JOA is an Alaska-based company with a global reach. Our team works along every U.S. coastline, including Alaska, the West Coast, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, and U.S. Territories, as well as various Pacific Islands. We maintain excellent working relationships with our project partners, subconsultants, shippers, vendors, and suppliers worldwide.
Where We Work
Our Experience
Featured Project Work
Vertical Datum Transformation
Since 2009, JOA has supported the National Ocean Service (NOS) Vertical Datum Transformation (VDatum) program by collecting water level and geodetic data along all U.S. coasts, including the Great Lakes, Caribbean, and Pacific Islands. JOA utilized pressure, radar, and acoustic sensors to collect water level datasets for federal and state entities, with many of these datasets published in the NOAA Tides & Currents database. JOA has established hundreds of tidal benchmarks, surveying them using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and 2nd Order Class I differential leveling techniques. JOA has used the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) to process and publish more than 1,300 OPUS Shared Solutions.
Alaska’s Continuously Operating Reference Network
In 2022, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (AKDNR) hired JOA to design and install nine continuously operating Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations for the Department’s real-time position network. These stations were the first in the state to be installed specifically for Alaska’s Continuously Operating Reference Network (ACORN). JOA installed the stations at Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) ferry terminals to enhance the state’s precise position monitoring, surveying, weather monitoring, and tide monitoring.
Installations required coordination with AMHS to identify optimal station locations for AKDNR-provided receivers and antennas. For each installation, JOA delivered system configuration settings, a procedure checklist, site photos, a National Geodetic Survey (NGS) visibility obstruction diagram, and an Online Positioning User Service (OPUS) solution calculated using 24 hours of data. JOA also developed a dashboard to monitor system health and identify ping failure, latency, packet loss, external voltage, and battery voltage.
National Water Level Observation Network
JOA has maintained National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations in Alaska for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 2004. Our work history includes upgrading hardware to tsunami-enabled systems, installing meteorological sensors for measuring air temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction, and building nine new stations. In 2023, JOA performed maintenance at NWLON stations in Hawaii. Work included geodetic surveying, electronic integration, and diving. The data published in the NOAA Tides & Currents database supports long-term trend analysis, navigation, inundation modeling, and coastal hazard preparedness.
Ground Surveys for Aerial Mapping
JOA has performed ground surveys for remote aerial mapping projects in Alaska since 2003. Our portfolio includes surveying control for imagery and topographic LiDAR mapping of 400+ miles of coast along the Chukchi Sea from Point Hope to Wales; surveying 1,000+ ground checkpoint reflectors from Southeast to the Aleutians to the North Slope for the Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative and USGSC topographic maps; surveying control for a 1,000-mile coastal mapping project involving Alaska’s western shoreline from Wales to Kuskokwim Bay; and surveying control and checkpoints at seven communities in western Alaska for a 500-mile coastal mapping project between Cape Newenham in Kuskokwim Bay and Port Heiden in Bristol Bay. Most recently, JOA surveyed 850 calibration, non-vegetated, and vegetated vertical accuracy points supporting Quality Level 1 topographical LiDAR projects in 42 locations from Southeast to Kotzebue Sound for the USGS 3D Elevation Program and Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
MetOcean Data Collection
JOA collects meteorological and oceanographic data using various methods, including remote sensing, buoys, and other technology. In 2019, JOA deployed Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) in Shishmaref along the Chukchi Sea for a Planning and Environmental Linkage Study conducted by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (Northern Region). In 2022, JOA installed a meteorological station on the Saltwater Treatment Plant for the NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) that features wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, and barometric sensors. Collocated with a National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) station, it is the northernmost meteorological station within the CO-OPS NWLON. In 2023, JOA initiated a year-long wave monitoring and navigational improvement program involving three spotter wave buoys in Nazan Bay near Atka in the Aleutian Islands for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Environmental Investigations
JOA provides surveying for environmental investigations across Alaska. Services include horizontal and vertical control in the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), precise vertical positioning of monitoring wells using third-order differential leveling techniques, and positioning sampling using real-time and post-processed kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) techniques.