Download Construction of Ieodo Ocean Research Station and its

Proceedings of The Fourteenth (2004) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference
Toulon, France, May 23−28, 2004
Copyright © 2004 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
ISBN 1-880653-62-1 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)
Construction of Ieodo Ocean Research Station and its Operation
Jae-Seol Shim
Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Seoul, Korea
In-Sik Chun
Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea
In-Ki Min
Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Seoul, Korea
ABSTRACT
was constructed at Ieodo underwater rock which is located 149 km (81
nautical miles) to the south-east of Mara-Do as shown in Fig. 1.
The Ieodo Ocean Research Station is an integrated meteorological and
oceanographic observation base which was first constructed in Korea.
It was constructed at Ieodo underwater rock which is located 149 km to
the south-east of Mara-Do, the southernmost island in Korea. The
structure is of a fixed jacket type installed at a depth of 40 m (DL), and
upper deck has its total area of 1,320 m3, composed of a cellar deck, a
main deck with residential space and laboratory, and a helideck for
facilitating rescue activities and transportation. The observation
equipments include meteorological, oceanographic, structure
monitoring instruments. All of hardware in the tower including data
acquisition and control systems were designed to communicate with
KORDI through Mugunghwa satellite and Global Star.
KEY WORDS: Ieodo; jacket structure; remote ocean observation;
real-time data communication
INTRODUCTION
There are several companies in Korea for designing and constructing
fixed offshore structures. But their works have been mostly focused on
foreign constructions related to mining petroleum or natural gas.
Recently, the Ieodo Ocean Research Station (IORS) was constructed in
an open sea area adjacent to Korea. The structure was built for purely
scientific purpose.
In the developed countries, various observation towers have been
constructed for the scientific purposes since 1960. The oceanographic
and meteorological data acquired from the towers have made a great
contribution to the development and conservation of marine resources
in 21st century. Korea Ocean Research and Development
Institute(KORDI) had performed a totally eight year project for
constructing the IORS under the support of the Ministry of Marine
Affairs and Fisheries since 1997, and completed the project on June,
2003. The tower thus became the first offshore structure in Korea. It
Fig. 1. Location of Ieodo
The structure was installed at a point 700 m to the south from the
summit of the rock as shown in Fig. 2. The lower part of the structure is
of a fixed jacket type installed at a depth of 40 m (DL), and upper part
has its total area of 1,320 m3, composed of a cellar deck, a main deck
with residential space and laboratory, and a helideck for facilitating
rescue activities and transportation by helicopters.
The tower is also equipped with seminar room, electricity generation
chamber, lighthouse functions, ship berthing structure, waste water
treatment facility, fire fighting and fuel tanks, etc. It is normally
operated in uninhabited way, but the residential space is well prepared
so that 8 people can stay continuously for 15 days. The observation
equipments include meteorological instruments (13 kinds),
oceanographic instruments (20 kinds), structure monitoring instruments
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