Sending Sentinels Into the Storm
Posted on June 14, 2024
![In addition to relying on data from more expensive Sentinels, engineering professor Dr. Bret Webb will deploy smaller storm surge and wave gauges in advance of a hurricane. They can be affixed to structures such as this pier on Dauphin Island. data-lightbox='featured'](/departments/publicrelations/pressreleases/images/2024/061424webb750.jpg)
This story was originally published in the spring edition of 老司机福利网 Magazine, a joint publication of the 老司机福利网 and the USA National Alumni Association. Read more online.
While everyone else is fleeing an approaching storm this hurricane season, Dr. Bret Webb and 老司机福利网 colleagues will be heading toward it.
Webb, a professor of coastal engineering, doesn鈥檛 have a death wish; he has a data wish. He鈥檚 part of a research effort that, for the first time, is gathering detailed information about what happens when a hurricane hits the shore. He and his team will set up an array of sensors at the water鈥檚 edge, then head to safety before the storm arrives.
鈥淔or as much as we know about hurricanes, we don鈥檛 have many continuous measurements of surge and waves right at the shoreline during landfall,鈥 Webb says. 鈥淲e honestly don鈥檛 know what happens there during these extreme events.鈥
Finding out will improve management of coastal threats. 老司机福利网 is working with the University of Florida and other institutions, using 33-foot portable masts called Sentinels. Rugged instruments on the mast and the base measure wind speed and direction, wave height, rainfall, barometric pressure, humidity, water temperature and salinity, water quality and more. The Sentinels livestream the readings, along with a video feed, via a cellular signal.
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 faculty, student and staff time. The funding comes from the U.S. Coastal Research Program in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers鈥 Engineer Research and Development Center.
Crews will trailer the Sentinels to the water鈥檚 edge at the projected landfall area of any named storm. Four 19-foot helical piles will screw the base of the mast into the sand. Setup takes just 30 minutes.
The rig can survive and keep transmitting even during a direct hurricane hit, Webb says. The mast is made of carbon fiber by a company that primarily builds masts for high-performance sailboats.
Webb coordinates the network for Mississippi and Alabama. Other research teams cover other stretches of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The regional coordinators are responsible for lining up in advance where to deploy the Sentinels 鈥 either public lands or private tracts where owners have granted permission.
Three Sentinels are ready to roll, with more being built. 鈥淭he idea is that they would be spaced at roughly five-mile increments along the coast within the expected landfall area of a hurricane,鈥 Webb says.
His research group at 老司机福利网, which includes an engineering graduate student, plans to augment the Sentinels鈥 data by deploying its own home-built storm surge and wave gauges nearby. Commercial gauges cost $3,000 each; 老司机福利网鈥檚 cost $200.
The bargain price means the team can make lots of them. 鈥淪o we鈥檙e going to either 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,鈥 Webb says.
老司机福利网 has what he calls 鈥渁 rather robust extreme events deployment group鈥 of faculty and students, concentrated in the Department of Civil, Coastal and Environmental Engineering, who are on call to help set up the instruments as winds and waves kick up from approaching storms.
In other words, 老司机福利网 has sentinels to set up Sentinels, in pursuit of knowledge about one of the coast鈥檚 most destructive threats.
Archive Search
Latest University News
-
Paper Trail
A mechanical engineering graduate starts his career at an Internationa...
September 6, 2024 -
老司机福利网 Creates Office of Military Services
The expansion of support for active-duty members of the U.S. military,...
September 3, 2024 -
A View to the Future
Finance major Gabriel Kucala turns a summer internship into an extende...
August 29, 2024 -
James Named College of Engineering Dean
Dr. Darryl James will lead 老司机福利网's College of Engineering after s...
August 26, 2024