News

24th May 2023

The project responsible Giuseppe Ciraolo illustrating the main objectives of the project and the related outputs to the students of the Nautico Gioeni-Trabia Institute in Palermo.

26th April 2023

i-waveNET participated in the 2023 European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna! On the first day of work, i-waveNET faced thousands of researchers from all over the world. A great opportunity to present the techniques and results of using microseism data to estimate the state of the sea in the Sicily Channel, and at the same time promote the whole project through the distribution of leaflets.

The response was positive, with a lot of interest, especially from young researchers, for applications to other marine areas. The interaction with other scientists resulted in new research ideas with the potential for further development.

17th April 2023

i-waveNET present at the Open Days of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Unipa. The event attracted many prospective students, who were eager to learn about the progress of our project.

23rd March 2023

This event, held at the Central Headquarters of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), addressed the implications on our country of the new EU Directive on water security intended for human consumption. It is promoted under the project WHOW – Water Health Open Knowledge, aimed at creating a distributed European infrastructure capable of connecting environmental data and health data. For more information visit the event web page.

21st March 2023

i-waveNET was represented at an important meeting about coastal areas: protection, valorization and sustainable use, held in Reggio Calabria on the 21st of March.

15th February 2023

A new “building block” was added to the cross-border system network of the i-waveNET project, useful for mitigating coastal risk. A new wave buoy was deployed 3.5 nautical miles off the coast of Marina di Ragusa, in sea with a depth of about 50 meters. This will make it possible to measure the intensity and direction of the waves every 30 minutes thanks to accelerometer sensors and precision compasses.

The buoy installation operations started from the port of Augusta and ended in Marina di Ragusa. The managers and technicians of the respective partners intervened in the premises of the municipal civil protection garrison in Marina di Ragusa.

“Thanks to the data provided by the wave buoy system, we will be able to measure the intensity and direction of the waves and, moreover, provide useful data for the construction of port works or interventions to prevent coastal erosion as well as civil protection in cases of emergency” explained Arianna Orasi from Ispra.

“With this system we will be able to have a decision support system that will allow, through the overlapping of several layers of information, to make strategic decisions necessary for the management of emergencies from the sea, such as oil spills, and connected to climate change” added Giuseppe Ciraolo of the University of Palermo.

The data will also be available from the ISPRA website www.mareografico.it

31st January 2023

i-waveNET was represented at the Resilient management of coasts, ports and shipping workshop organized by the partners of the project CoCliCo. This was another opportunity to promote the project i-waveNET and to get collaborations essential for achieving the project’s objectives.

23rd December 2022

i-waveNET features in Leonardo, the Italian national news about science and the environment.

21st December 2022

The i-waveNET project as a concrete instrument for the study of meteorological phenomena related to climate change. The regional press dedicated a feature to the installation of seismographs and their related use in civil protection applications, search and rescue at sea and marine environment protection.

10th December 2022

The analysis of microseism data has proved to be extremely useful in monitoring phenomena called Medicanes. The project i-waveNET is an indispensable step for the creation of a system for prevention of the effects of extreme natural meteo-marine phenomena.

Check out the article published by Università degli Studi di Catania to find out more.

24th November 2022

Between 22nd and 24th of November the i-waveNET staff participated in the MONGOOS workshop in Florence meeting the HFR task team. It was a very important occasion to share activities and progress regarding the collection and re-processing of spectral data to be used for the i-waveNET decision support system.

23rd October 2022

The results and prospects of the i-waveNET project were presented to the University of Parma on the occasion of the 2022 Refresher Studies Days promoted by AIOM (Association of Offshore and Marine Engineering) from 20 to 22 October 2022.

It was an exciting experience and an enrichment born from the comparison with colleagues from the industry!

20th October 2022

From 18 to 20 October 2022, the installation activities of the i-waveNET project seismic network have been carried out by the University of Catania Studies, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Ethnic Observatory and the University of Malta. In particular, two additional installations have been completed, the first at the Pozzallo Polyfunctional Civil Protection Centre (RG), the second at the Xgħajra locality in Malta.

The seismic network, now being complemented, will provide data in terms of spatial and time evolution of microseism, a continuous and ubiquitous seismic signal on Earth that contains valuable information about the state of the sea in terms of wave motion cycles. Specifically, the data acquired from the seismic stations installed within the i-waveNET project will be integrated with the data recorded from the permanent seismic and volcanic monitoring networks, managed by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the University of Malta, and distributed along the Sicilian coasts and in the Canal Islands of Sicily.

Such seismic monitoring system will be integrated with other systems (such as HF radars and wave buoys) to bring one of the world’s most advanced wave motion cycle monitoring systems.

10th October 2022

Our new GPU server, called MARS, which is dedicated to the i-waveNet project, is finally fully operational at INGV-OE.

MARS will allow us to expand, test and improve the machine learning applications developed so far, which aim to build, using artificial intelligence algorithms, a reliable model capable of predicting the state of the sea starting from microseism data recorded at the Sicilian and Maltese seismic stations.

