Archived page: information on this page is no longer updated and may contain broken links and outdated information.

CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Past Seminars

Seminar Abstract

Friday 10 December 2004, 11.30am (Tas time)

CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart, and via videoconference to CMR Floreat and Cleveland

Dr David Griffin
CSIRO Marine Research

How Andrew Bartholomew was found: oceanography in action

On 23 October 2004, Andrew Bartholomew fell off his trimaran while trying to repair rigging, 200km east of Moreton Island in Queensland. His crewman called a Mayday because he could not turn the vessel around. An initial search that afternoon failed to find Andrew but he was rescued the following morning by helicopter, 33km SE from his splashpoint.

Andrew's rescue was widely reported in the media but the technology used was not mentioned. Crucial to the success of the mission was the fact that the search was guided by CSIRO estimates of the ocean current combined with Bureau of Meteorology estimates of the wind, via a package developed for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority by Global Environmental Modelling Systems Pty Ltd.

Search and rescue is possibly the most compelling reason to make operational oceanography a reality, but there are a host of other applications. In this talk I will use this recent rescue to illustrate the status of the BLUElink Regional Analysis, whose task it is to estimate of the physical state of the ocean using all available observations, both in near-real time and for the last decade. With four altimeters now flying and Argo well underway, ocean observation has never been better. The data are presently under-utilised, however, which is possibly why the future of altimetry now hangs in the balance.

Website: Ocean Surface Currents and Temperature

 

[Back to Seminars]


CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
Peter Oke, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5387
Piers Dunstan, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5382
Katrina Nitschke, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265 & IASOS, University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2509