so far attracted almost all the top oil firms in the world including; Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, Texaco, Agip, Chevron, Slumberger, Stat Oil and Conoco Phillips among many other oil giants. In the more recent time even the U.S. Marine Corp have stationed their War Ship in the territorial waters of the Gulf in the name of providing protection to the "Liquid Gold" (Petroleum) underlying the beneath of the region. OIL ACTIVITIES AND ITS ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS IN THE GULF OF GUINEA As a result of the geometrically increasing oil activities in the region ranging from Drilling, Gas flaring, Bunkering and Exploration activities, there was increase in the general pollution of the region. For example recent reports released in June, 2005 by the internationally renown nongovernmental organization on environmental pollution the Netherlands based Climate Justice programme and the Nigeria's Environmental Rights Action, Under the aegis of friends of the Earth, had it that the region is ranked top on the world's total flare with Nigeria along accounting for 16 percent of the world's total flare. Another example is the increasing cases of oil spillages leading to the increasing cases of pollution of farmlands, rivers, wells and the environment in general. Apart from all these, what is even becoming more worrisome is that none of all these oil firms operating in the region is able to account on how it disposes its industrial toxic waste generated as a result of its industrial activities within the region. Finally Geological strata are adversely destroyed by seismographic activities, Sea creatures are destroyed by oil pollution and Means of livelihood of revering dwellers are often threatened by pollution. RECOMMENDATIONS After identifying how the pollution in the Gulf of Guinea region is increasing in relation to the increasing petroleum activities, I have come up with the following suggestions/recommendations. 1. AFRICAN UNION RESOLUTION The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in conjunction with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should use their capacity to be able to influence the African Union (AU) to pass a resolution banning the illegal dumping of radioactive waste, Gas flaring and Costal bunkering in this part of the world. 2. RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in conjunction with the United Nations Environmental Agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency and with the corporation of the African Union should send team of researchers to come and investigate this trend on petroleum pollution in the Gulf of Guinea region and proffer possible solutions in checking the menace.
OS21A-02
Identifying the types of waves: A value adding study on the ocean observing data buoy system
Understanding of the wave climate in a particular place of interest is one of the primary aspects of any ocean observing system. Engineers and scientists working in the area of coastal or offshore engineering require to have knowledge on the types of waves that predominantly prevailing not only for the design of the ocean structures but also to understand the physical behavior of ocean surface. For example, identification of breaking waves is given prime importance as it has potential to answer for many of the water-air interaction or turbulence mixing problems. On the other hand, group of waves in which successive wave heights exceed the significant value could exert tremendous forces on the ocean structures and may lead catastrophic damage to it. Apart from deriving the conventional information such as the significant wave periods, heights and the predominant direction of prevailing, knowledge on the existence of type of waves would certainly help the designers, engineers and researchers. In an attempt to classify the types of waves from the buoy measurements, a detailed experimental program was conducted in the Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The buoy model was subjected to variety of waves such as group and breaking waves. The challenging task of the study is to simulate the group and breaking waves in the controlled laboratory environment. For which, initially, these waves are simulated theoretically, which intern converted into first order wave paddle signals to simulate the waves in the flume. The buoy heave, surge and pitch motions were measured by using potentiometers and the non-contact motion capturing cameras. The experimentally obtained wave elevation and the buoy motions time histories were analyzed by statistical, continuous wavelet transformation and phase-time methods to find the traces of wave types. A careful step by step analysis of the buoy motions yields presence of wave groupiness and breaking events. The details of the model, instrumentation, testing conditions and the analysis are presented and discussed in this paper.
OS21A-03
Long Term Ocean Observatories: The Bermuda Testbed Mooring and Hale-Aloha.
