ESSO - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services

INCOIS developed SARAT- The Search And Rescue Aid Tool to save life and property at Sea

Conducting search and rescue operations in the sea is an extremely challenging task the world over, and can be compared to the proverbial searching for a needle in the hay stack. This is more challenging in the Indian context, where the fishermen venture out into the sea, throwing safety to the winds, without using modern gadgets. Fisherman can be off boarded, the boats may capsize, and boats may drift with engine failure. In these events more lucky fishermen may stay alive. It is extremely important to trace the fellow/boat quickly to save the life. SARAT system is mainly to find out the most probable Search Area for missing persons/objects at Sea.

SARAT system is mainly to facilitate the Indian Coast Guard, Navy and coastal Security Police in their operations to minimize loss of life, injury, and property damage. The User will be able to select 60 types of missing objects such as..Person in water, life raft, fishing boat, aviation, surf boat, sail boat etc. Users can select a specific Point where the object is missed using the interactive map or they can select a coastal location, distance travelled and bearing angle so that the missing point is calculated. The results generated are shown in an interactive map depicting the probable area to be searched and also send as a text message. All the requests and responses are provided in local languages of all coastal states so that fisherman also can use it in future to search if their fellow fisherman /boat is in distress.

The model uses assembling that accounts for the uncertainties in the initial location and time of the missing object. Current and wind acts as the driving force for the missing object. The model is forced by currents and winds derived from very high resolution models run in super computers or High Performance computers. The system can predict the search location up to 10 days.

The accuracy of SARAT is validated using the drifting buoys and other objects deployed in Sea. Recently in the unfortunate incident missing case Dornier aircraft of Indian Coast off Chennai, INCOIS provided the accurate information for locating the wreckage.