earth science

National Oceanography Centre

National Oceanography Centre is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Oceanography Centre rather than just read about it. In short: The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a marine science research and technology institute based across two sites, one in Southampton and one in Liverpool, England. It is the UK’s largest institute for integrated sea level science, coastal and deep ocean research and technology development.

Key takeaways

National Oceanography Centre belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Oceanography Centre to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Oceanography Centre from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a marine science research and technology institute based across two sites, one in Southampton and one in Liverpool, England. It is the UK’s largest institute for integrated sea level science, coastal and deep ocean research and technology development. The Centre was established to promote co-operation with institutions across the UK marine science community, to better address key issues including sea level change, the ocean's role in climate change, computer simulation of the ocean's behaviour, and the long-term monitoring and future of the Arctic Circle.

Marine science national capability

The NOC operates ships and equipment which contribute to the country's national marine capability. Such equipment provided by the NOC includes Royal Research Ships, RRS James Cook and RRS Discovery, deep submersibles, including the Autosub autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), advanced ocean sensors and other instruments including Boaty McBoatface. The NOC is responsible for a number of programs, including the global mean sea level data archive, the UK's sea level monitoring system for flood warning and climate change, and the national archive of subsea sediment cores. The NOC is also responsible for the National Oceanographic Library, which houses archives including those of RRS Discovery and HMS Challenger, and is the UK's main facility for holding and distributing marine environment data.

History

The National Oceanography Centre’s waterfront headquarters were opened in 1996 by Prince Philip, as the Southampton Oceanography Centre. It brought together the University of Southampton's departments of oceanography and geology with the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, formerly based in Wormley, Surrey, and Research Vessel Services, formerly based in Barry Docks, South Wales. It was renamed the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton in 2005, again by the Duke of Edinburgh, its new name reflecting its prominence in ocean and earth sciences within the UK. Until April 2010, the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton was jointly owned by the University of Southampton and the Natural Environment Research Council. The term National Oceanography Centre, Southampton continues to be used to describe the collaborative relationship at the waterfront campus. The National Oceanography Centre’s Liverpool site, on the University of Liverpool campus, was formerly the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory and specialises in tidal and sea level science. It hosts the National Tidal and Sea Level Facility, the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level and the British Oceanographic Data Centre. It was formerly housed at the Bidston Observatory on the Wirral before moving to the University of Liverpool campus in 2004. On 1 November 2019 the NOC began operating as an independent self-governing organisation – a charitable company limited by guarantee.

NOC Association The NOC Association of Marine Science National Capability Beneficiaries is a network of partners, associates and research institutions which work with the NOC in supporting research and technology development.

Partners The NOC’s partners include the University of Southampton, whose Ocean and Earth Science academic unit is co-located at the NOC’s dockside headquarters, which houses around 520 staff, as well as around 700 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The NOC's Joseph Proudman Building on the campus of the University of Liverpool is used for the teaching of postgraduate students. The NOC is responsible for managing UK marine science national capability. This includes provision of major facilities, programmes of sustained observing, survey, mapping, data management and other functions. The NOC also manages contracts placed by NERC with other organisations to provide some national capability functions. Such organisations are known as Delivery Partners and include:

Plymouth Marine Laboratory Scottish Association for Marine Science British Antarctic Survey British Geological Survey Marine Biological Association Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (named after Alister Hardy) The centre is committed to international engagement and has developed a range of international partnerships through the International and Strategic Partnerships Office, including an alliance of Europe’s three principal oceanographic research institutions with Ifremer of France and GEOMAR of Germany. The NOC is a member of the European Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS)

References

"History of National Institute of Oceanography". National Oceanography Centre. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2016.

External links NOC Official Website British Oceanographic Data Centre National Oceanographic Library

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Oceanography Centre

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Oceanography Centre claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Oceanography Centre before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Oceanography Centre ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Oceanography Centre

In research: National Oceanography Centre appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Oceanography Centre in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Oceanography Centre is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 establishments in England, Natural Environment Research Council, Oceanographic organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Oceanography Centre outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National Oceanography Centre in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Oceanography Centre means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Oceanography Centre out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Oceanography Centre in simple terms?

Why does National Oceanography Centre matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Oceanography Centre?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Oceanography Centre.