Scientists from the Navy Oceanography/Meteorology Command will be in the IMAX Great Hall on Monday at 10:30 a.m. They will have equipment and displays set up through 3:30 p.m.
This event is part of Navy Week in Chattanooga and has been planned as closely to World Oceans Day (June 8) as possible. They are at IMAX because of the natural connection to the new film “Oceans 3D: Our Blue Planet.”
Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command will staff the IMAX event with sailors and a civilian scientist to showcase equipment, including unmanned systems, that the Navy uses in collecting and interpreting oceanographic and meteorological data. There will be an underwater glider, a conductivity-temperature-depth sensor, and a profiling float for ocean data.
Sailors on this team are all E-6 and above Aerographer's Mates, who are also qualified forecasters. Naval Oceanography delivers information on the physical environment - including wind, weather, wave height, currents, temperature and precise time - that is required by Navy ships, submarines, aircraft, and SEALS to operate and navigate safely and effectively.
Here are a few facts that NOAA includes in their ocean literacy education programs:
The Ocean is the defining feature on our blue planet. Five great, interconnected ocean basins, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern, make up the only ocean in our solar system, and contain 97 percent of Earth’s water. The vapor released into the atmosphere returns as rain, sleet and snow, ever replenishing the planet with freshwater. All life, including our own, exists because of the ocean. Our lives depend, now and forever, on the health of the ocean. Understanding the ocean is essential to comprehending and protecting this planet on which we live.
Seven principals of Ocean Literacy that every land-lubber should know:
1) The Earth has one big ocean with many features.
2) The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth.
3) The ocean controls weather and climate.
4) The ocean made Earth habitable. (Most of the Earth’s oxygen comes from the ocean)
5) The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.
6) The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.
7) The ocean is largely unexplored.
Source: NOAA