SURFACE HYDRODYNAMIC CONDITIONS MONITORING IN THE SICILY CHANNEL BY MEANS OF HF RADAR

MEASUREMENTS

INFO:www.capemalta.net/calypso

G. Ciraolo 1, A. Drago2, F. Capodici 1, F. Raffa3, S. Cosoli4, C. Nasello 1, G. La Loggia 1, A. Maltese 1 , G.B. Ferreri1

(1)Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace, Materials Engineering (DICAM) – Università degli studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy, giuseppe.ciraolo@unipa.it

(2)Physical Oceanography Unit, University of Malta, Malta(3)CNR- Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero, Italy(4)OGS - Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale, Trieste, Italy

What is CALYPSO

Calypso is a 2 years project co-financed by the Operative programme Italy-Malta 2007-2013 – axes II.

The project ‘s main target is the monitoring of the surface currents to provide an useful tool against the oil spill pollution in the Malta channel

THE CALYPSO PARTNERS

PARTNERS

1 UNIVERSITY OF MALTA (UOM) Physical Oceanography UnitIOI – Malta Operational Centre, (LEADER)

2 TRANSPORT MALTA (TM)

3 CIVIL PROTECTION DEPARTMENT (CPD)

4 ARMED FORCES OF MALTA (AFM)

5 ARPA Sicilia – Regional Agency Environmental Protection

6Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero uos di Capo Granitola

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR CAPO GRANITOLA)

7 UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO Polo Universitario di Trapani (UNIPA) (SICILIAN FOCAL POINT)

8 UNIVERSITA’ DI CATANIA (CUTGANA)

THE CALYPSO GOALS (1/3)

To set up a permanent network of HF antennas to be used to monitor the surface currents (and waves in the malta channel)

The network has 3 HF Antennas (2 in Malta e and 1 in Sicily) at 13.5 MHz

THE CALYPSO GOALS (2/3)

To provide data to be combined with numerical models in order to:

1. Optimize the interventions in case of oil spill accidents or deliberate release of oil;

2. Improve the navigation safety ;

3. Improve search and rescue (SAR);

WHY this area has to be monitoredMarine Traffic (AIS) (red= oil tankers)

Why CALYPSO in the Malta channel

Oil spills in the 1999-2004 period: 18.947 spills

8

Favignana, conseguenze della marea nera

The Favignana oil spill (January 2013)

How a HF system works- 13.5 MHz (HF)- 40 W - 2-3 km spatial res.- Hourly scale

(currents and waves )

The Pozzallo HF installation

The Pozzallo HF installation(August 2013)

combination of the 3 Antennas data

http://portus-malt.qrms.net/portus/PortusMini.html

VALIDATION: DRIFTERSVery complex structure of the surface currents

Giugno 2013 (con la collaborazione della CP)

Settembre 2013 (con la collaborazione della Lega Navale – Pozzallo)

The Pozzallo HF system: validation

VALIDATION

Accordo con i dati Calypso intorno a (0,8)

Accordo dei dati ADCP con i dati Calypso intorno a (0,9)

BACKTRACKINGe

FORECASTING

CALYPSO 2: to extend the CALYPSO coverage 3 hypotheses for the next HF system position

Scoglitti Gela Licata

Future expansion of the System

Advantages: redundancy increased coverage better quality of the maps

DREAMING A FULL HF COVERAGE FOR THE SICILIAN COAST

Future expansion of the System

Meeting a Ragusa21Novembre 2011

Conclusions

• The system management for the next 5 year will require a certain effort from economical point of view (and not only)

• An amount of 8-10 thousand € per year is required to maintain the Pozzallo system (frequency authorization, insurance, system maintenance, energy supply, internet connection)

• Periodic field survey would be needed to test the accuracy of the system

• An agreement on the use of the data by external customer is needed

• New funds have to be found to finance and expand the network

INFO:www.capemalta.net/calypso