damage signals to the central monitoring facility application_number US 99971401 A description fig1 illustrates a pipeline monitoring system 10 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention as shown in fig3 the pipeline p being monitored may include a plurality of pipe sections which are land based and underwater the wide variety of environmental conditions which the pipeline may be exposed are known to those skilled in the art positioned along the pipeline are plurality of monitoring stations 20 with one such station being shown in fig1 the number of monitoring stations will depend on the length of the pipeline being monitored and literally hundreds or thousands of monitoring stations may be monitored according to the system of the present invention each monitoring stations communicates with a central monitoring facility 50 as discussed below each monitoring station 20 serves as a data collection unit a data transmission unit 22 which may include an antenna and related communication circuitry such as that offered by quake global communications forwards the sensed data via satellite 60 to the central facility 50 a magnetic pig position detector 24 is positioned close enough to the pipeline so that the magnetic field developed within the pipe by the pig is detected thereby signaling pig position the monitoring stations 20 may be installed when the pipeline is first laid or may be a retrofit to an existing pipeline the monitoring stations may be conveniently positioned at pipeline warning signs typically positioned at road or waterway crossings referring still to.