The UPC forms part of the first spanish oceanographic observation commitee

04/03/2019

The new Spanish Oceanographic Observation Committee (CEOO) has been established recently with the participation of the UPC, through the OBSEA underwater observatory, located in Vilanova i la Geltrú. Ten further Spanish public entities participate in this committee.

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) is one of the ten entities that comprise the first Spanish Oceanographic Observation Committee (CEOO), due to the work carried out by the OBSEA Underwater Observation Laboratory, situated on the sea floor of the coast of Vilanova i la Geltrú. The CEOO will coordinate ocean observation throughout Spain and will act as the representative of all the bodies, contributing to the management of maritime resources and supporting scientific research in this field.

The OBSEA laboratory is one of the services provided by the Remote Acquisition and Data Processing Systems (SARTI) research group, whose activity is focused on the development of instruments for industrial and scientific applications. OBSEA is an underwater cabled observatory around 4 km from the coast of Vilanova i la Geltrú in a protected fishing area. It is connected to the coast via a mixed cable for power and communications.

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The main advantage of the cabled observatory is that power is provided for scientific instruments and it has a broadband communication link. Thus, information is provided in real-time, without the drawbacks of battery-powered systems. The implemented solution is an optical ethernet network that continuously transmits data from the connected oceanographic instruments. With OBSEA, many parameters of the marine environment can be observed in real-time.

The Ground Station provides power to feed all the devices and the fibre optic link to establish communications. At the same time from land alarms and data storage are managed. With a length of 1000 meters, the terrestrial cable connects the Ground Stationto the Beach Manhole where the submarine cable begins its route to the node location at 4 km from the coast and 20 meters deep.

First executive committee

The other members of the CEOO are the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Ports of the State, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the universities of Les Palmes de Gran Canària and Màlaga, the Marine Innovation Technology Centre of the Basque Country (AZTI Tecnalia), MeteoGalicia, the Technological Institute for the Control of the Marine Environment of Galicia (Intecmar), PLOCAN and the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB).

The body is led by an executive committee comprised of six members and a secretary, who must represent the main ocean observation institutions.