Research at OGS
OGS works to define and improve natural resources and the safeguard of the environment, in particular the study and surveillance of the sea, the coast areas and the territory and for the evaluation and prevention of geologic, environmental and climatic risks .
It is organized into sections:
Oceanography represents one of the historical research sectors in OGS and has kept developing in recent years getting important scientific results, both at Italian and international level. At present the Department staff is made up of about 60 people busy mainly in the study of physical oceanography and eco systems.
OGS boasts of a long time experience in coast monitoring integrated systems, which are based on observation strategies of scientific set-up that exploit vanguard technologies. The observation network that OGS has are founded on the use of meteo-marine coast profiling buoys, wavemetric buoys, currentmeters and high frequency coast radars (for superficial currentmeters). All of the data gathered by the instruments provide a snapshot on the state of the sea in real or quasi real time, and can be broadcast to the final users in times fast enough to allow their integration in numeric models for fast encironmental evaluations. The system of meteomarine profiling buoys that constitutes the main component of these networks is based on a technology developed at the OGS laboratories.
In the area of its constant tendency to innovation and excellence, the Oceanography section has also acquired recently a Slocum Glider, an autonomous submarine glider to strengthen even more its capacities of marine observation. The glider, called “TriesteI”, is made to operate autonomously in a depth range between 4 to 200 mt., so it is particularly suited to operation in coastal waters. Its capacity of gathering synoptic profiles makes it an extraordinary components in the network for programmes of regional undersurface monitoring. This vanguard automatic submarine glider integrates and completes the surface floating buoys (floater, drifter) that OGS manages in the field of various international projects, whose objective is to measure the temperature and salinity of the superficial layer of the ocean where we expect that the signals of an underway climate change will be more evident .
The activities that concern numeric analysis, synthesis, integration and the study through numeric models at modeling of the systems of the fluvial estuarial mouths, coastal and marine, face thematics that cover various temporal and spacial scales, and that go from Operative Oceanography (integration of data and forecasts at short term of biogeochemical properties of the marine system) to climate studies (impact of the scenarios of global change on the characteristics of the ecosystems in coastal and pelagic areas), to an approach of the ecosystemic type to the oceanography of the fish industry (development and use of end-to-end models from viruses to fish and their integration with transportation models) to Sustainable development and Integrated management of the Coastal Zones (eutrophication, water quality, aquaculture). These activities require the interaction among a big number of different disciplines and contribute to the general objectives of international projects like GOOS, IMBER, LOICZ and GLOBEC.
OGS, moreover, is the guest, for Italy, of the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) that is part of the International system of exchange of Oceanographic Data (IODE) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Committee (IOC) of UNESCO. In NODC are kept more than 300 thousand vertical profiles of physical and biochemical variables, which are available to the scientific community through a simple web interface. All the data undergo a procedure for quality control based on international standards. The information system OGS/NODC is integrated to all intents and purposes in the European network of distributed databases (SeaDataNet) .
Section Biological Oceanography
The section Biological Oceanography (BiO) has been instituted recently (2005) to continue the historical activities of the city of Triestein the field of marine biology and to complete the oceanographic areas of expertise of OGS. The section has its offices at the district of the waterworks at the Aurisina springs, that was the headquarter of the former Laboratory of Marine Biology (LBM), and is divided into research groups, operational and support groups occupying about 30 researchers among biologists, naturalists, geologists, chemists and physicists.
The laboratories are equipped with modern and sophisticated research instruments and the peculiar position on the sea of the structure that houses the BiO department is a unique specificity, characterized by the opportunity of scientific research in a sea environment.
The research activities of the BiO section go from biochemistry to physiology, from ecology to more traditional marine biology and directed to the understanding of the dynamics that regulate the marine ecosystem in its complexity and to the evaluation of the role of the oceans in the global energy balance. The studies on a local scale concern the coast strip and the transition waters and face the problems connected to their sustainable management. At a more global scale the research activities concern also the polar areas that represent the real climate engines.
