Arrival in Venice!

Post date: Nov 07, 2012 10:41:52 AM

The team has arrived in beautiful Venice! During our first week in the city we met with our sponsors at IPROS, ISMAR and Centro Maree, and received further direction on how and where to collect our data. We are planning to use two propeller devices lent to us by IPROS to verify the accuracy of our current speed measurements, and a smartphone that we purchased here to place inside of our PVC capsule. In preparation for data collection, we gave our capsule a makeover and spray-painted it fluorescent colors for visibility in the water and at night, and re-built measuring sticks with modified color patterns.

For our collected data to most beneficial for modeling purposes, our sponsor at ISMAR has recommended that we collect current speed and water level data in several locations repeatedly over a 12 hour period, to capture a full tide cycle. We no longer need to take measurements only at the mid-point between high and low tide – if we record the time that each measurement is taken, the data can still be used in ISMAR’s models. Recently we have been scouting out specific locations to take measurements, and have been testing the functionality and accuracy of the devices we plan to use. By the end of this week we plan to take many measurements at the locations we selected.

Left: Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR); Right: testing our painted PVC capsule in a canal