Submarine optical fibers will be part of the Tsunami early warning system

The Photonic Engineering Group of the University of Alcala will coordinate the Tsunami early warning System using Available sea floor Fiber cablEs (SAFE) project. The project involves Telxius Cable Spain (TEL-Spain), the University of Alcala (UAH-Spain), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-France), Institut de recherche pour le developpement (IRD-France), Observatoire de la Cote D'Azur (OCA-France), Aragon Photonics Labs (APL-Spain) and Instituto portuques do mar e da atmosfera (IPMA-Portugal) to develop an intelligent monitoring system based on DAS (Distributed Acoustic Sensor) technology, which prevents personal and infraestructure damage by providing early warning of tsunamis.

This system could have a direct application for underwater seismic measurements, as it allows the submarine cables to be converted into large offshore seismic sensor arrays at a minimal cost.
For their part, specialists from the Photonics Engineering Group (GRIFO) of Universidad de Alcala have world-renowned experience in DAS research, Aragon Photonics will provide its high-performance acoustic sensing (HDAS) equipment, developed in collaboration with the Universidad de Alcala, and will create an infrastructure for monitoring and processing optical signals in a fibre that will make it possible to analyse the variations in the seabed environment.

The project is funded by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) (SAFE Grant Agreement Number: 101098992) and the Horizon Europe Framework Programme 2022, with a total of 1.162.210,00 euros.

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