Geoscience monitoring

MONITORING FOR GEOPHYSICS

Using fibre in existing telecommunication cables or fibre deployed explicitly on the surface or in boreholes, DAS can detect and map earthquake activity in real time. Furthermore, the surface energy recorded by DAS during an earthquake can immediately be used to highlight areas most impacted and likely to have experienced the most significant damage.

AREAS OF USE

Volcanic Activity

DAS monitors fibre in cables buried in volcanoes to detect and track seismic activity. This information is being used to map the locations of volcanic activity, which is being developed to provide a real-time warning to neighbouring populations of imminent eruptions and seismic events.

Seafloor monitoring

Fibre in cables deployed on the seabed can be used to monitor coastal morphology, wave, and seabed current dynamics on the coast, as well as seismic activity on the seabed in deeper water caused by the motion of oceanic tectonic plates and the activity of submarine volcanoes. Whale songs can also be detected, enabling identification and tracking of migrating populations.

A DEEP-TECH AUSTRIAN START-UP WITH FOCUS TO DELIVER THE UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY TO CLIENTS ACROSS THE GLOBE

Founders and executive officers have been driving DAS technology to the Energy market since 2008

15+ years of experience of hands on DAS R&D and systems project management to various customers.

Expert level competence in various DAS applications and R&D management

Backed up by the advisory team of industry experts.

Expert level competence in various DAS applications

Телефон

+7 (495) 191 51 91

info@wbi.ru

Адрес

129626, г. Москва, ул. 3-я
Мытищинская д. 16. стр. 5,
помещение 1, ком. 12

Case studies

University of Washington – Ice Flow/Glacier
Dynamics

Problem

Short circuit on main export cable

Uncertainty on exact fault location

Costly delays and offline power

Solution

DAS system deployment

Real-time fault detection with +/- 10m accuracy

Value delivered

Accurate fault location

Repair made within 1 week

Significant cost savings due to reduced downtime

While operating on an offshore wind farm in Scotland, midway between the Galloway and Cumbrian coasts, the operator experienced a short circuit on a main export cable approximately 15km in length, of which 13 km was located subsea. Until the fault could be located and repaired, 80MW of offshore power would be sitting idle.
Existing methods of fault location using a high voltage pulse generator indicated the fault was 2km offshore. A repair in this location would cost the operator £8M, in addition to placing the wind turbines offline for up to 6 months—accruing a potential loss of revenue of £90,000 per day. The existing technique is a manual and time consuming process to locate a fault. Even when operating well the accuracy of the existing location method is low (+/- 300 m on a 15 km cable).

In August 2023, the Earth and Space Science group at the University of Washington embarked on a vital research deployment to Greenland, using the DAS system to collect data. The DAS unit’s efficient power consumption allowed the team to utilise solar energy in the field, facilitating the capture of one month’s worth of data using a self-deployed 10km subsea fibre. The DAS system proved instrumental in gathering precise data to measure ice flow and record seismo-acoustic signatures associated with glacier calving.