Ocean Sciences 2016: New Orleans
Louise Biddle
UEA
The AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting 2016 was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the last week of February. This was my first US conference, and it was on a scale that I haven’t seen before! The poster hall was enormous – over 3000 poster boards – and there were at least 15 sessions running concurrently throughout the week. Later in the week I would be presenting my PhD work in the “High Latitude Environments: Ice-Ocean Interactions and Circulation around the Antarctic Margins” session, so I had time to enjoy the other sessions and learn about other exciting oceanographic research being undertaken in the Southern Ocean.
There were several plenary talks throughout the week, and an awards session including inspiring talks from Fiamma Straneo and Walter Munk reminiscing on his days as an “early career scientist” as he presented the Munk award to his old friend, Carl Wunsch! The poster sessions provided lots of time and opportunity to chat to other scientists in similar fields, and resulted in interesting discussions. My oral presentation on Thursday went smoothly and I made new contacts for future collaborations, as well as lots of new ideas to pursue! The week was incredibly useful for developing ideas for postdoctoral research and I’m very grateful to the Challenger Society for supporting me to attend the conference.
Profile of Louise Biddle:
Louise is a 4th year PhD student at the University of East Anglia, working with supervisors Karen Heywood, Jan Kaiser and Adrian Jenkins (at BAS) on improving the ways we identify glacial meltwater in the Amundsen Sea. Throughout her PhD Louise has been involved in piloting Seagliders around the world and is enthusiastic in public engagement. Now at the end of her PhD, she hopes to continue in Antarctic oceanographic research as well as strengthening her outreach activities.
Twitter feed:
A week filled with lots of talks, exciting discussions and a successful oral presentation: @loubiddle at #OSM16, supported by @challengersoc
Latest News
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. The agenda will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join.
To participate, please complete your registration here.
For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk
Townhall on UK Arctic Ocean contribution to International Polar Year 32/33
The Arctic is one of the most rapidly-changing regions on our planet, with impacts on global sea-level rise, changes to our climate and weather patterns, and threats to our shared biodiversity and ecosystem services. With the international community rapidly mobilising towards the International Polar Year 32/33, and with new international programmes and initiatives now being shaped, it is timely for the UK Ocean Science community to come together and articulate what its unique offerings could be to Arctic research and technology.
This hybrid 2-day meeting, to be held at NOC Southampton, is intended to start this process. Recognising the Arctic Oceans role in global Earth and Human systems, anticipated outcomes include a high-level shaping of what the UK Arctic Ocean community would like to achieve over the course of the IPY, stimulation of new collaborations and proposals for grand Arctic challenges and a baseline from which wider integration with terrestrial, atmospheric and cryosphere communities, both in the UK and overseas, can be built. Discussions will continue in diverse forums, including the UK Arctic Science Meeting in September and at Challenger 2026.
This action is supported by the UK Arctic Office and UK Arctic and Antarctic Partnership
Further details and meeting registration link will be circulated in April together with a questionnaire to help shape the agenda and discussion
In the meantime…SAVE THE DATE
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.