computer modelling

Research may help plan sustainable fisheries in Kenya

Recently published research led by the NOC is helping to inform sustainable fishing plans for the North Kenya Banks, which is viewed by the Kenyan government as the next frontier for food security of the coastal population.

Computer models to help inform Pearl Delta planning

Today the NOC announced its involvement in a new, internationally collaborative project that will inform planning for the Pearl River Delta in China by combining measurements of salt in estuarine waters with computer modelling.

Historical models shed light on global warming

William J. Baxter and Virgil Partch, “Warmer Weather!... Boom in North” (New York: International Economic Research Bureau)

The uncertainty associated with projections of end-of-century global warming by Earth System Models (ESMs) can be understood in terms of two components, according to research by NOC scientist Tom Anderson (with co-workers Ed Hawkins and Phil Jones).

NOC to be part of ambitious multi-centre research programmes

The ocean

The NOC is to be part of four highly ambitious research programmes, commissioned by the Natural Environmental Research Council that will see its research centres working closely together to tackle major scientific and societal challenges.

NOC science to help farmers in Bangladesh

Paddy fields in the Delta

A computer model that aims to provide physical information on the Bangladesh delta to policy makers there, has received the ‘impact’ award from the national super-computing facility, ARCHER.

New study explains the role of oceans in global ‘warming hiatus’

Earth from space: the North Atlantic, Tropical Pacific and Southern Ocean emerge as key areas involved in heat drawdown during the hiatus (http://aduphoto.com/earth-from-space-high-resolution-hd-images-3-hd-wallpaper.html)

New research, by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, shows that ocean heat uptake across three oceans is the likely cause of the ‘warming hiatus’ – the current decade-long slowdown in global surface warming.

Cutting-edge ocean modelling will help to predict the UK’s weather

Nemo model: North Atlantic sea surface temperature, showing the eddies produced by the separated Gulf Stream

After last winter’s storms and flooding, 2012’s great winter freeze and a July heatwave this year, it seems to many of us that our Great British weather is becoming ever more extreme and increasingly difficult to predict.

Question time – sustained marine observations

The panel for the Q&A session at the Royal Society

Last month the Royal Society was the venue for a marine themed Question Time discussion session with Prof Nicholas Owens in the Chair. Four brave panellists faced questions from the floor on the subject of sustained marine observations.

Hear how Prof Karen Heywood, Prof Ed Hill, Prof Laurence Mee and Dr David Mills got on.

New generation of climate models capable of simulating abrupt climate change

Sea ice

Scientists have, for the first time, demonstrated that climate models are able to simulate past abrupt changes in the Earth’s climate – giving more confidence in predictions of future global climate change.

Simple study advances seafloor ecological modelling

Seabed community biomass seems to increase continuously with individual body weight

A new study carried out at the National Oceanography Centre challenges a long accepted theory about how the biomass of animals living at the seafloor increases as animal size increases.

Results show that the complex trends detected by conventional sampling methods may be artefacts, and that the true relationship may be much simpler – and therefore easier to predict.