Page 17: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2011)

www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 17

Byron Dawe, President, Business Development and

Innovation, Rutter Technologies, a division of Rutter, Inc. “the Sigma S6 is one of only two systems in the world to be given the green flag indicating it meets the stringent requirements of vessels operating under jurisdiction of the

Norwegian Clean Seas Association.”

Rutter Inc. partnered with Aptomar AS of Trondheim,

Norway to increase the system’s functionality, and in June 2010 the two companies launched the Integrated Oil Spill

Response and Management System. This system inte- grates Rutter’s S6 radar processor and display with

Aptomar’s infrared camera, real-time video, searchlight capabilities, and chart-based display. The integrated sys- tem provides automatic oil spill detection and tracking, area, thickness and volume estimations as well as oil spill drift prediction, detection of boom leakage and disposi- tion of the oil spill skimmer. The system can provide this functionality during both day and night operations.

The Sigma S6 system detects a potential oil spill target by detecting a reduced signal return where the wind-gen- erated capillary waves on the ocean’s surface are suppressed due to the presence of oil. Once the oil spill is detected, the Sigma S6 system continues to track and exchange data with the Aptomar system to validate the presence of oil.

The resulting radar image is displayed and outlined in a chart system.

The infrared camera is used to determine the area where the spill is thickest. All of the information can then be dis- tributed either onboard, ship-to-ship, or ship-to-shore.

Edison Chouest Offshore LLC has purchased three

Integrated Oil Spill Response and Management Systems to be deployed on vessels operating in Brazil in support of

Petrobas. Rederi AB TransAtlantic has purchased a system to be deployed off Norway on a vessel in support of Statoil operations, and the Danish shipping company Esvagt is leasing two systems in support of Statoil operations off the coast of Egypt. “With the heightened awareness of environmental issues and the opening up of the North,” said Dawe, “these types of advances in radar processing and integration dramati- cally improve the efficiency and safety of operations, whether it be for oil spill or ice management.”

Rutter's Sigma S6 Oil

Spill Detection system:

Outlined shapes show oil spills actively being tracked. Arrow pointing east from green out- lined section shows drift direction. Triangles show the location of other vessels.

Photo cr edit: Rutter Inc.