[Satellite Today 11-16-09] Fastwave Communications received a contract from Chevron Australia Pty Ltd. to supply a water quality monitoring system for the Gorgon offshore gas project based on Iridium satellite data links provided by Iridium Communications Inc., Iridium announced Nov. 11.

            The system will provide monitoring of turbidity levels arising from dredging and spoil operations in waters near the gas processing plant location on Barrow Island.

            The Fastwave system consists of underwater instrumentation modules on the sea floor around the dredging and spoil disposal sites. Each module contains turbidity sensors, data loggers, an Iridium short-burst data modem and rechargeable battery packs. They are connected to small moored buoys which relay the data packets through the Iridium satellites to an environmental monitoring system onshore.

             “We designed our underwater monitoring systems to take advantage of Iridium’s global coverage, high network quality and low-latency, two-way [short-burst data] links, providing a robust solution capable of working reliably under extreme environmental conditions,” Nick Daws, director of Fastwave, said in a statement.