After the Storm

THE NAVAL METEOROLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY COMMAND’S HYDROGRAPHIC EXPERTISE MOVED QUICKLY TO MAP NEW OBSTACLES AND WATERWAY CHANGES FOLLOWING THE TSUNAMI THAT STRUCK SOUTH ASIA.

Shortly after the tsunami devastated coastal areas in the Indian Ocean, the Navy called on its hydrographers to map hazards and changes to navigable waterways and to map new access routes for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) efforts.

People, survey equipment and supplies were immediately flown to the closest available rendezvous points to be deployed off the USS Benfold to survey harbors and approaches. USNS John McDonnell, one of the Navy’s seven oceanographic survey ships, was sent to survey several of the ports, harbors and approach areas. The closest oceanographic survey ships were evaluated for capability and made ready for hydrographic survey launches, if needed. The Navy aircraft that carries laser survey equipment was put on hot standby.

The first navigation guidance was produced and delivered in a matter of days after the surveying began. For subsequent weeks, Navy hydrographers and oceanographers, part of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, collected and analyzed data and developed products to assist in navigation for disaster relief all along the coast of the hardest-hit areas in Indonesia. Charts were developed on scene for delivery to HADR decision-makers. Navy hydrographers worked around the clock in small boats towing side-scan sonar and using depth sounders deployed from USS Benfold, USNS John McDonnell and hydrographic survey launches.

While participation in the humanitarian relief effort was an unusual activity for the command—the Navy’s maritime geospatial expert—it was a critical precursor for successful delivery of badly needed supplies to survivors.

The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, under Fleet Forces Command (CFFC), is a critical part of the Navy’s warfighting readiness. The Navy has long recognized that changing weather and ocean conditions have a significant impact on operations, and the command is focused on predicting those changes and associated impacts to provide a warfighting advantage through the application of oceanographic sciences.

For instance, tides, currents and beach zone characteristics, such as slope and bottom type, are critical factors that must be known prior to successful special warfare and amphibious operations. The ability to navigate safely in treacherous and changing waters can be a definite tactical advantage. Charts are not always dependable, especially in an environment as dynamic as the littoral areas of the ocean and particularly with less than 10 percent of the world’s oceans surveyed.

The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command creates that competitive advantage for the Navy with customized products, including charts that are developed from data collected by a variety of sensors. Sonar data, satellite altimetry and data from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) are all part of the Navy’s sensor mix. The command also maintains and manages the world’s largest ocean database, a kind of data warehouse. The data is housed at the Naval Oceanographic Office, Meteorology and Oceanography Command’s largest subordinate command and the center of the navigation program. In addition, the command’s workforce of military and civilian oceanographers provides an analytical, value-added capability because of their extensive oceanography knowledge and expertise.

The command shares survey data with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, other federal agencies and sometimes foreign countries, but the focus is to support military operations at the tactical, operational and strategic level.

Navigation products and services include digital nautical charts (co-produced with NGA), special tactical oceanographic information charts, customized bathymetric products, field charts, products for submariners and products for special operations forces.
 
The Meteorology and Oceanography Command is for the Navy much like a military land surveyor for a land-based force— by describing the ocean the same way that the ground is described in a military land operation. The data is collected, primarily, to build products for military operations.

For this reason, the command conducts survey operations everywhere in the world. During the past two years, Navy oceanographers and hydrographers have surveyed and prepared tailored products in the Middle East, in Haiti, in the Western Pacific and in East and West Africa for a variety of operations.

Users of the service include every naval operator in DoD—amphibious ships and Marine expeditionary units, special operations, submarines and surface ships.

Military operators often require quick turnaround for products, so the oceanography community is geared to provide products on-the-fly with real-time or nearreal- time data.

Operational mine warfare, for instance, gets a 24-hour turnaround of validated tide data and corrected littoral bathymetry that is collected from on-scene sensors. Navy oceanographers can provide navigationquality charts for large areas of coastline within 24 hours with the airborne LIDAR bathymetry system, which uses an aircraftmounted laser to collect bathymetric data.

The Naval Oceanographic Office is also capable of downloading survey data directly from survey ships, which helps speed the product development process.

Surveys are conducted according to a priority list established by, and sometimes in conjunction with, Navy combatant commanders. If a request comes for an emergent, quick turnaround survey, such as HADR surveys for tsunami relief, the Meteorology and Oceanography Command’s parent command, CFFC, helps decide what pre-planned work gets postponed to meet the emergent need.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, USNS Henson, one of the command’s seven oceanographic survey ships, surveyed Khawr Abd Allah and Khawr Abd Azubayr waterways, providing quick-turnaround field charts for coalition forces.

Rapid-response surveys are important for warfighter planning and operations in littoral regions, especially where knowledge is limited or nonexistent. The Navy’s LIDAR system combines hydrographic, topographic and hyperspectral data with digital imagery to produce more complete characterizations of littoral regions for improved coastal navigation, along with a multitude of littoral environmental characterizations. Airborne LIDAR provides the only method of surveying from about 40 meters of water depth across the shoreline and onto topographic elevations, all recorded, georeferenced and visualized in a seamless product.

LIDAR is particularly effective in nearshore areas too shallow or hazardous for watercraft and in areas with clear water. Oceanographers are investigating mounting the LIDAR on unmanned aerial vehicles as well.

The command is also working with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in several of the warfare areas. AUVs can serve as force multipliers and can collect data in hazardous conditions or denied areas. The variety of AUVs also allows for different capabilities.

In TASWEX-04, the 2004 Task Force ASW Experimentation for Assured Access exercise, for instance, Navy oceanographers used sea gliders, a type of AUV, to collect real-time data on the ocean to help drive and improve ocean forecast models and decision aids during the exercise.

Oceanographers and hydrographers are able to take advantage of other data streams when it is available. Satellite altimetry data, particularly in places that have not been surveyed, is valuable because varying sea heights reveal gravity fluctuations, which can indicate ocean floor contours and obstructions, such as sea mounts.

But sometimes the only way to do the job adequately and quickly is to have professionals on scene. The command dispatches fleet survey teams, composed of military and civilian hydrographers, to perform quick-turnaround hydrographic surveys. They survey harbors, channels and other near-shore areas for port calls, exercises and operations, as well as access and approach routes.

Work ranges from the exciting to the mundane. Fleet survey teams were an important part of the tsunami relief survey effort. In addition, they had a number of projects in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom that involved conducting surveys and building charts in advance of planned operations. A fleet survey team surveyed the main port of the Kuwait Navy Base Khawr as Subiyah for Operation Iraqi Freedom logistics support. The teams also travel to friendly countries to conduct coastal and harbor surveys in partnership with the host country.

All of this warfighter focus for the command’s work is directed through nine warfare and warfare service lines or business lines, many of which are enabled through oceanography and hydrography.

The warfare lines include antisubmarine warfare, mine warfare, fleet operations, special operations, navigation, maritime safety, aviation safety, and precise time and astrometry. ♦

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