PALOMA

Acronym of “Advanced Platform Oceanographic Laboratory of the Adriatic Sea”, PALOMA is located in the center of the Gulf of Trieste, between the coastal towns of Pirano (SIovenia) and Grado. Approximately 8 nautical miles (more or less 15 km) from the coast of Trieste, it was deployed by the ISMAR of Trieste in July 2002 and again in May 2022, after major maintenance work in the dock.

Since 2002 it has been providing marine weather data acquired in collaboration with the Civil Protection – FVG and ARPA-OSMER and available in almost real time.

Over the years, its instrumental equipment has been expanded and mainly oriented towards studies of the air-sea exchanges of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas.

The station is being upgraded, with the installation of additional sensors and a data transmission system, which will allow almost real-time transmission of all acquired parameters.

Since 2008, in collaboration with ARPA-FVG, the water column has also been monitored on a monthly basis, with complete profiles from a multiparameter probe and discrete sampling at 4 depths with measurements of dissolved oxygen, nutrients, dissolved organic carbon, pH (precision ± 0.003) , total alkalinity. These measurements allow a complete characterization of the carbonate system and constitute the longest time series of these variables in the Adriatic.

The elastic beackon contributes to the european research infrastructures: ICOS-ERIC (Integrated Carbon Obervations System), DANUBIUS-ESFRI and JERICO-RI