Ports and Harbours Monitoring

For example, one station may be located on a tower out in the harbor, to monitor the conditions near the harbor entrance. Another may be located on a wharf.

For simpler measurements one or more Unidata 6526H Starflow Acoustic Doppler instruments could be installed to measure the speed of the currents. The inbuilt depth sensor could also report he rise and fall of sea level.

For wide channels perhaps located at the harbor entrance an underwater Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) which looks across the shipping channel and measures the speed and direction of water currents as the tides ebb and flow could be installed. This instrument could also measure the rise and fall of sea level.

An ADCP continuously takes fast, accurate measurements of sea level, and water movement in three dimensions, in near real time. These indicate the actual tidal forces acting on a ship and enable crew to ensure that the keel will always have sufficient clearance.

To measure cross-channel water currents, the ADCP transmits beams of sound pulses and calculates current velocities from the received ‘echoes’ reflected from suspended particles.
With a Neon Remote Terminal system out in the harbor, and another Neon Remote Terminal system at the wharf wind and tidal data can be recorded and pushed on a regular interval, perhaps every 5 minutes up to a Neon server for storage and access.
The communications link could be cell phone based or satellite based depending on the cell phone coverage in the area. Also, for critical operations such as this, it is wise to have two different communications paths. Adding a mix of cell phone and satellite telemetry systems spreads the risk of failure.
Authorized personnel with Internet browser can access at this information on the Neon server, in real time, or examine older data, perhaps looking for trends. When set up, alarm messages are automatically sent to notify staff if wind or tide should exceed acceptable programmable limits. Customized reports have been set up and are automatically sent to selected people.

On the Neon server you can easily set up a schedule to automatically send reports to specific parties. All or any of the information can be automatically delivered at any time and frequency, in a variety of formats, such as email.