Long term deep-sea ocean observatories and the advancement of sensor technologies have greatly improved our ability to understand the dynamic forces affecting the ocean. In order to understand and predict ocean variability, interdisciplinary time series observations on scales from seconds to decades are required. The Bermuda Testbed Mooring (BTM), located southeast of Bermuda (BATS site), and the HALE-ALOHA (H-A) mooring, north of Hawaii (HOT site), are two existing interdisciplinary deep-sea mooring programs. Both moorings are located in approximately 4500 m water depth and provide fundamental measurements of meteorological, physical, and optical variables. The BTM program, funded by NSF and ONR, has served the oceanographic community since 1994; H-A, initially sponsored by NSF in 1997, has been funded by NOPP since 2002. These deep-sea moorings have proven their value in detecting and observing processes that cannot be captured with ship- or satellite-based sampling. BTM and H-A data have been collected during passages of tropical storms, mesoscale eddies, Rossby waves, dust deposition events, rapid shoaling of the mixed layer, phytoplankton bloom events, inertial oscillations, diel and shorter time scale variability in phytoplankton and bio- optical properties, and internal gravity waves. Recently, BTM data was collected during near direct hits by two hurricanes, Fabian (2004) and Florence (2006). BTM and H-A data sets have been used to develop improved models of several upper ocean processes during and in the wakes of extreme wind forcing events. High resolution time series data of these events have led to shifts in our understanding of the forces driving these processes. To facilitate scientific studies requiring high frequency spatial coverage, complementary ship-based, sediment trap mooring, AUV, glider, and satellite data sets have been used along with BTM and H-A data to expand the utility of collective regional scientific research efforts off Bermuda and Hawaii. These data sets have also been used to calibrate and validate satellite-based ocean observations. Deep-sea mooring programs such as BTM and H-A will continue to provide detailed time series observations of long term oceanographic trends as well as the monitoring of extreme events.
OS21A-04
An ARM Mobile Facility Designed for Marine Deployments
The U.S. Dept. of Energy's ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurements) Program is designing a Mobile Facility
exclusively for marine deployments. This marine facility is patterned after ARM's land Mobile Facility, which had its
inaugural deployment at Point Reyes, California, in 2005, followed by deployments to Niger in 2006 and Germany
in 2007 (ongoing), and a planned deployment to China in 2008.
These facilities are primarily intended for the study of clouds, radiation, aerosols, and surface processes with a
goal to include these processes accurately in climate models. They are preferably embedded within larger field
campaigns which provide context. They carry extensive instrumentation (in several large containers) including:
cloud radar, lidar, microwave radiometers, infrared spectrometers, broadband and narrowband radiometers,
sonde-launching facilities, extensive surface aerosol measurements, sky imagers, and surface latent and
sensible heat flux devices. ARM's Mobile Facilities are designed for 6-10 month deployments in order to capture
climatically-relevant datasets. They are available to any scientist, U.S. or international, who wishes to submit a
proposal during the annual Spring call.
The marine facility will be adapted to, and ruggedized for, the harsh marine environment and will add a scanning
two-frequency radar, a boundary-layer wind profiler, a shortwave spectrometer, and aerosol instrumentation
adapted to typical marine aerosols like sea salt. Plans also include the use of roving small UAVs, automated
small boats, and undersea autonomous vehicles in order to address the point-to-area-average problem which is
so crucial for informing climate models. Initial deployments are planned for small islands in climatically-
interesting cloud regimes, followed by deployments on oceanic platforms (like decommissioned oil rigs and the
quasi-permanent platform of this session's title) and eventually on large ships like car carriers plying routine
routes.
http:www.arm.gov/sites/amf.stm
OS21A-05
Tridimensional Circulation in Curvilinear Coordinates: Application to Monterey Bay
A combination of general curvilinear transformations of the non-linear flow equations, boundary-fitted grids, and a semi-implicit algorithm are used to construct a time-dependent three-dimensional primitive equations coastal ocean model. The model, referred as GCOM (General Curvilinear Ocean Model) is able to reproduce the complex oceanographic phenomena arising from flow-topography interaction. Preliminary model simulations are presented for Monterey Bay.
OS21A-06
A three-dimensional variational data assimilation and observing system experiment system for the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System
A three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR) system (ROMS-DAS) has been developed for the
Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). This system provides a capability of predicting meso- to small-scale
variations with temporal scales from hours to days in the coastal oceans. To cope with the particular difficulties
that result from complex coastlines and bottom topography, unbalanced flows and sparse observations, ROMS-
DAS utilizes several novel strategies. These strategies include the implementation of three-dimensional
anisotropic and inhomogeneous error correlations, application of particular weak dynamic constraints, and
implementation of efficient and reliable algorithms for minimizing the cost function. ROMS-DAS has been
implemented in a quasi-real-time fashion in support of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System
(SCCOOS) since Januray 2007. ROMS-DAS assimilats a variety of observations, including satellite sea surface
temperatures and sea surface heights, High Frequency (HF) radar velocities, ship reports and other available
temperature and salinity profiles. A preliminary evaluation of data assimilation and prediction showed
encouraging performance.
