A System to Improve Port Navigation Safety and Its Use in Italian Harbours

This article describes research aimed at developing a system able to support local authorities and port communities in optimizing port navigation, avoiding or managing critical situations induced by sea-level variations in harbours and minimizing environmental damages and economic losses. In the Mediterranean basin, sea-level changes are mostly due to astronomical tides, related to the gravitational attraction between Earth, Moon and Sun. Nevertheless, sea-level variations are also influenced by meteorological tides, which are geodetic adjustments of sea surface due to atmospheric pressure variations above a water basin. So, starting from monitoring or forecasting environmental parameters in harbours, the system updates port bathymetric maps based on sea-level variations (acquired in the past, measured in real-time, or expected in the future) and detects hazardous areas for a certain ship moving inside a port at a given moment, by means of the implementation of "virtual traffic lights". The system was tested on some real situations, including the analysis of maritime accidents (stranding of ships), providing satisfactory results by correctly signalling potentially dangerous areas variable over time. The architecture of the system and results achieved using it in the ports of Livorno and Bari, in Italy, are herewith described

Metrological Analysis of Geopotential Gravity Field for Harbor Waterside Management and Water Quality Control

Sea level oscillations are the superposition of many contributions. In particular, tide is a sea level up-down water motion basically depending on three different phenomena: the Earth-Moon-Sun gravitational relationship, the water surface fluid reaction to atmospheric meteorological dynamic, and the Newtonian vertical adjustment of the sea surface due to atmospheric pressure variations. The first tide component (astrotide) is periodic and well known in all points of the Earth surface; the second one is directly related to the meteorological phenomenon, and then it is foreseeable; the Newtonian component, on the contrary, is not readily predictable by a general hydrostatic law, because the J factor that represents the Newtonian transfer (from the atmospheric weight to the consequent sea level) is variable in each harbor area. The analysis of the gravity field permits to forecast the sea level variation due to meteorological tide events, and its metrological analysis highlights a compensation in the inverse hydrobarometric factor to be taken into account to correctly compensate atmospheric pressure variations in semibinding basins. This phenomenon has several consequences in Harbor Waterside management and in water quality control as shown by the reported case studies and introduces a new reference parameter: the so-called Water 1000

The Fourier Notation of the Geomagnetic Signals Informative Parameters

The paper discusses the quantitative definition of the s/n (signal to noise ratio) by means of new computational parameters derived (and computed) by the Fourier analysis. The theme is of great relevance when the geomagnetic observed field has high transient noise and high energy content (i.e. geomagnetic signal interfered by human activity magnetic band) and when the signal analysis action is oriented to the detection of magnetic sources characterized by quasi-punctiform size, low energy level and kinetic mechanical status (i.e. uw armed terrorist). The paper shows the results obtained introducing two new informative spectral parameters: the informative capability “C” and the enhanced informative capability “eC”. These parameters are depending on the comparison of the energy of the target signal with total field energy and they are characteristics of each elementary signal. C classifies the energy of the spectrum in two metrological bands: elementary signal informative energy EI (band or single signal) and passive energy EP. This metrological classification of the energy overtakes the concept of noise: each signal is part of the noise band when it is not under observation and becomes out of the band when it is under observation (numerical observation®computation). C (and eC) allows to compute the value of the “visibility” of the informative signals in a high energy geomagnetic field (or spectrum). C is a fundamental parameter for the evaluation of the effectiveness of singularity magnetic metrology in the passive detection of small magnetic sources in high noised magnetic field.Published153-1661A. Geomagnetismo e Paleomagnetismo3A. Geofisica marina e osservazioni multiparametriche a fondo mare1IT. Reti di monitoraggio e sorveglianza3IT. Calcolo scientificoN/A or not JC

Observing Meteorological Tides: Fifteen Years of Statistics in the Port of La Spezia (Italy)

Sea level changes in coastal areas significantly influence port activities (e.g., the safety of navigation). Along Italian coastlines, sea level variations are mainly due to astronomical tides (well known, due to gravitational attraction between Earth, Moon and Sun); however, during the last fifteen years, a high number of “anomalous” tides has been observed: the study of the phenomenon has allowed to attribute its cause to variations in atmospheric pressure (the so-called meteorological tides: sea level drops when atmospheric pressure increases and vice versa); the statistical analysis of acquired data made it possible to evaluate the hydrobarometric transfer factor (a local parameter which represents the correlation between atmospheric pressure changes and consequent sea level variations): it was found that it is usually much larger within gulfs or port basins than offshore areas, where a pressure change of 1 hPa results in a sea level variation of about 1 cm; the statistical analysis described in the following, and aimed at correctly estimating the hydrobarometric transfer factor in harbors, can play a fundamental role in optimizing the management of port waters: its results allow to forecast meteorological tides and therefore future sea level (and depth) variations in a given port basin. The results of the study conducted in the port of La Spezia (North Western Italy) are presented here, together with possible applications on port activities and harbor water management