The section is responsible of the site Golfo di Trieste, part of the macrosite Alto Adriatico, part of the international network LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) that continues the historical series of hydrological, biological and biochemical data started by the Universityof Triestein 1970.
The research projects of the section often take place in collaboration with national and international research institutions and with some of these agreement protocols have been drawn which allow the exchange of personnel and equiment for the achievement of common objectives.
At BiO many students coming from Italian universities write their graduation or doctorate thesis.
Section development of Marine Research andTechnologies
The section for the development of Marine Research and Technologies (RIMA) was instituted in 2004 and makes researches in the field of Marine Geophysics, studying extremely mixed typologies like the coast zones and oceanic depths, in areas geographically very distant like the Mediterranean Sea and the Polar Oceans. The research activity is usually organized by local projects or programmes, national and international, both in the private and public sectors.
The thematic topics on which the investigations focus include the recent coast dynamics, the paleoclimatic studies in polar areas, the hydrated gases, the mud vulcanoes and the cold seeps, the evolution of the sedimentary basins and the instability of the undersea slopes.
The section is totally self-sufficient and is able to manage in full autonomy all the phases that characterize any geophysical investigation: from the acquisition of crude data to their elaboration (standard and advanced), their preservation, filing and interpretation.
The support infrastructures include a coast laboratory with a section for the analysis and the elaboration of data, as well as a research ship, the “OGS Explora”, the only Italian research ship owned by a public organization and certified for oceanic navigation. The OGS Explora is equipped with numerous oceanographic instruments and systems for high definition morfo-bathymetric reliefs that include a multibeam ecosounder capable of working at depths between 100 and 8,000 meters, equipment for the acquisition of seismic data at high resolution multichannel and monochannel reflection, and core barrels.
In consideration of its historical tradition of collaboration with the local administration, the section also studies and monitors for the evaluation of the stability of the slopes for the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Section Geophysics of the Litosphere
The section Geophysics of the Litosphere (GdL) has the task of carrying out research activities (on land and on the sea, in Italyand abroad) in the following fields:
• exploration and evaluation of mining and energy resources;
• geological and geodynamic phenomena;
• analysis of sedimentary basins;
• dynamics of the litosphere and of connected sysmic phenomena;
• analysis of environmental problematics.
Accordingly, among the typical activities of the GDL section there are:
• applied research, with particular emphasis on natural resources management;
• research and development of advanced acquisition technologies, elaboration of inversion and modelling of surface geophysics data, in gallery and in well;
• interpreting of geophysical data, their colleration with geophysical and well data, for the reconstruction of geological and geodynamical phenomena, the climatic evolution in time, the analysis of sedimentary basins, and the evaluation of the reserves of hydrocarbons or of the sites of possible geological stockpiling of CO2;
• basic and experimental research on the propagation of geophysical, seismic, acustic, EM and electroseismic wave fields;
• innovative research and development in the field of data acquisition, their elaboration and interpreting in the field of use of the drilling chisel well to get forecasts in almost real time, of the physical conditions of the rocks near the well bottom, in strict collaboration with industry;
• innovative development and implementation of computing methods in numeric modelling;
• innovative development implementation of tomographic inversion and the interpreting in terms of rock physics and fluid content of geophysical and geological data
air acquisition of data and images (geophysical and laser data, photographic and hyperspectral images)
• analysis of images and data (scanning lasers, spectral, optical hyperspectral, and radar) acquired through remote sensing (from satellite, air and land systems) production of digital images through digital elevation models
• research and development in the field of applied seismology for the detection and evaluation of seismic and geological risks, also for engineering purposes, through the calculation of danger scenarios, the study of the source from instrumental measures and evaluation of the damages and the study of the local seismic response
Over the years these activities, apart from the publication in international magazines and the publication of scientific books, have brought about the development and setting up of a system for the industrial application of Seisbit® (OGS-ENI) usable and used on exploration shafts and shafts for scientific research, and some patterns Seisbit® (OGS-ENI), a pattern on methods of synthesis of virtual seismic signals, the deposit of a pattern on methods of in tunnel acustic investigation with the noise of the drilling machine, the study and experimentation in lab – in collaboration with the space industry – of a system of while- drilling seismic for the application of methods of land exploration in the space exploration (Moon and in perspective Mars), and the creation and marketing of a proprietary software package for the inversion and the tomographic analysis of seismic data (CAT3D)
The GDL section has the instruments suitable to the acquisition of seismic, magnetic and electric surface data, seismic in the well, of wells for seismic of high resolution with blowback, rifle and vibrating mass.
