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News » General news » Environmental and Oceanographic Monitoring Solutions
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| 29/07/2014 |
| Environmental and Oceanographic Monitoring Solutions |
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Over the years, Unique Maritime Group has implemented many systems for Environmental and Oceanographic Monitoring, which consist of remote sites for the measurement of various parameters, data transmission and centralised data collection.
Unique Maritime Group (UMG) is one of the world’s leading integrated turnkey subsea and offshore solutions provider, specialised in ROV, diving, survey, marine, oil & gas, inspection & NDT and engineering services. UMG has grown significantly over the years and remains at the forefront of the products and services it provides.
The group was founded in 1993, and some of the companies within the Group have over 20 years of experience in a specialised field across a wide spectrum of industries including marine, offshore construction, hydrographic survey, environmental, non-destructive testing, oil & gas and diving.
Oceanographic projects
The measuring or deployment sites could be along various locations like jetties, offshore platform, data buoys, airport runways, pipeline inlet / outlet, building roof tops. The data could be transmitted and UMG could support various transmission options as would be feasible, like hardwire (short & long distance), telephone lines, radio, GSM / GPRS, satellite, direct LAN.
UMG has also commissioned forecasting and early warning systems by implementing models customised for local conditions and data. The scope of the projects is usually comprehensive with turn-key services from desktop study, site survey, system design, supply, installation, commissioning, training and maintenance support.
This is a short overview of 5 environmental and oceanographic projects implemented by UMG.
1. System to upgrade the vsibility forecasting and early warning for the Dubai Municipality
UMG has completed the upgrade of Dubai Municipality’s (DM) forecasting and early warning system. The original system was also established by UMG in January 2010, and provided the Dubai Municipality and Dubai Police with visibility forecasting, which includes a mix of terrestrial, coastal and offshore monitoring solutions with centralised data collection, post processing and implemented model.
The upgrade of DM’s visibility forecasting and early warning system was commissioned to UMG to improve the existing shore tide, and met monitoring network consisting of five Aanderaa AWS-2700 weather stations.
Umm Suqeim, Jebel Ali, Jadaf, Hamriah (Mamzar) and Dhow Wharfage Stations were all upgraded with equipment consisting of an IP-camera, housing with electronics and solar panel assembled on a new stainless steel mast which is permanently fixed on concrete foundation. Meteorological data and camera images were successfully integrated into the new Visibility Forecasting Network and updated on the associated website accordingly. The coastal tide-met stations were upgraded with the latest GPRS communication, additional web servers were installed allowing public web access to the system, and the visibility system were extended to incorporate satellite data.
This is the first weather forecasting system dedicated for traffic safety to be established in the Middle East and has been in continuous operation since its commissioning in early 2010.
The training was also conducted at DM premises by UMG staff, in order to help DM personnel enhance their knowledge and capabilities to better operate the recently upgraded system.
2. Sett up of a permanent Tide Station for the Dubai Municipality
Unique System FZE, a Unique Maritime Group company, along with The Geodesy and Hydrographic Survey Section of Dubai Municipality established a permanent tidal station at Al Mamzaar. Dubai Municipality’s Geodesy and Hydrographic Survey Section of Dubai Municipality have several components comprising various sub-systems that provide real time monitoring, alerts, warnings and timely dissemination of information to concerned departments.
The purpose of the project is to continuously collect precise tide data for a period of 19 years for mean sea level calculation and annual sea level rise and to provide precise tide and its related meteorological data to various users and to define and update a precise vertical datum for Dubai Emirate.
There is no such permanent tidal station elsewhere in the Gulf region and this is the first time in the history of the Middle East that such scientific project is being executed. Because of important dredging and construction in the near shore / offshore area of Dubai Emirate, the sea level has risen. Furthermore, due to the global warming, the Geodesy and Hydrographic Survey Section of the Survey Department of the Dubai Municipality felt the need to have a permanent Tide Gauge Station in the Gulf Sea.
The Survey Department of the Dubai Municipality already had a network of 5 coastal and offshore tide/meteorological stations which are continuously monitoring and recording tide/met data from 2004 onwards. The Surveyors, Mariners, Fishing Community, Marine /Offshore / Near Shore Construction Engineers, Hydrographers, Coastal Management Group and the Navigators are most benefitted by the tidal information provided by the Survey Department of Dubai Municipality. Image: Water Level Sensors
3. Launch of the first Sandstorm Forecasting System in the UAE
Unique System FZE, a Unique Maritime Group Company, along with The Geodesy and Hydrographic Survey Section of Dubai Municipality established a Sandstorm Forecasting/Prediction system.
Dubai Municipality’s Geodesy and Hydrographic Survey Section of Dubai Municipality have several components comprising various sub-systems that provide real time monitoring, alerts, warnings and timely dissemination of information to concerned departments. The contract to build this system was given to UMG based on its superior understanding of the overall project and experienced staff.
