HR: 1340h
AN: PA23A-1441    [Abstracts]
TI: A Proposal for Preventing Marine Accidents Caused by Dangerous Seas Using Emerging Bi-static Radar Technology
AU: * Gleason, S
EM: s.gleason@sstl.co.uk
AF: Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH United Kingdom
AU: * Gleason, S
EM: s.gleason@sstl.co.uk
AF: Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH United Kingdom
AB: The dangers encountered while navigating the world's oceans are well known. The lives lost due to unsuspecting ship captains venturing into unknown dangerous seas is staggering. However, it appears that advances in ocean remote sensing technology may soon present a solution to this age-old problem; only the political will remains to be persuaded. This new technology involves utilising the signals transmitted by navigation satellites, such as those of the GPS system and in the future those of the Galileo constellation. These signals are constantly being scattered off the surrounding seas and land, and these signals contain valuable and varied information on the Earth's environment. The scientific applications of this technology tend to concentrate on obtaining high accuracy measurements, such as a precise sea surface height or the mean square wave slopes, for use in improving modelling and in advancing our understanding of ocean science. These pursuits are unquestionably worthwhile, but it is often overlooked that by simplifying our requirements, such as to being able to distinguish dangerous seas from those that would be passable by the great majority of ships, a great advance in human well-being could possibly be achieved. The fact that this technology uses passive signals and does not require a transmitter opens up additional possibilities by potentially greatly reducing the cost of such projects. A plan will be presented in this paper as to how this technology could enable relatively low-cost systems that could provide dense spatial coverage of the entire globe at high repeat times that could be provided to marine users and hopefully avoid maritime disasters. The monitoring and coverage of specific areas, such as the west coast of Africa will also be looked into in detail using more modest satellite configurations. These efforts are designed to focus on preventing disasters like the capsizing of the Senegalese passenger ferry "Joola" that occurred in September of 2002. We will ask the crucial question: Could a system based on this technology prevent, or minimally reduce the chances of such unnecessary loss of life.
DE: 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL
DE: 4500 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL
SC: Public Affairs [PA]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting