Hello! I am Stephen Gill, an oceanographer with NOAA. I’ve been studying sea level and tides and currents for the past 40 years. My office within NOAA is responsible for providing near real-time tides, currents, and Great Lakes water level information. These data are quality controlled to compile long-term archived data sets that can be used to produce tide and tidal current predictions among other important products such as tidal datums and sea level trends. As you may know, tides vary with the changes in the alignments of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. In general, the closer the alignment of the three bodies, the greater the tides are. One special alignment that occurs a few times each year is the perigean spring tide and we are currently experiencing one of these events right now. September 28 is especially noteworthy because Perigee and the Full Moon occur within a few hours of each other on this day, resulting in high tides being among the highest and lowest for 2015 in many coastal locations. I’ll be here from 1:00 p.m. ET (10 am PT, 5 pm UTC) to 3:00 p.m. ET to answer your questions on perigean spring tides. For more information about me, my bio can be found online at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sep15/reddit.html

Hello Reddit! We are Chris Kelley (deep-sea biologist, University of University of Hawai‘i at Manoa), Daniel Wagner (research specialist, NOAA Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument), Kelley Elliott (NOAA ocean explorer) and Meme Lobecker (NOAA seafloor mapping expert). We are joined by the Mission Team onboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to answer your questions about our expedition to explore the deep waters off Hawaii. We are on the second of four expedition legs and are exploring in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. We will also later explore Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. These large marine protected areas are national symbols of ocean conservation; however, given their remote location, the vast majority of deeper waters in these areas remains unseen by human eyes. Learn more about the expedition here: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1504/welcome.html Throughout the expedition, we are using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to explore the seafloor, and our ROVs’ video streams are being transmitted via satellite from ship to shore. This means anyone with an Internet connection can tune in LIVE with scientists from around the world sharing an unprecedented glimpse of never-seen-before deep marine habitats. Access the live video here: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/media/exstream/exstream.html. We expect to encounter large, diverse coral and sponge communities; explore ancient seamounts; map the seafloor; and learn more about the geologic history of the area. Information collected during the expedition will support management decisions to protect what we know as well as what we have yet to discover. We have all participated in numerous deep-ocean exploration missions. (joining us is /u/melanostomias ) We’re here from 2:00 pm ET to 4:00 pm ET to answer your questions about the Hawaiian expedition or ocean exploration in general…AUA! Thanks everyone for participating today! Great questions! We got a lot of questions regarding advice for folks looking to get into careers in deep-ocean exploration. A couple of good resources on this topic include: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1404/logs/sept21/sept21.html and http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/oceanage/welcome.html. The NOAA Corps Program is another opportunity worth looking into (http://www.noaacorps.noaa.gov/). Also, for those interested in the weird and wonderful discoveries we are making on this expedition, be sure to visit our website (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1504/welcome.html) often, as we are adding new logs, images, and videos all of the time. And of course, you can tune in to the live video feeds and join us for our dives:http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/media/exstream/exstream.html. Weather and all other things permitting, we’ll be diving through the end of September. Thanks again! Onward and downward!