Turbidity Monitoring Case Study
Australia's largest offshore gas producer, Woodside Energy, required a real time system to continuously monitor turbidity levels in ten remote sites surrounding sensitive coral reefs located near a major subsea pipeline dredging project.
Because the area is prone to cyclones, a specific requirement for the system was that the instrumentation, telemetry and battery packs had to be installed in pressure housings on the sea floor, rather than buoy mounted. Special waterproof coaxial cables connect the underwater modules to small surface relay buoys equipped with Iridium antennas. Due to this configuration, solar power was not available, so the battery packs were designed to provide a minimum of 3 months continuous operation before being recovered for re-charging.
The turbidity monitoring system samples turbidity levels at each site every 10 minutes, and transmits three readings every 30 minutes. It has proven remarkably robust and reliable, surviving two cyclones since deployment in late 2007. The system has significantly enhanced the ability of Woodside to ensure dredging activities do not produce turbidity levels exceeding threshold levels, as well as reducing the cost, safety issues and logistical complexity involved with manual data sampling.
Fastwave subsea satellite telemetry and data logging unit
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