Marine South East secures new co-funding for sea-state project
Facilitated through the MEREX Knowledge Network, Marine South East and its partners have secured Technology Strategy Board co-funding for the 'WaveSentry' project.
WaveSentry concerns the development of a new information and forecasting tool for managing the risks of marine operations in adverse sea states. The project was launched in May at a kick-off meeting hosted by the lead partner, HR Wallingford Ltd.
Many marine operations are dependent on high quality information on sea-state (wave height, period, direction, steepness) for reasons of economics and safety. At present, available information is based on atmospheric/ocean models and lacks sufficient temporal and spatial resolution.
The WaveSentry project aims to address this problem by exploiting new data sources, including novel satellite remote measurements of wave steepness as well as real-time buoy and ship data. The project will develop and apply techniques to substantially enhance the integration of diverse data sources, in order to offer adverse sea-state data to multiple end-user markets.
Improved sea-state forecasting is of significant value to a wide range of maritime activities including: offshore renewable energy installations; ferry services; search and rescue operations; offshore construction and oil and gas operations. As the WaveSentry system integrates additional data sources it has the potential to offer global coverage. During the 18 months of the project a demonstration system will operate in the English Channel area.
WaveSentry was conceived and developed through Marine South East's MEREX Knowledge Network. MEREX aims to bring together knowledge base and industry organisations in new collaborations such as WaveSentry. The WaveSentry consortium consists of:
* HR Wallingford Ltd (lead partner)
* EMU Ltd
* Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
* Geodata Institute (University of Southampton)
* The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
* Chelsea Technology Group Ltd
* Marine South East Ltd
In addition to project management and dissemination tasks Marine South East will be engaging with relevant organizations to maximize exploitation of project outputs through 'wider business benefit activities', (WBBA).
To learn more about WaveSentry and how you can participate in the 'WBBA' please contact:
Simon Powell, Project Manager, Marine South East Ltd simon@marinesoutheast.co.uk
To register for the MEREX Knowledge Network please visit http://www.merex.co.uk
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