While sand storms are of natural occurrence, they can be a huge problem for human societies living near the desert. For example, the Arabian Peninsula experiences more frequent sand storms compared to the other regions. After studying satellite images, different areas in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were identified as large sources of dust affecting the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There are also source areas in Pakistan and in the UAE. The dust storms are driven by current meteorological situations, e.g. strong winds favouring their occurrence but recent rainfall acting against them.
For that reason, Dubai Municipality started the sandstorm prediction project. It will be an extension of the existing Dubai Municipality’s Fog Monitoring and Forecasting System which runs at Dubai Municipality since 2010. The system will be based on the state of the art 3D weather prediction model, with which Dubai Municipality has several years of experience and integrated with the model for sand source areas, transport by wind and settling. It will be verified against geostationary and polar orbiting satellites, lidar and aerodrome reports. Dust storm system will also present real time satellite images because they can display coming dust storm quite accurately.
The first results of the Dust storm prediction system are very promising and indicate that the system will help prepare the public for dust storms.
4. Completion of the Meteorological-Oceanographic System for ZADCO
UMG has successfully completed an integrated meteorological-oceanographic system for Zakum Development Co (ZADCO), the Abu Dhabi-based oil and natural gas exploration and production firm, on and around Zirku Island.
The meteorological-oceanographic system included the installation of weather and ocean monitoring stations at three different locations, integrated into a centralised data collection and a centralised data base, and designed for autonomous operation in rough weather conditions:
•Automatic weather station at Zirku Jetty equipped with microwave radar, installed at the end of Jetty, and which is 150 metres away from the jetty supervisor office as well as rain gauge sensor installed on the rooftop of the Jetty Supervisor office. The parameters measured at jetty station are: precipitation, wave height, wave period and tide. This would help the authorities to decide the vessel movement in the area.
•Automatic weather station at Zirku Airport to monitor weather data to help Air Traffic Control (ATC) manage the take-off and landing of different flights and helicopters at the airport. The parameters measured at the airport are: precipitation, wind speed and direction, humidity and air temperature, air pressure installed on a special 10metres mast with support guides.
•Automatic weather station at Zirku Offshore Repeater Tower to monitor weather data. It includes a Doppler current and wave monitoring system installed on the seabed. The parameters measured at the Offshore Repeater Tower include: wind speed, wind direction, humidity, air temperature, air pressure and precipitation.
This station is also equipped with microwave radar which measures wave heights, wave period and tide. An acoustic wave and current monitoring system is installed under water, at a depth of approximately 20 m on seabed and about 20 metres away from the main platform to provide real-time data of current speed and direction at different depth levels, and information on the surface waves.
The data from each station is first received at the respective workstations, then installed at the Jetty Supervisor Office, Air Traffic Control Office and the Radio Room in the Radio Room Building, and stored at the centralised server installed in the Zirku exchange building. The Zirku Jetty and Zirku Airport data is transmitted to this location via fibre optic cables, while data from the Offshore Repeater tower is transmitted through a wireless microwave link.
The stored data can be accessed from various workstations through the island's Ethernet, using client software or through a web interface. The data can be further processed by the server and reports can be generated as required.
5. Engineering and Supply of Meteorological and Oceanographic System for ADOC
Unique Maritime Group has also implemented many systems in the Middle East for Oceanographic Monitoring. The company recently engineered and supplied a monitoring system that will provide the Abu Dhabi Oil Company Ltd. (ADOC) (Japan) with meteorological and oceanographic data to assist operational decision-making.
The system is installed at a Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoy, a large buoy at sea for mooring and filling oil tankers over the course of several days. A common feature of single point systems is that their upper sections are above the surface and that they have a single offloading terminal around which the offtake tanker can normally navigate. The loading hose and, if relevant, the mooring hawser are connected to the bow section of the offtake tanker.
The objective of the system is to provide real-time data about conditions around the buoy. Both weather parameters and sea conditions are measured and relayed to the Operations Centre on the nearby Mubarraz Island. These include wave height, wave direction, current strength, current direction, water depth, wind speed, wind direction, gusts, temperature, air pressure and visibility. The information is intended to allow better informed decision-making concerning operations and vessel movements in particular. This in turn, will better enable ADOC to safeguard the natural environment by preventing any mishaps or spillages.
The meteorological sensors are installed in a new mast which is bolted to the deck of the buoy. The mast is sufficiently high to avoid any interference in the wind-readings by other obstacles. Accurate wave and current information is gathered by an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). This unit is mounted in a ballasted stainless steel frame and will be placed on the sea bed near to the buoy. The data from weather sensors and ADCP is collected by a data logger located in the central compartment of the SPM buoy. From there the data is transmitted to Mubarraz Island through GPRS telemetry. The entire system will have its own, independent power supply system. To this end, a solar panel will also be mounted on the deck, near the mast, while an extra battery will be placed in the buoy’s dedicated battery room. Cabling between the locations will pass through existing cable transits that still have spare capacity.
Author: Shaijan Baby, Senior Sales Manager, Survey and Rental at Unique System FZE.
source: GreenPort |
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