Dr. Weilin Will Hou and Mr. Bob Arnone, both oceanographers in the Oceanography Division at NRL Stennis Space Center, will chair the International Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Defense Security and Sensing's fourth Ocean Sensing and Monitoring conference April 23-27, 2012. SPIE aims to further the science and application of light.
Hou developed the Ocean Sensing and Monitoring conference for SPIE and has chaired the conference with Arnone since 2008.
NRL's Dr. Alan Weidemann and Dr. Sarah Woods serve on the program committee along with representatives from other federal agencies and private companies.
The conference, to be held in Baltimore, Md., in April 2012, will focus on research and development efforts in the open and coastal ocean with respect to defense and security interests.
Hou and Arnone plan to place a special emphasis on in situ and remote monitoring, deep-sea operations, forecasting, new technology and techniques, monitoring of unique events, and environmental limitations and impacts of note to those in the homeland security and defense sectors.
Modern defense and security forces demand accurate information where it is needed-whether deep ocean or coastal ocean-when it is needed, including future environmental conditions.
Ocean optics affect signal processing, diver visibility, mine hunting and anti-submarine model performance prediction, all of which pose a substantial interest to the Navy and other security forces.
In the NRL Ocean Sciences Branch, Arnone specializes in remote sensing oceanographic processes, remote sensing of optical properties and processes and coupled models of both bio-optical and physical processes .
In the Ocean Hydro Optics Sensors and Systems Section, Hou develops and manages new programs to improve understanding of adaptive optics, turbulence quantification, optical flow and signal transmissions over turbulence.
The combined use of in situ observations, remotely sensed data and physical models is a rapidly evolving field, although improved assimilation of available data into models still poses a challenge. Hou is leading NRL efforts in designing an automated data quality control system to the Navy's unmanned underwater vehicles.
Arnone and Hou's optics research and remote sensing products further the general understanding of optics-related parameters through remote sensing.
For information about the Ocean Sensing and Monitoring conference, visit
www.spie.org/oceans.