Living on an island often gives us the naive perception that the surrounding capacity of the sea disperses and quickly washes away whatever we throw into it. The sea is indeed a medium in continuous movement, but patterns of motion constituting the sea currents greatly depend on meteorological and hydrological conditions, and are in permanent evolution often driven by distant forces?. How much do we know about the circulation patterns of the sea in the area of the Maltese Islands? Do the general sea conditions really privilege us from the threat of oil spills originating away from our shores? Can we exploit technology to offer protection and response against marine hazards that can put at risk our essential economic assets? Which marine data is essential to local responsible entities in meeting such emergencies, and how can they be assisted to make timely informed decisions on the spot and whenever required?
These are the kind of questions addressed by the CALYPSO project. CALYPSO is not an ordinary University of Malta research project. The project has invested capital in the setting up of a permanent HF radar system for the real-time measurement of sea surface currents and waves in the strip of sea between Malta and Sicily, delivering to the nation another building block in the acquisition of essential routine marine data at the service of a number of stakeholders and local users. Its main target is to support the efficient response against the threat of marine oil spills on Maltese and Sicilian shores by providing information regularly and in real time on sea surface currents and sea state conditions in the form of web disseminated maps.
Data at 3Km resolution, updated every hour, are provided by a network of three CODAR SeaSonde HF radars using state-of-the-art technology and measuring sea surface currents and waves by means of electro-magnetic radio waves emitted radially by each radar and echoed back by the sea surface.
Furthermore, numerical models assist to reliably predict how the state of the sea will evolve in the time ahead. In combination, this operational chain of activities provides essential data to a spectrum of applications, and addresses the needs of a number of responsible entities in Malta and Sicily. Key targets include an improved response to marine hazards such as from oil pollution, better control of the trans-boundary maritime space and greater efficiency for security and safety at sea.
This part of the Mediterranean Sea is one of the busiest areas of maritime transportation in the region and is known to be potentially vulnerable to oil spills and other hazards. Such risks can be highly minimised by using the best tools for surveillance, operational monitoring against pollution threats, as well as a capacity to respond with informed decisions in case of emergency.
About the calypso project
CALYPSO is a 2-year project partly financed by the EU under the Operational Programme Italia-Malta 2007-2013, ideated and co-ordinated by Prof. Aldo Drago, Head of the Physical Oceanography Unit and Director of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre of the University of Malta. This 1.5 million Euro project brings together 4 partners from Malta – namely University of Malta (lead partner), Transport Malta, Civil Protection Malta and Armed Forces of Malta – and 4 partners from Sicily – ARPA Sicilia, IAMC-CNR Capo Granitola, Università degli Studi di Palermo and Universita’ di Catania. The consortium consists of research entities and also public entities with responsibilities for civil and environmental protection, surveillance, security and response to hazards. Besides direct partners the project engages stakeholders such as Legambiente, Regione Siciliana Protezione Civile and Guardia Costiera.
The main effort of the project consisted in the design and installation of a permanent and fully operational HF radar observing system, composed of three CODAR SeaSondes at Ta’ Sopu (Gozo), Ta’ Barkat (Malta) and Pozzallo Harbour (Sicily), capable of recording, in the form of real-time maps with hourly updates, surface currents in the marine space between Malta and Sicily. The
radar network engages the latest technology to extend the spatial coverage performance closer to the Maltese coast with use of Multi-Static Data Processing Software at the radar site in Ta’ Barkat. The data acquisition and elaboration is managed using a state-of-the-art data management platform. The Services page on the CALYPSO online portal provides a link to the data streams by means of dedicated web interfaces. The service targets both the general public and users by providing synthesis statistics of the sea surface circulation over nine different sub-areas in the Malta Channel, and professional users with data discovery and downloading facilities in different data formats and specific user-defined requests.
Through a dedicated Working Group the project has sought the direct involvement of Maltese and Sicilian responsible authorities for marine surveillance and security. The needs of stakeholders were considered as guidelines for making the Calypso outputs more useful in routine marine observations and forecasting for improved response to marine hazards, for better control of the trans-boundary maritime space and greater efficiency for security and safety at sea. The WG served for the exchange of information, practices and the preparation of a common operational plan for collaborative surveillance and operational interventions in the case of accidents and emergencies between Maltese and Sicilian counterparts.
About the Physical Oceanography Unit
The Physical Oceanography Unit (PO-Unit) constitutes the research arm of the IOI-Malta Operational Centre (IOI-MOC) established within the University of Malta. The PO-Unit undertakes oceanographic research, including operational observations and forecasts, specialised data management analysis and participation in international cooperative ventures. The overarching research themes of the PO-Unit cover coastal meteorology, hydrography and physical oceanography with a main emphasis on the experimental study of the hydrodynamics of the sea in the vicinity of the Maltese Islands. The Unit has mainly endeavoured to promote activities in operational oceanography by the installation and maintenance of permanent sea monitoring systems, and the provision of meteo/marine forecasts. Observations include atmospheric parameters, sea level, currents and waves in both delayed and operational mode; forecasts for the same parameters are issued daily for the Central Mediterranean area and in the vicinity of the Maltese Islands on the services website www.capemalta.net.