Satellite imaging and fiber-optic cables for monitoring geothermal wells
Photo: University of Winsconsin, Madison, WI, (CC, Source: Flickr, By: Jan P??ek)
Alexander Richter
16 Şub 2015
Advances in fiber-optic cable allow incredibly detailed seismic and temperature data collection alongside with hi-def satellite imaging, both can now help the industry develop new a better enhanced geothermal systems
In a very interesting post from the University of Winsconsin-Madison, “geoscientists and engineers are working with industry partners and the U.S. Department of Energy to integrate several data-gathering approaches into a highly detailed monitoring system for geothermal wells. A team that includes Geological Engineering and Geoscience Professor Kurt Feigl and Geological Engineering Associate Professor Dante Fratta, Geoscience Assistant Professor Mike Cardiff, Geoscience Professor Cliff Thurber, and Geoscience Professor Herb Wang, has converged on Brady Hot Springs in Nevada with a combination of satellite imaging techniques and fiber-optic cable. The researchers have turned this relatively small geothermal field into a proving ground for a system that ideally can be scaled up in wider and deeper fields”
The key change has to do with the new technology available today; “advances in fiber-optic cable now allow it to produce incredibly detailed seismic and temperature data. The cables produce new data about 500 times per second, yielding about a terabyte of data per day. “We have one channel every meter, whereas a typical seismic survey would have one channel every 30 or 40 meters,” says Joe Greer, business development manager for Silixa, one of the industrial partners involved in the project”
To read the full post, please follow the link:
Source: University of Winsconsin-Madison
