Tutorial - Adam Gauci, Sebastiano D'Amico

The main goal of the i-waveNET project is to implement innovative systems to monitor the state of the sea in climate-change scenarios. This will be achieved through the implementation of a monitoring network that will integrate different sensing technologies.

In this short tutorial, a general overview of the HF radar network that operates between Malta and Sicily, and the meteo-marine stations installed along the coastline of Malta, will be presented. The additional monitoring stations that will be added in the next few months, will also be put forward.

Since bathymetry information is important to understand the physical dynamics, currents, and waves in shallow coastal areas, during this tutorial a brief overview of how this can be computed through satellite data, will also be presented.

The i-WaveNet project is partly financed by the EU under the Operational Programme Italia-Malta 2007-2013, and coordinated by Prof. Giusepp­­­­e Ciraolo from the Università degli Studi di Palermo (UNIPA). More information on the project can be found online: https://iwavenet.eu

Dr Adam Gauci is a data scientist with the Oceanography Malta Research Group. He has been involved in a number of projects including the setting up of the CALYPSO HF Radar System to monitor in real-time sea surface currents across the Malta Channel, as well as the installation of a number of meteo-marine observation stations around the Maltese islands. Adam obtained his Ph.D. with the Department of Intelligent Computer Systems at the University of Malta with research on the applications of Machine Learning techniques on mega-dimensional datasets. When not chasing mermaids, he lectures with the Department of Geosciences within the Faculty of Science.

Sebastiano D'Amico (Ph.D.) has been working at the University of Malta, within the Department of Physics and the Department of Geosciences, since 2010. He currently serves as Head of the Department of Geosciences.
He was enrolled in the Physics program of the University of Messina where he was awarded the title of “Dottore in Fisica”. He also holds a PhD in Geophysics. In 2005 he moved to Rome where he joined the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). In 2007 he moved to the U.S.A. to join the Saint Louis University (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department). His research interests are in the applied aspects of geophysics and geomatics. He is the author of several publications in this field.