CUHK
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The vessels collision near Lamma Island in early October caused scores of injuries and deaths. Deeply saddened about the tragic accident, Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) had provided timely support to the search and rescue operations. Prof. Pan Jiayi of ISEIS was entrusted by the Hong Kong Observatory to generate information of ocean surface current on the date of accident and the week after to facilitate the rescue and search operations, by using the fine forecasting technology for Hong Kong coastal ocean dynamic environment supported by the Hong Kong Innovation & Technology Fund.

As an oceanographer, Professor Pan felt responsible for supporting the investigation to prevent recurrence of similar accidents. Apart from providing marine environmental data at the shipwreck time, ISEIS has also proposed to the government to set up a network of buoys deployed in Hong Kong waters which can provide the public and government departments with real-time marine environmental data to help monitor the navigation environment. ISEIS also developed a multi-source positioning system based on Baidou satellites to enhance safety of marine navigation.