Motionally induction voltage techniques: An application to the Ria de Aveiro Lagoon (Portugal)

Techniques based on motionally induced electric field, which is induced by the water flow across earth’s magnetic field, has recently been demonstrated to provide reliable information when applied to the flow monitoring in large oceanic channels. In the PROTEU project we’ll try to apply this technique to determine in continuous the water inflow into Ria de Aveiro from the feeding Vouga river and the water exchange between the Ria de Aveiro and the inner shelf. For that a cable crossing the strait of the lagoon at Barra is being setup. At once, two pairs of electrodes and a magnetometer were installed inland, near the coast, with continuos measures of electromagnetic fields. A summary of the project principles and examples of the first records of the electromagnetic field made inland are presented in this paper.