A System to Improve Port Navigation Safety and Its Use in Italian Harbours

This article describes research aimed at developing a system able to support local authorities and port communities in optimizing port navigation, avoiding or managing critical situations induced by sea-level variations in harbours and minimizing environmental damages and economic losses. In the Mediterranean basin, sea-level changes are mostly due to astronomical tides, related to the gravitational attraction between Earth, Moon and Sun. Nevertheless, sea-level variations are also influenced by meteorological tides, which are geodetic adjustments of sea surface due to atmospheric pressure variations above a water basin. So, starting from monitoring or forecasting environmental parameters in harbours, the system updates port bathymetric maps based on sea-level variations (acquired in the past, measured in real-time, or expected in the future) and detects hazardous areas for a certain ship moving inside a port at a given moment, by means of the implementation of “virtual traffic lights”. The system was tested on some real situations, including the analysis of maritime accidents (stranding of ships), providing satisfactory results by correctly signalling potentially dangerous areas variable over time. The architecture of the system and results achieved using it in the ports of Livorno and Bari, in Italy, are herewith described

Observing Meteorological Tides: Fifteen Years of Statistics in the Port of La Spezia (Italy)

Sea level changes in coastal areas significantly influence port activities (e.g., the safety of navigation). Along Italian coastlines, sea level variations are mainly due to astronomical tides (well known, due to gravitational attraction between Earth, Moon and Sun); however, during the last fifteen years, a high number of “anomalous” tides has been observed: the study of the phenomenon has allowed to attribute its cause to variations in atmospheric pressure (the so-called meteorological tides: sea level drops when atmospheric pressure increases and vice versa); the statistical analysis of acquired data made it possible to evaluate the hydrobarometric transfer factor (a local parameter which represents the correlation between atmospheric pressure changes and consequent sea level variations): it was found that it is usually much larger within gulfs or port basins than offshore areas, where a pressure change of 1 hPa results in a sea level variation of about 1 cm; the statistical analysis described in the following, and aimed at correctly estimating the hydrobarometric transfer factor in harbors, can play a fundamental role in optimizing the management of port waters: its results allow to forecast meteorological tides and therefore future sea level (and depth) variations in a given port basin. The results of the study conducted in the port of La Spezia (North Western Italy) are presented here, together with possible applications on port activities and harbor water management

Informative Signal Analysis: Metrology of the Underwater Geomagnetic Singularities in Low-Density Ionic Solution (Sea Water)

none4The paper tackles the problem of reading singularities of the geomagnetic field in noisy underwater (UW) environments. In particular, we propose a novel metrological approach to measuring low-amplitude geomagnetic signals in hard noisy magnetic environments. This research action was launched to develop a detection system for enforcing the peripheral security of military bases (harbors/coasts and landbases) and for asymmetric warfare. The concept underlying this theory is the spatial stability in the temporal variations of the geomagnetic field in the observation area. The paper presents the development and deployment of a self-informed measurement system, in which the signal acquired from each sensor—observation node—is compared with the signal acquired by the adjacent ones. The effectiveness of this procedure relates to the inter-node (sensor-to-sensor) distance, L; this quantity should, on one hand, correlate the noise and, on the other hand, decorrelate the target signal. The paper presents the results obtained, that demonstrate the ability of self-informed systems to read weak magnetic signals even in the presence of very high noise in low-density ionic solutions (i.e. sea water).Faggioni, Osvaldo; Soldani, Maurizio; Cozzani, Giacomo; Zunino, RodolfoFaggioni, Osvaldo; Soldani, Maurizio; Cozzani, Giacomo; Zunino, Rodolf

Gaussian envelope for 3D geomagnetic data inversion

We describe an inversion method for 3D geomagnetic data based on approximation of the source distribution by means of positive constrained Gaussian functions. In this way, smoothness and positivity are automatically imposed on the source without any subjective input from the user apart from selecting the number of functions to use. The algorithm has been tested with synthetic data in order to resolve sources at very different depths, using data from one measurement plane only. The forward modeling is based on prismatic cell parameterization, but the algebraic nonuniqueness is reduced because a relationship among the cells, expressed by the Gaussian envelope, is assumed to describe the spatial variation of the source distribution. We assume that there is no remanent magnetization and that the magnetic data are produced by induced magnetization only, neglecting any demagnetization effects. The algorithm proceeds by minimization of a (chi)2 misfit function between real and predicted data using a nonlinear Levenberg-Marquardt iteration scheme, easily implemented on a desktop PC, without any additional regularization. We demonstrate the robustness and utility of the method using synthetic data corrupted by pseudorandom generated noise and a real field data set.ENI Division of AGIP for allowing us to use the data of the Tyrrhenian Sea.Published996–10072.6. TTC - Laboratorio di gravimetria, magnetismo ed elettromagnetismo in aree attiveJCR Journalreserve

Development of anti intruders underwater systems: time domain evaluation of the self-informed magnetic networks performance

Abstract. This paper shows the result obtained during the operative test of an anti-intrusion undersea magnetic system based on a magnetometers' new self-informed network. The experiment takes place in a geomagnetic space characterized by medium-high environmental noise with a relevant human origin magnetic noise component. The system has two different input signals: the magnetic background field (natural + artificial) and a signal composed by the magnetic background field and the signal due to the target magnetic field. The system uses the first signal as filter for the second one to detect the target magnetic signal. The effectiveness of the procedure is related to the position of the magnetic field observation points (reference devices and sentinel devices). The sentinel devices must obtain correlation in the noise observations and de-correlations in the target signal observations. The system, during four tries of intrusion, has correctly detected all magnetic signals generated by divers