BHUBANESWAR: The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is planning to install a cable-based observation system along India’s coastline to enhance capabilities and accuracy of early predictions for tsunami and other oceanic disasters.
Speaking to TNIE, divisional head of Operational Ocean Services (OOS) at INCOIS and secretary of Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS) M Nagaraja Kumar said currently they have 20 well-established observation platforms including argo-floats, wave rider buoy, robotic gliders that provide oceanic data from the surface or sub-surface.
Moving forward, INCOIS is planning to put up a cable-based observation system in the oceans with various sensors that will enable the scientists to get data on the changes taking place at the bottom of the sea. “This data will help us in improving the capabilities of our models further, improving their accuracy in early warning predictions on the ocean state, tsunami as well as other oceanic disasters,” he said.
With the INCOIS establishing a high-power computing system ‘Tarang’ recently to help ocean scientists run operational models to provide early warnings for tsunamis in India and other countries located on the Indian Ocean rim, Kumar said, the fixed platform will be of significant help in generating high volume of data and enhancing the accuracy of prediction.
The proposed cable-based observation system will also help INCOIS bring down the limitations of heavy investment and shorter lifespan that exists in current observation platforms.
“In the current system, one buoy costs us around Rs 40 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. It is also vulnerable to damage owing to multiple factors including fishing operations. However, the new observation system we are planning to lay down in the bottom of the sea with one-time investment will work for at least 25 years and prove to be cost-effective in the long run,” the scientist said.
Kumar said plans are to cover both the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea regions under the new observation system. Installation of multiple sensors on the cable network including observation sensors, acoustic sensors and sensors that are able to detect the water-level changes will be part of the project.
“Once we determine the exact length of cable network and the optimal number of sensors required for the project, we will move ahead with it,” he said.