March 2008 The March issue of Hydro INTERNATIONAL has an article written by Mark Charlesworth (MEDAG) and Colin Grant (BP Exploration) on 'Marine Data Accessibility and Use'. The article draws on the discussions and recommendations that came from a workshop held in November 2007 on how to improve industry involvement in UK marine data initiatives.
January 2008 The First Session of the IOC’s International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE )/WMO Joint Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) Forum on Oceanographic Data Management and Exchange Standards was held January 21-25, 2008 at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium. Further details here and at the website.
October 2007 The IOC Strategic Plan for Oceanographic Data and Information Management (2008-2011), adopted by the 24th Session of the IOC Assembly (June 2007) is now available. This document is of considerable importance to the IODE community as it will guide the way towards a close cooperation between the IODE data centres and marine libraries, and IOC as well as other marine programmes and organizations.
September 2007 MEDAG are hosting a workshop on 5th November to review the use and accesibility of data across government and industry. Further details here.
July 2007. The Maritime Heritage Forum was held this month at IMarEST (London) and was jointly sponsored by ourselves, English Heritage and MDIP. A series of talks highlighted key issues, and were followed by breakout discussions. The July edition of "Marine Data News" has been given over to reporting on the Forum, click on the following link to view this issue:
MARITIME HERITAGE - SPECIAL ISSUE
June 2007. The Hydrography Unit of the MCA's Navigation Safety branch have released a selection of files for download to the general public which provide information regarding some of the MCA's bathymetric multibeam surveys. The files can be viewed by downloading free Google Earth and show extensive hydrographic information about the areas the MCA has surveyed in recent years. Each file includes an image of the surveyed seabed. Download files from the Hydrography website at www.mcga.gov.uk/hydrography. The files are not to be used for navigation.
May 2007. On Thursday 12th July, at IMAREST (London) MEDAG and MDIP, with support from English Heritage, will be holding a joint Forum meeting to address the Marine Historic Environment.The forum is aimed to focus attention on how historic environment information is captured and presented as spatial data and the associated co-ordination and qualification of records between holders of data e.g. the UK Hydrographic Office, Maritime and Coastguard Agency (navigational hazards), the national historic environment records maintained by respective UK heritage bodies/commissions and other charting organisations such as Kingfisher (Sea Fish Industry Authority).
May 2007 The Maritime Environment Information Centre (MEIC) at the UKHO has just published a CD-ROM of "2007 Release of UK Royal Navy XBT, CTD/STD oceanographic probe data". The data on this CD-ROM represents UK Navy XBT observations up to the year 2000 and CTD/STD observations up to the year 1990 that have not been released previously. The Royal Navy routinely collects ocean temperature, salinity and sound velocity profiles for operational use, which is then stored in the MEIC Maritime Environment Data Store (MEDS). For more information please contact the UKHO at http://www.ukho.gov.uk/
March 2007 Seabed maps for the seas around North West Europe are now publicly available at MESHwebGIS (MESH - Marine European Seabed Habitats). In the last 12 months this resource has been extensively updated with new data and additional functions and is now available free. Users are just requested to complete a simple registration so that the MESH team can monitor its use and evaluate its effectiveness. The online MESH metadata catalogue has also swelled to over 1000 entries.
January 2007. NOCS have launched a website (www.deepseascape.org) as a resource for images of the deep-water environment around the UK, to illustrate different habitat types and biodiversity. This website has been developed as part of a wider project to raise awareness of the deep-sea heritage of the UK.
View our news archive for items from 2006 and 2005 |
