Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:31:29.203Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dead Reckoning by Surface Current Observation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

William S. von Arx
William S. von Arx
Affiliation:
(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recently an electromagnetic method for measuring the velocities of ocean currents for oceanographic purposes has been shown to be reliable enough for the observed velocity of the surface current to be taken into account in dead reckoning navigation in the open ocean. A preliminary test of the electromagnetic method as a navigational aid was made in 1949 on one cruise covering a distance of 1000 miles across the Gulf Stream and back. A total of 52 miles of lateral drift was corrected to produce a straight line of travel through the observed currents, and this correction enabled the ship to return to within 2 miles of the starting point. Seven less formal experiments performed in 1950 indicate that ordinarily, on straight-away courses, the lateral drift component caused by currents can be measured and corrected with the expectation that the undetected drift will be less than 1 percent of the distance travelled.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1951 , pp. 117 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1951

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Faraday, M. (1832). Art. VI (The Bakerian Lecture), Experimental Researches in Electricity, Second Series, Sec. 5, Terrestrial Magneto-electric Induction. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc London, 1832, Parti, pp. 163–177, vid. 176, par. 190.Google Scholar
2Young, F. B., Gerrard, H. and Jevons, W. (1920). On Electrical Disturbances Due to Tides and Waves. Phil. Mag. Ser. 6, 40, pp. 149–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Barber, N. F. (1948). The Magnetic Field Produced by Earth Currents Flowing in an Estuary or Sea Channel. Mon. Not. Roy. Astr. Soc, Geophys. Suppl., 5 (7), pp. 258–269.Google Scholar
4Barber, N. F. and Longuet-Higgins, M. S. (1948). Water Movements and Earth Currents: Electrical and Magnetic Effects. Nature, Vol. 161, pp. 192–193.Google Scholar
5Longuet-Higgins, M. S. (1949). The Electrical and Magnetic Effects of Tidal Streams. Mon. Not. Roy. Astr. Soc, Geophys. Suppl., 5 (8), pp. 295–307.Google Scholar
6Stommel, H. (1948). The Theory of the Electric Field Induced in Deep Ocean Currents. J. Mar. Res., Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 386–392.Google Scholar
7von Arx, W. S. (1950). An Electromagnetic Method for Measuring the Velocities of Ocean Currents from a Ship Under Way. Papers in Phys. Oceanog. and Met., M.I.T.-W.H.O.I., Vol. XI, No. 3.Google Scholar
8Soule, F. M., Carter, H. H. and Cheney, L. A. (1950 in press). International Ice Observation and Ice Patrol Service in the North Atlantic Ocean—Season 1948, U.S. Coast Guard Bull. 34, p. 96.Google Scholar
9Guelcke, R. W., and Schoute-Vanneck, C. A. (1947). The Measurement of Sea Water Velocities by Electromagnetic Induction. Jour. lnst. Elec. Eng., 94, Part II (37), PP. 71–74.Google Scholar
10Denman, H. H. (1950). An Analysis of an Electromagnetic Method of Measuring Velocities of Moving Conducting Media.—Masters Thesis (mimeographed) Univ. of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.Google Scholar