OGS through GDL keeps and manages a test site for in well technologies (Pian del Toppo) where they experiment the various technologies in well and while-drilling, for the experimental study of the signals and the geophysical methods in well, for the basic research and before their use in the industrial field. The site is at the disposal of the national and international scientific community.
The section manages also the bimotor airplane Piper Seneca II 200T destined to research activities in the sector of both land and marine environmental telerilevation. The aircraft is equipped with inertial positioning systems, hiperspectral systems and scanning lasers as well as digital photocameras.
Section Center of Seismologic Research
The “Centerof Seismologic Research” – CRS is the seismologic section of OGS, with its main offices in Udineand the secondary ones in Trieste. It was instituted after the earthquake of magnitude 6.4 that hit Friuliin `976 provoking mourning and destructions.
The CRS is responsible for seismic monitoring and a service of seismic alert in real time in the North-East of the Country. It manages the seismometric netoworks of the regions Friuli Venezia Giulia and Venetowith the financial support of the Regional Civil Protections. These networks are made up of 29 seismic stations at short period and 10 wide band stations. Moreover, Triesteseismic station has been, since far away 1963, a knot of the World Standardized Seismographic Network (WWSSN). In the area of scientific activities CRS analyzes seismicity to:
-identify active areas,
- characterize the main seismic sources,
- provide indications on the possible evolution of the seismic sequences.
Every year the technical and scientific results are published in a widespread public report.
The CRS manages also a network of GPS receivers (FreDNet, Friuli Regional Deformation Network) that is used to monitor the deformations of the crust. FreDNet has been operational since 2002 and at present is composed of 12 permanent GPS+GLONASS permanent stations. The data can be freely consulted through il the CRS website (www.crs.inogs.it/frednet). Some of the FreDNet stations are part of other national and European networks, like the European reference Frame Network (EUREF) and the Geodetic Alpine Integrated Network (GAIN). Thanks to a current project, the data acquired by FreDNet allow also the increase of the accuracy in real time of the portable instruments used, for example, in cadrastal measurements.
The research activities at the CRS are part of national and international projects and collaborations, and concern various investigation areas like, for example, the seismicity and seismotectonics of specific areas, induced micro-seismicity, seismic tomography, the origin of earthquakes, soil waggle, site answer, numeric modeling of earthquakes and seismic risk. For what concerns the last point, the OGS has contributed in the calculation of seismic danger (that is the expected waggle) of Italywhich allowed the definition of the present national seismic regulations. Maps of seismic danger have also been produced for Bulgaria, Cuba, Georgia, some regions of Greeceand the Balkan coast. Specific studies have concerned the region Friuli Venezia Giulia for which, in the area of a study financed by the Regional Civil Protection and developed together with the Universities of Trieste and Udine, a map of seismic risk has been made, which represents the economic damage expected after earthquakes.
With the collaboration of various argentinian institutes, the CRS manages the ASAIN network (Antarctic Seismographic Italian-Argentinian Network) that is made up of six large band stations distributed along the AntarcticaPeninsula, the South Scotia Ridge and Tierra del Fuegoislands. Some stations of the ASAIN network send their recordings to the European Data Center ORFEUS (ODC).
