Portugal’s Hydrographic Institute has anchored a hi-tech buoy 40 nautical miles due south of Faro.
The Navy’s oceanographic research vessel D. Carlos I sailed to the Algarve last week to anchor the Hydrographic Institute’s multi-use floating platform.
The floating platform, with real time data transmission, has a set of sensors that measure waves, wind and other meteorological data, the water temperature and the speed of the current at between 7 and 100 metres deep.
The buoy also is equipped with a special sensor to detect any oil spillages on the surface of the sea, useful if oil is found off the Algarve's pristine shoreline and drilling starts, as planned by the Repsol/Partex partnership.
The multi-functional piece of kit now is anchored and will become part of the MONIZEE network which supplies data for real-time monitoring and forecasting for the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone operating system, managed by the Hydrographic Institute.