5th October 2022

The progress of the i-waveNET project was presented at the event “Metrology for the Sea” in Milazzo. The entire project team participated by meeting in mixed mode to carry out the Technical Operational Committee necessary for the implementation of the subsequent tasks.

1st October 2022

i-waveNET was present at the Sharper – European Researchers’ Night in Palermo. Many children and students enthusiastically participated in our demonstration about wave motion and were eager to learn about the monitoring system implemented through the i-waveNET project.

30th September 2022

i-waveNet was promoted during the ‘Science in the City’ event that was organised on 30 September in Fort St. Elmo, Valletta, Malta. The theme was Taking Root! Stands with experiments, games, art installations, hands-on activities, demos and plenty of interaction, were presented. The main focus this year was the environment.

30th September 2022

An event entitled “GEOPHYSICS AS A COASTAL MONITORING TOOL” was held, as part of the Sharper – European Researchers’ Night at the Città della Scienza of the University of Catania.

During the event, the results of the i-waveNET project were presented, and in particular it was shown how the study of microseism can help monitor wave motion even during extreme events such as a Medicane. For demonstration purposes, one of the seismic stations of the i-waveNET project was assembled and turned on, which was a huge success among the children who simulated earthquakes and microseism by jumping.

21st September 2022

Three seismic stations were installed on 19th and 20th September at CNR-IAS – Unità Operativa di Capo Granitola, il Museo archeologico regionale di Kamarina (RG) and a farmhouse in Ragusa.

The installations were done by a team of researchers and technicians from Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Etneo and Università degli Studi di Catania, Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, with the help of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo studio degli Impatti Antropici e Sostenibilità in Ambiente Marino – Unità Operativa di Capo Granitola and Museo archeologico regionale di Kamarina.

The i-waveNET seismic network, which will also include installations at Pozzallo and Malta, through the collaboration with University of Malta, will provide data useful for monitoring wave motion in the Sicily Channel in real time. In fact, the main source of background seismic activity is the sea, which transfers elastic energy to solid land, through the waves, giving rise to a background seismic noise, called microseism,

8th September 2022

Two works were presented at the “Third European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology –3ECEES” congress, highlighting some scientific results obtained through the activities of i-waveNET.

These works, entitled “Monitoring sea wave activity in the Sicily Channel by microseism: preliminary results of the i-waveNET project” and “Microseism and cyclonic activity: observing the effects of the Medicane Apollo on seismic signals”, show how background seismic noise contains information that can be useful in monitoring wave motion.

15th June 2022

Maintenance of HF Radar in Marina di Ragusa: Besides assessing the physical condition of the station and updating the software, a connector was replaced. This was broken and as a result, the quality of the data collected by one of the loop antennae was diminished. This led to an alteration in the data generated. The data collected overnight was examined and it was thus verified that the station was functioning well again. This operation was possible thanks to the support given by staff from “Marina di Ragusa” garrison of the Civil Protection Department of Ragusa.

15th June 2022

Maintenance on Pozzallo HF Radar: Besides upgrading the software to improve the performance of data acquisition processes and data elaboration, a new 4G modem has been installed and the “LTE Advanced” reception antenna has been repositioned outside the shelter housing the electronics of the system.

This operation will ensure a stronger Internet connection of the station, hence improving the transmission of data to the combine server kept at Università di Palermo – Polo Territoriale di Trapani.

14th June 2022

Maintenance on Licata HF Radar: The shelter that houses the electronics was inspected as well as the antenna. The software was upgraded to ensure more reliable data acquisition and processing.

21st May 2022

On the occasion of European Maritime Day, Prof. Ciraolo met with students from Polo Statale ISS “Piersanti Mattarella” Castellammare del Golfo-Alcamo and Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore · “L.da Vinci” / “M.Torre” – Trapani. The talks featured the maintenance of buoys in the RON network by Ispra – Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale and the results expected from the project.

The experience gained from the CALYPSO series of projects and i-waveNET led to the creation of a new degree course “Ingegneria delle Tecnologie per il Mare” at Università degli Studi di Palermo – Polo Territoriale Universitario di Trapani.

20th May 2022

The RON wave buoy at Mazara del Vallo, which has been collecting wave and meteo data for the past 14 months, is currently being maintained. A back-up buoy has been deployed in its place. The data collected will be used in applications that are being developed within the project.

1st October 2021

Another important step for the project i-waveNET is the installation of the first sensors that will allow monitoring the state of the sea using microseismic techniques. This was possible thanks to the work carried out by UniCT and INGV with the precious collaboration of the Cumune di Pozzallo. Read more here.

2nd April 2021

The wave buoy has been launched at Mazara del Vallo to monitor the state of the sea, one of the first outcomes of the project i-waveNET with Universita’ di Palermo (UNIPA) as lead partner. Video includes an interview with the scientific responsible, Prof. Giuseppe Ciraolo, from the Engineering Department at UNIPA. Click for more information.

1st April 2021

The RON (Rete Ondametrica Nazionale) wave buoy was launched in Mazara del Vallo. The buoy installed by Ispra – Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, is part of the monitoring equipment that will be set up in i-waveNET.

The buoy will provide important measurements about the wave climate and environmental parameters. Stay tuned!