The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been at the forefront of X-band radar remote hydrography research for over two decades. In this time methods to determine water depth and current vectors with marine radar have developed from pure research to operational, commercially available technology in worldwide use. Recent developments have seen NOC transition its radar hydrography technology from shore-based to vessel-based operation and in the process opened up new ways to observe the marine environment using off-the-shelf hardware ubiquitous in the maritime sector. This talk will showcase these exciting new developments from NOC’s new vessel-borne radar hydrography capability. This was recently demonstrated on board the HMS Magpie – the Royal Navy’s state of the art 18m survey vessel around Plymouth Sound.
Dr Paul Bell
Dr Paul Bell has an honours degree in Physics and Electronics from St Andrews University and a PhD in the remote determination of bathymetry from Bangor University. He has worked at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, now the National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool since 1992, primarily developing a range of radar remote sensing methods, with a particular interest in depth and current mapping. He has applied these techniques to a range of applications including the mapping of currents at tidal stream energy sites, and most recently studying an area of the UK coast suffering from ongoing coastal erosion. His patented Temporal Waterline Intertidal Mapping technology has been transitioned to an operational service operated by Marlan Maritime Ltd and an adapted version using satellite data is now undergoing trials at the NOC.
Paul is currently on a 6-month secondment to Marlan Maritime to support the transition of the wave inversion subtidal depth and current mapping method into an operational service.