http:ourocean.jpl.nasa.gov
OS21A-07
In-Situ Water Quality Monitoring in South San Francisco Bay: Data Validation and Interpretation
We monitored water quality from 2005 to 2007 in South San Francisco Bay using in-situ sondes that recorded
time-series records of temperature, salinity, tidal depth, turbidity, and chlorophyll fluorescence. A vertical array of
two sondes was used at Dumbarton Bridge, one sonde near water bottom, at 5 m mean water depth, and the
other near the surface. An additional sonde was located at San Leandro. In order to validate sonde salinity data,
we conducted laboratory analysis of 36 water samples collected at the locations over a 14 month period. Salinity
values measured in the laboratory were in excellent agreement with data from the sondes at the corresponding
times. High rainfall storms in winter 2005-2006 caused a remarkable decrease in salinity over a two-week period,
and high turbidity values for nearly a week. Additional episodes of high rainfall and runoff continued into Spring
2006, producing unusually low salinity levels. Using data from the two-sonde array at Dumbarton Bridge, we
identified periods of thermal stratification and destratification of several days in duration that appear to be
induced by tidal mixing. We observed episodes of thermal stratification during low-energy neap tides, and
destratification during high-energy spring tides. Salinity stratification appeared to be more persistent than thermal
stratification, and less subject to tidal influence. We conducted periodogram analysis of time-series data. At
Dumbarton Bridge, narrow high-amplitude peaks in spectral density occurred at periods of 12 and 24 hours for
most parameters logged, reflecting the strong overprint of semidiurnal tides on physical processes there. At San
Leandro, limited tidal circulation was reflected in the periodograms of many parameters by diffuse low-amplitude
peaks at tidal periods.
http:www.sci.csueastbay.edu/cicore
OS21A-08
The NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative Global Scale Observatory - Expandable Draft Platform
The NSF Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction project termed the Ocean Observatories Initiative seeks to develop a Global Scale Observatory to support a sustained presence in a variety of deep-water areas of the world ocean. The observatory will sample different physical, geodynamic, biogeochemical, and ecosystem regimes. The infrastructure is transformative in supporting the observation of transient and emergent phenomena and in making simultaneous, real-time measurements of atmospheric, physical, biogechemical, ecological and geodynamic observations with interactive control. One of the proposed platforms is an Extendable Draft Platform (EDP), which couples spar buoy behavior with a self-installing approach to mooring. The platform provides real-time telemetry capability to shore via satellite, continuous telemetry and power supply to the water column and seafloor, and substantial power on board the buoy. The platform is not occupied except for annual servicing and can be towed to site with a large UNOLS vessel. Larger-scale versions of the EDP are attractive for hydrocarbon recovery in the deep sea. Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Technip have partnered in the design, construction, and testing of the first of these platforms prior to the platform's use in the OOI in the mid- Atlantic.
OS21A-09
The Importance of Spatially Heterogeneous Roughness Grids on Hydrodynamic Modeling of Coral Reefs
Hydrodynamics of two embayments in the Hawaiian archipelago, Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai, and Kailua Bay, on the Island of Oahu, are estimated using a shallow-water finite-difference wave and circulation model. Both of the bay bottoms contain a mix of unconsolidated (mostly carbonate) sediment and fringing coral reefs. Model results of shoreline wave heights, shore-parallel and shore-perpendicular currents are found to vary by several orders of magnitude depending on what parameterization of bottom roughness is used. Several bottom roughness schemes are compared, including "standard" homogenous values for sediments, higher homogenous values for reefs, and spatially varying values derived from measurements of rugosity. Results from model runs using these different schemes are compared with in situ observations and indicate the importance of spatially heterogeneous roughness grids. Methods of: 1) deriving rugosity measurements from bathymetric data and 2) creating grids of hydraulic roughness lengths based on published values from the rugosity grids are presented. These methods have implications for providing near-real time bulletins and forecasts of water safety and water quality along Hawaii's coastlines.