Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command

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The Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian Age) Smackover Formation is a significant source for hydrocarbon production in southwest Alabama. Brooklyn Field is in southeast Conecuh County, Alabama, and has been a major producer of oil and natural gas for the state. The Smackover is a carbonate formation that has been divided into seven distinct lithofacies in the Brooklyn and Little Cedar Creek fields. In southwest Alabama, the facies distribution in the Smackover Formation was influenced by paleotopography of the underlying Paleozoic rocks of the Appalachian system. The goal of this study is to determine elemental ratios in rock core within the Smackover Formation using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) handheld scanner and to correlate these elemental characteristics to the lithofacies of the Smackover Formation in the Brooklyn and Little Cedar Creek fields. Eight wells were used for the study within Brooklyn Field and Little Cedar Creek fields. Cores from the eight wells were scanned at six-inch intervals. Chemical logs were produced to show elemental weights in relation to depth and lithofacies. The chemical signatures within producing zones were correlated to reservoir lithofacies and porosity. Aluminum, silicon, calcium, titanium, and iron were the most significant (>95% confidence level) predictors of porosity and may be related to the depositional environment and subsequent diageneses of the producing facies. The XRF data suggests relative enrichments in iron, titanium, and potassium. These elements may be related to deposition in relatively restricted marine waters.

Abstract The United States has had three operational numerical weather prediction centers since the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit was closed in 1958. This led to separate paths for U.S. numerical weather prediction, research, technology, and operations, resulting in multiple community calls for better coordination. Since 2006, the three operational organizations—the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the National Weather Service—and, more recently, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, have been working to increase coordination. This increasingly successful effort has resulted in the establishment of a National Earth System Prediction Capability (National ESPC) office with responsibility to further interagency coordination and collaboration. It has also resulted in sharing of data through an operational global ensemble, common software standards, and model components among the agencies. This article discusses the drivers, the progress, and the future of interagency collaboration.

The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NAVMETOCCOM) produces operational image products referred to as performance surfaces. A performance surface is the projection of numerical values that reflect the performance of a system or phenomenon into a Geographic Coordinate System layer portraying a physical representation of the earth's atmosphere, surface, or ocean. That is, a performance surface is a graphic that indicates optimal performance through visual cues. To date, performance surface algorithms exist for AntiSubmarine Warfare (ASW) and Piracy, and future performance surfaces are anticipated. A characteristic of performance surfaces is their computational complexity, which can be either deterministic or stochastic in nature. The use of stochastic processes drives a significant computational burden based on the sheer volume of individual simulations that must be run and then combined to form a probabilistic prediction. To mitigate the difficulties imposed by large volume stochastic processes, NAVMETOCCOM chartered an Integrated Product Team (IPT) to characterize a suitable computational architecture for existing and future performance surfaces. The IPT was also tasked to document an engineering process by which emergent performance surfaces could implement suitable architectures. This engineering process used tailored DoD acquisition best practices that were agile and easily repeatable for use by future NAVMETOCCOM IPT efforts.

NUOPC is a joint effort between NOAA, DOD, and their research partners to improve collaboration and accelerate operational numerical weather prediction. This partnership is focused on leveraging agency resources and existing ensemble systems into a National Unified Ensemble. The multi-model ensemble was implemented in 2011 and brings additional skill to forecasts at ranges of 8 days and beyond. With the exchange of over 70 variables for forecasts out to 16 days with model runs twice a day and fields exchanged on a one degree grid, much coordination is required to meet the operational requirements of the data exchange. Another effort by the NUOPC partners is the creation of a Common Model Architecture for use in the Operational Prediction Centers. An interagency working group developed the original strategy over a series of meetings from 2007 to 2009. Their final report was approved and published in 2009 and established a well-developed plan to implement this strategy across the partners. This effort created agreed to interoperability standards which can be applied to individual model components and allow for relative ease of swapping other components for testing, demonstration and use.

Determining the worth and effectiveness of training used within a military environment is the same accountability responsibility that educational organizations, businesses, and social agencies are charged with for improving programs and services to society. The need for accountability implies the process of evaluation, particularly in governmental training programs. This article provides a case study, blueprint, and action plan for the infusion of two evaluation models as the foundation for determining the effectiveness of training within a military application.

