OVERVIEW

"Practical and field oceanography" is a course that aims to use "portable" scientific instruments to carry out environmental monitoring from any nautical means. This will allow future Hydrographers and Oceanographers to understand the difficulties related to field activity.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Practical and field oceanography aims to use portable scientific instruments to carry out marine monitoring using different types of boats. The teaching activities will consist of an initial part in the classroom and the time remaining at sea. An analysis of the most common oceanographic instruments will be carried out (CTD, ADCP, Niskin bottles, sediment traps and so on), instruments that will then be used at sea with short daily oceanographic campaigns (with small groups of students who will actually use the instruments) both in confined environments, such as port areas, and in offshore areas, using different nautical vessel such as the M/B Veliger of the DISTAV Department or other vessels such as tugs.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The attendance of teaching (lessons and exits at sea) will provide the student with the basic knowledge of oceanographic instrumentation with the relative application software, knowledge necessary for the course of study that the student has undertaken.

In detail, the Student will be able to:

•      describe and identify the different masses of water, with the use of oceanographic instruments, and their movements (waves, currents, tides);
•      connect and correlate meteorological and marine phenomena;
•      recognize oceanographic instrumentation and use it at sea;
•      analyze and criticize real case studies;
•      plan an oceanographic campaign in autonomy.

PREREQUISITES

Students must have attended the basic course on physical oceanography.

TEACHING METHODS

Please refer to the specific AulaWeb application for teaching for any updates due to changes in the health and epidemiological situation.

The teaching consists of lectures in the classroom and at sea (on board the nautical vessels), and exercises in the laboratory and at sea (on board the nautical vessels). At the end of the teaching an optional test of learning verification will be carried out. Since there are planned activities at sea that involve the application of the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired, attendance at classes and exercises, although not mandatory, is strongly recommended.
Lectures in the classroom are delivered through multimedia presentations.
The exercises at sea are aimed at the practical application of the theoretical knowledge acquired during the lectures. Part of the exercises will take place at the Laboratory of Physical Oceanography for the analysis of sea water samples. Subsequently we will proceed to the analysis of the acquired data and to the graphic restitution of the aforesaid data.
The lessons and exercises at sea will take place on board the M / B Veliger of the DISTAV of the University of Genoa, a nautical vessel specially equipped for this purpose. If the Teacher has ongoing monitoring activities, and if it is possible, some students could participate directly in the practical activities after a short training course on safety and behavior at sea.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course program includes the presentation and discussion of the following topics:

•      references to Meteorology and climatology;
•      references to the physical parameters of the masses of water;
•      references to the "real and non-real" movements of the masses of water;
•      technical in-depth analysis on portable oceanographic instrumentation;
•      real case studies;
•      preparation and participation in one or more oceanographic campaigns.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

All PowerPoint or Pdf presentations used by the Teacher during the lessons and other teaching material (scientific articles, notes from previous years, Thesis / Ph.D. thesis related to the subject of teaching) will be made available on AulaWeb.
Students can also use other university level texts.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MARCO CAPELLO (President)

MASSIMO VERDOYA

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lessons start 15.02.2021 and they end 11.06.2021

Class schedule

PRACTICAL AND FIELD OCEANOGRAPHY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Please refer to the specific AulaWeb application for teaching for any updates due to changes in the health and epidemiological situation.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The oral exam will focus mainly on the topics covered during the theoretical and practical lessons, and will have the purpose to evaluate not only if the student has reached an adequate level of knowledge, but also if he has acquired the ability to link all the theoretical information applying them to real situations. The property of language and the knowledge of the correct scientific and technical terminology will also be evaluated.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The frequency of lessons and exercises is strongly recommended.