Mobile County Gets New Storm Surge Sensor on Dog River Bridge

A new Storm Surge sensor has been positioned on the bridge above the Dog River in the Mobile County. This new technology would help the County to be better organized and primed for the next tropical storm or hurricane surge.

According to Bob Heitsenrether from the NOAA, this would be a new station, a part of the Storm Surge Monitoring Network. This is the first time a microwave radar sensor is being installed to alert against storm surges or hurricanes. It is easy to install and there are no components in contact with water. This remote sensor is very different from other sensors that require divers and extra maintenance issues. This sensor would be able to gather more measurements than others and have a more enhanced spatial resolution for understanding the flooding process and thus help to protect communities.

The sensor would relay a series of high frequency electromagnetic pulses which are reflected from the water and the flight time of the signal is then used to calculate the distance to the water. The radar would be making the measurements and every 6 minutes the values are transmitted to the GOES NOAA satellite. The sensor equipment includes a data collection device, a satellite transmitter and an antenna to transmit data to the satellite. A total of five sensors have been commissioned on both bridges and other structures. All this came through because of a grant from NOAA, allotted by Senator Shelby and Congressman Jo Banner. This data would not only help to forecast surge and give surge values but also help the National Weather Service to analyze storm surge and also improve storm surge predictions. The data will be available online on several NOAA websites. On a regular day, it is always informative to have real-time water level data. It will help fishermen or mariners.