Page 40: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2012)

40MTRApril 2012Unique Maritime Group (UMG) recently completed the upgrade of Dubai Municipalitys forecasting and early warning system. The original sys- tem was established by UMG in January 2010, and has been providing Dubai Municipality and Dubai Police with visibility forecasting, including a mix of terrestrial, coastal and offshore monitoring nodes with centralized data collection, post processing and model implemented. The upgrade of DMs visibility forecasting and early warning system was commissioned to UMG toimprove the existing shore tide, and met monitoring network consisting of five Aanderaa AWS-2700 weather sta- tions. Umm Suqeim, Jebel Ali, Jadaf, Hamriah (Mamzar) and Dhow Wharfage Stations were all upgraded with equipment consisting of IP-cam-era, 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 are successful- ly 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 sys- tem, and the visibility system were extended to incorporate satellite data.Our main goal is the safety of our community, and with the new upgrad- ed visibility forecasting and early warn- ing system, motorists in Dubai can now be alerted of foggy conditions six hours in advance to prevent road acci- dents due to poor visibility,? said Eman Ahmed Al khatibi Al falasi, Head of Section, Geodesy & Hydrographic Survey Section, Survey Department, Dubai Municipality.  These stations give live updates of air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, sea water level, wind direction and wind speed in different areas, thus helping surface traffic safety on the roads and marine navigation.?Training was also conducted at Dubai Municipality premises by UMG staff, in order to help DM personnel enhance their knowledge and capabili- ties to better operate the recently upgraded system. Aquadopp forWHOI WHOI, in partner- ship with theConsortium for Ocean Leadership,awarded NortekUSA a con- tract to supply allsingle point velocitysensors to theOcean Observatories Initiative,funded by NSF. The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), aproject funded by the NSF is planned as a networked infrastruc-ture of science-driven sensor sys- tems to measure the physical, chemical, geological and biologicalvariables in the ocean and seafloor. Under a three-year contract with an additional one-year option,NortekUSA will provide the acoustic Doppler current meters necessary to support the measure- ment objectives of the OOI. Email: eric@ nortekusa.com www.nortekusa.com EXO Breaks the Sonde Barrier YSI has used its long experience inwater quality monitoring to developthe ultimate multiparameter sondesfor challenging marine conditions. ?CTD plus 3-5 additional sensors in one small package?High-accuracy sensors with on- board memory ?Quick and easy re-configuration and calibration?Seamless integration into marine monitoring systemsThe new EXO1 offers ports for four sensors, and the new EXO2 has sixports and a central anti-fouling wiper. Each sonde is rated to a depth of 250m. Parametersinclude: Temperature, Conductivity, Depth, Dissolved Oxygen, pH, ORP, Total Algae (Blue-green Algae and Chlorophyll in one sensor), Turbidity, and fDOM, plus six calcu- lated parameters.Unique Solutions in Monitoring,Early Warning Systems