The making of A.I.R.S. (2019 - 2025)

Highwave initially started as an interdisciplinary project to study wave breaking in vivo. Without a research station in the field, however, it was impossible to obtain all the relevant data. This is why the Aran Island Research Station (AIRS) came to life. Designed to collect an impressive amount of data, this research station is the brainchild of Frédéric Dias, Arnaud Disant and their colleagues. As soon as they were awarded the € 2.5 million grant from the European Research Council, they began putting the various modules in place under the supervision of Arnaud, the technical director.

"Today, the AIRS station consists of two containers on the island: a research module and a workshop module. A third container on the mainland serves as a base camp: it is here that new instruments are designed and data is retrieved from the island," explains Arnaud.

The research station liaises daily with a multitude of connected objects positioned both in the sea and on cliffs. The Met Ocean Data Buoy anchored ten kilometers offshore is sending data in real time using SeaFi^(TM) technology, a unique wireless maritime network invented by Arnaud Disant. Autonomous in terms of energy thanks to a mix of wind turbines, solar panels and a diesel generator, the AIRS station can therefore collect data without interruption, whatever the weather conditions, particularly during storms, which are of particular interest to the researchers working on the Highwave project.