Salt Water

Saline water is a general term for water that contains a significant concentration of dissolved salts (NaCl). The concentration is usually expressed in parts per million (ppm) of salt.

Water that is saline contains significant amounts (referred to as "concentrations") of dissolved salts. In this case, the concentration is the amount (by weight) of salt in water, as expressed in "parts per million" (ppm). If water has a concentration of 10,000 ppm of dissolved salts, then one percent (10,000 divided by 1,000,000) of the weight of the water comes from dissolved salts.The salinity concentration level used by United States Geological Survey classifies saline water in three categories. Slightly saline water contains around 1,000 to 3,000 ppm. Moderately saline water contains roughly 3,000 to 10,000 ppm. Highly saline water has around 10,000 to 35,000 ppm of salt. Seawater has a salinity of roughly 35,000 ppm, equivalent to 35 g/L.

Normally, moderately or highly salinated water is of little use to humans. Humans cannot drink salinized water directly, nor is it suitable for irrigating crops. Though some industries also make use of saline water, such as mining and thermoelectric-power.

Water salinity based on dissolved salts in parts per thousand (ppt)

Fresh water| Brackish water |Saline water Brine

< 0.5| 0.5 – 30| 30 – 50 > 50

When going to Mission Bay Beach in San Diego, CA my family and I don’t go into the water.  The ocean water is salt water.  If we do go into the water, and the water gets into our eyes our eyes really hurt a lot.  We usually just go to have fun in the sun and play with our son building castles, roads, and pyramids.  It’s amazing to see how many people don’t even bother to go into the water if it’s so salty.

Arizona Tornadoes 2010

October 8, 2010

On October 5, 2010 for most of Arizona, the first week in October will be remembered for it's tornadoes, hail storms, and other severe weather.  The National Weather Service has officially reported five tornadoes in Northern Arizona this week and a fierce hail storm pushed through metro Phoenix on Tuesday.  The twisters are rare for the region and startled residents. Homes and cars were damaged, and various communities are still recovering from the storm, with a string of power outages.

A tornado is a small column of air that whirls rapidly and violently about a nearly vertical axis and is made visible by clouds, dust and debris.  Tornadoes are most probble after a hurricane enters the westerly steering current and curves towards the north and northeast; they form mostly to the northeast of the storm center, often outside the region of hurricane-force winds.

My friend, who is attending Northearn Arizona University, said that it was so terrible.  She tried to call her parents and she had no signal.  When she drove from the university to her apartment, she was driving while hail was occuring.  I personally haven't been near or close to a tornado and I hope I'll never be. 

Collecting Multibeam Sonar Data

October 1, 2010



Multibeam sonar systems emit sound waves from directly beneath a ship's hull to produce fan-shaped coverage of the sea floor. These systems measure and record the time elapsed between the emissions of the signal from the transducers to the sea floor or object and back again. Multibeam sonar’s produce a 'swath' of soundings (i.e., depths) to ensure full coverage of an area.

A unique aspect of multibeam sonar is the integration of vessel attitude into the collection of the data. This is accomplished through a Global Positioning System and data from an Inertial Motion Unit (IMU). The IMU makes very precise measurements of vessel attitude many times per second. By integrating attitude measurements with the timing of the sonar echo, an accurate bathymetric record can be produced regardless of the echo path through the water. This aspect of multibeam technology makes it the most complicated sonar system and the most expensive to operate.

This system is compare to the one that we studied in Chapter 6 of our textbook.  The scientists use sounding to denote a sequence of measurements obtained at various altitudes in the atmosphere. 

Ports

October 1, 2010

The National Ocean Service (NOS) is responsible for providing real-time oceanographic data and other navigation products to promote safe and efficient navigation within U.S. waters. The need for these products is great and rapidly increasing; maritime commerce has tripled in the last 50 years and continues to grow. Ships are getting larger, drawing more water and pushing channel depth limits to derive benefits from every last inch of draft. By volume, more than 95 percent of U.S. international trade moves through the nation's ports and harbors, with about 50 percent of these goods being hazardous materials. A major challenge facing the nation is to improve the economic efficiency and competitiveness of U.S. maritime commerce, while reducing risks to life, property, and the coastal environment. With increased marine commerce come increased risks to the coastal environment, making marine navigation safety a serious national concern. From 1996 through 2000, for example, commercial vessels in the United States were involved in nearly 12,000 collisions, allusions’, and groundings.





PORTS^®

PORTS^® is a decision support tool that improves the safety and efficiency of maritime commerce and coastal resource management through the integration of real-time environmental observations, forecasts and other geospatial information. PORTS^® measures and disseminates observations and predictions of water levels, currents, salinity, and meteorological parameters (e.g., winds, atmospheric pressure, air and water temperatures) that mariners need to navigate safely.

It is really important that the ports are a useful tool that we and marine time commerce can save lives.  Technology has grown so much that the ports use telephone and internet communication for our protection.