SARA

SARA environmental monitoring system kicks off at Mario Mameli International Airport, Cagliari Elmas, managed by SOGAER. This integrated environmental monitoring system, covering noise pollution and air quality, comes second in Italy only after the system provided by Softech to SAC for Catania Fontarossa International Airport, in 2015.

The system’s environmental value, besides its intrinsic mission, relies on its making use of noise monitoring stations that are powered by photovoltaic renewable energy, thus minimising the environmental impact of the project.

The Cagliari installation comprises noise and environmental monitoring components.

Noise monitoring

  • Five SOFTECH SARA_MM measuring stations (four fixed, one mobile), equipped with a SOFTECH THOR analyser and a GRAS41AM external microphone, both ISO 20906, IEC 61672 standards compliant. Three fixed stations are powered by photovoltaic energy, generated by integrated solar panels. All stations are connected to SARA’s central system on a G3 network. These construction characteristics provided for a drastic reduction in times and costs for installation and deployment, minimising the amount of civil works required in situ
  • One of the measurement stations features a VAISALA WXT530 multi-parameter meteorologic station, able to acquire information on temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, and rainfall amount
  • SARA ADS-B device, for real-time collection of position data on aircraft in transit, designed and implemented by Softech as an alternative to the radar tracking systems, typically provided by government authorities
  • SARA software to manage noise, radar tracks, meteorologic and flight planning data, in order to calculate the ground impact of aeronautical noise events

Environmental monitoring

  • An air quality measuring station has been installed within the airport’s territory. This is a fixed station, assigned to monitoring the main pollutants in continuous, in order to determine their concentration based on airport flight traffic. This station features equipment by Softech’s partner company, ENVIRONNEMENT ITALIA, for the following pollutants: SO2, NO/NO2/NOx, CO, CO2, O3, PM10, BTX and HTC
  • SARA software for monitoring in continuous periodical reports and correlation of pollutant concentration, as detected with the airport’s flight traffic
  • This SARA software installation is unique, and was configured to manage both noise and environmental events
  • Softech will supply SOGAER with all maintenance services, as well as analysis and reporting of the data recorded by the system, covering both noise and air quality status