Military officials continually search for improvements in processes that focus on high-performance outcomes. This qualitative study investigated process improvements of two departments within the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center (the Security Department and the Testing Department) by assessing performance levels of the two departments using a combinatorial model from human performance theory and Six Sigma theory. Study findings produced strong empirical evidence with specific recommendations for initiating cost-effective interventions for improvements. The Behavior Engineering Model was used to identify possible solutions to post-training performance gaps identified during the evaluation.

El proposito de este trabajo es informar sobre la relacion entre el foramen parietal y la complejidad de la sutura sagital en humanos. Se examinaron 110 craneos humanos de individuos japoneses (hombres = 67, mujeres = 43) con al menos un foramen parietal, revelando que la sutura sagital en el area del obelion fue la parte mas simple (es decir, menos interdigitaciones y menor longitud) de la sutura (vinculado la prueba t, p <0,0005). Cuando se comparo la extension de la longitud de la sutura se establecieron tres secciones: 1. Seccion foramen parietal (P); 2. Anterior a la seccion P (B), y 3. Posterior a la seccion P (L). La complejidad de la sutura tambien fue comparada entre los individuos con foramen unilateral (n = 48) y foramenes bilaterales (n = 62) para ver si habia una diferencia estadisticamente significativa. Los resultados revelaron una ligera diferencia en la seccion P (ANOVA Bonferroni, P <0,05), que indica que la sutura sagital a nivel del obelion en los individuos con foramen parietal unilateral es mas compleja que en los individuos con foramenes bilaterales. Si bien no hubo diferencia segun sexo, esta simplicidad en parte, probablemente refleja la redireccion de las fuerzas del hueso alrededor de una abertura circular, lo que reduce la resistencia a la traccion y aumenta la fuerza de compresion adyacente al foramen parietal. Este fenomeno justifica la investigacion adicional y tiene implicaciones para el desarrollo oseo y biomecanica de las suturas craneales.

Abstract It is a major challenge to determine whether bias in operational global wave predictions is predominately due to the wave model itself (internal error) or due to errors in wind forcing (an external error). Another challenge is to characterize bias attributable to errors in wave model physics (e.g., input, dissipation, and nonlinear transfer). In this study, hindcasts and an evaluation methodology are constructed to address these challenges. The bias of the wave predictions is evaluated with consideration of the bias of four different wind forcing fields [two of which are supplemented with the NASA Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) measurements]. It is found that the accuracy of the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center’s operational global wind forcing has improved to the point where it is unlikely to be the primary source of error in the center’s global wave model (WAVEWATCH-III). The hindcast comparisons are specifically designed to minimize systematic errors from numerics and resolution. From these hindcasts, insight into the physics-related bias in the global wave model is possible: comparison to in situ wave data suggests an overall positive bias at northeast Pacific locations and an overall negative bias at northwest Atlantic locations. Comparison of frequency bands indicates a tendency by the model physics to overpredict energy at higher frequencies and underpredict energy at lower frequencies.

Eddy diffusivity of the surface velocity field in the tropical Pacific Ocean was estimated using satellite‐tracked drifting buoys (1979 through mid‐1996). The tropical Pacific surface current system is characterized by nonstationarity, strong meridional shear, and an energetic mesoscale velocity field. Eddy diffusivity may be defined as the integral of the autocovariance of Lagrangian eddy velocities, requiring both stationary and homogeneous statistics of the eddy field. Eddy velocities were obtained by removing a splined mean field to eliminate mean shear from observations binned (1) spatially to group data that have similar dispersion characteristics and (2) temporally to create stationary eddy statistics. Zonal diffusivity estimates are up to ≈7 times larger than meridional diffusivity estimates in the high eddy energy regions. This anisotropy is associated with the meridional mesoscale wave motion (i.e., by equatorial and tropical instability waves) that increases eddy variance but does not lead to a proportional increase in water parcel diffusion because of the coherent character of the trajectory motion, at least for initial time lags. Simple autoregressive models of first and second order are used to describe and classify the resulting eddy statistics. An independent confirmation of the diffusivity estimate in the central/eastern Pacific was obtained by comparing tracer flux divergence computed from a parameterization using diffusivity estimates of our analysis with that from direct eddy Reynolds stress flux divergence. Our results show that diffusivity can be estimated for regions not considered previously either because of sparse data or the complexities of the velocity field.