Preparation of the Hydrographic Brigade for the Hydrographic Survey in the Open Sea Mission

The Hydrographic Brigade (BH), with a team consisting of 3 elements, is taking part on board the NRP Admiral Gago Coutinho (GC) on the Open Sea mission from BNL on 31 December 2020 and with a mission period of one and a half months.

The hydrographic surveys (LH) will take place in Cape Verde and aims to obtain updated hydrographic information, as well as complement the baptometric information under the UNTIeD Project – Unlocking the mega Tsunami Deadlock: using the near-source impacts to constrain tsunami generation by volcanic flank collapses, a project that proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the impacts of one of the largest tsunamis of the geological record: the tsunami produced by the collapse of the island of Fire, about 73,000 years ago.

BH transports on board the GC the Merge boat equipped with a high-resolution low-back, tidal system, equipment for topography and geometric leveling (NG) and a simple beam probe (SFS) to use on a boat.

This campaign has as its main priority to finalize the LH initiated in March 2020 by BH inserted in the UNTIeD project, and also conduct surveys with SPS in the bays of S. Tomé and S. Martinho on the island of santiago. When docked in the ports of Mindelo and Praia, complement the previous surveys for the cartographic update. 

The preparation of the mission had two aspects: one human and another material. This preparation took place at the same time as the necessary sanitary preparation for the members of the team (physical examinations, traveler consultation vaccination). At the material level, it was to install and then test\calibrate all the equipment to be used in the mission. This stage of preparation is of great importance for the character expeditionary and the pandemic context.

Within this mission, the hydrography team is made up of the GC garrison, which stands out as the commander of the hydrographing engineer ship, a head hydrographing officer of the hydrography service, as well as the reinforcement of the BH with another hydrograph officer, a hydrograph sergeant and a square for maneuvering the Mergulhão waterboat. Along with hydrographic capabilities (2 high-resolution, medium and large-background MPS) and oceanographic (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, Sub Bottom Profilers) of the ship, with the reinforcement of the top-hydrographic material of the BH (high-resolution low-backs, topography, NG, SPS) becomes an advanced hydrographic platform with the ability to probe from the hydrographic zero to the 12 thousand meters deep and still perform all kinds of ground topography works. In short, the CG has human and material capabilities that allow acquiring all the data necessary for the elaboration of any nautical chart anywhere in the world. It also has the ability to process top-hydrographic information in order to produce expedited end products such as 3D bathymetric models and graphical deployments of the probed areas.