向风暴中派遣哨兵
发布于2024年6月14日
This story was originally published in the spring edition of 南杂志, a joint publication of the 十大彩票网投平台 and the USA National 校友 Association. 阅读更多 在线.
While everyone else is fleeing an approaching storm this hurricane season, Dr. Bret Webb and 十大彩票网投平台 colleagues will be heading toward it.
Webb, a professor of coastal engineering, doesn’t have a death 希望; he has a data 希望. He’s part of a research effort that, for the first time, is gathering detailed information about what happens when a hurricane hits the shore. 他和他的团队会的 set up an array of sensors at the water’s edge, then head to safety before the storm 到达.
“For as much as we know about hurricanes, we don’t have many continuous measurements of surge and waves right at the shoreline during landfall,” Webb 说. “我们诚实 不知道在这些极端事件中会发生什么.”
找到答案将改善对沿海威胁的管理. 南方正在与 University of Florida and other institutions, using 33-foot portable masts called 哨兵. Rugged instruments on the mast and the base measure wind speed and direction, wave height, rainfall, barometric pressure, humidity, water temperature and salinity, 水质及其他. 哨兵将读数和视频一起进行直播 通过手机信号传送.
The total project award, about $550,000 over three years, will include money to build one Sentinel, finish construction of another, buy water quality sensors, and pay for 教师，学生和工作人员的时间. 这笔资金来自美国.S. 沿海的研究 项目与美国政府合作.S. 陆军工程兵团工程研究和 发展中心.
Crews will trailer the 哨兵 to the water’s edge at the projected landfall area 任何命名的风暴. Four 19-foot helical piles will screw the base of the mast into 沙子. 安装只需要30分钟.
The rig can survive and keep transmitting even during a direct hurricane hit, Webb 说. The mast is made of carbon fiber by a company that primarily builds masts for 高性能的帆船.
韦伯负责密西西比和阿拉巴马州的网络协调. 其他研究团队包括 大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸的其他地区. 区域协调员负有责任 for lining up in advance where to deploy the 哨兵 — either public lands or private 经业主许可的土地.
三个哨兵已经准备好了，更多的正在建造中. “我们的想法是，他们会这么做 be spaced at roughly five-mile increments along the coast within the expected landfall 飓风的区域，”韦伯说.
His research group at 南, which includes an engineering graduate student, plans to augment the 哨兵’ data by deploying its own home-built storm surge and wave 仪表附近. Commercial gauges cost $3,000 each; 南’s cost $200.
便宜的价格意味着团队可以做很多. “所以我们要么选择 cover a really broad area with a bunch of gauges or focus all of our instruments in one smaller area but collect a lot of high-resolution data,” Webb 说.
南 has what he calls “a rather robust extreme events deployment group” of faculty 而学生，集中在 土木、海岸及环境工程学系， who are on call to help set up the instruments as winds and waves kick up from approaching 风暴.
In other words, 南 has sentinels to set up 哨兵, in pursuit of knowledge about 海岸上最具破坏性的威胁之一.
