Underwater Volcanoes in HD
Stunning real-time high-definition video of hydrothermal vent animals--from Axial volcano
The result will be a human 'presence' within entire volumes of the ocean that provides real-time data on the simultaneous variations in physical, chemical, biological, and geological processes. --John Delaney
Stunning real-time high-definition video of hydrothermal vent animals--tubeworms, limpets, and palm worms—from one mile deep, at Axial volcano in the northeast Pacific; earthquake data streamed nearly instantaneously to shore; the silvery, shimmery tracks of methane bubble plumes emerging from sediments on the continental shelf.
These are just a few of the events that were experienced this summer by viewers on shore as scientists, engineers, students, and ship’s crew from the University of Washington worked onboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. It was all part of the UW-led construction effort, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative, to build the first U.S. regional cabled ocean observatory. (See map to right.)
This summer’s work during the 45-day, 4-leg VISIONS ’13 expedition was broadcast live via the Internet and provided an opportunity for viewers on shore to follow along on the journey. This is just a taste, however, of what will be available to anyone with an Internet connection when the cabled observatory goes into full operation in early 2015: round-the-clock data, including HD video, transmitted live from the seafloor and water column. All this is thanks to the abundant power and bandwidth supplied to instruments by the 575-mile network of fiber-optic/electrical cables in the northeast Pacific and connected to land power and communications grids at a shore station in Pacific City, Oregon.
Funding for the regional cabled observatory (which carries the formal name of Regional Scale Nodes, or RSN) arrived at UW in fall 2009. Onshore construction and at-sea surveys began in 2010. The primary cables from the shore station to the five main study sites were installed in 2011 by a commercial telecommunications cable ship. The seven primary nodes (the main connection points on the network that distribute power and communications) were installed, connnected, and powered up in 2012.
Work done during summer 2013 accomplished critical at-sea installations and testing. Using the ROV ROPOS deployed from the R/V Thompson, the VISIONS ’13 team successfully deployed, tested, and verified the function of nearly 14 miles of electrical and electrical-optical extension cables. Four subnets that included secondary nodes, short-period seismometers, pressure sensors, and a high-definition video camera were installed and tested. (A more detailed list of accomplishments is provided here.)
According to VISIONS ’13 Co-Chief Scientist and OOI cabled component Associate Director for Science, Deborah Kelley: “Connecting the OOI HD video camera for the first time and streaming the video live over the Internet as part of our broadcasting was an amazing feat and highlights the significant science and public engagement opportunities that this infrastructure will bring.” This video camera was adapted and constructed by members of the RSN engineering team at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.
Installations in 2014 will include more cables, secondary nodes, and 100 instruments, as well as six cabled vertical moorings equipped with water-column profilers and instrument platforms.
Total funding for design, construction, and early operations will total $239 million pending availability of funds and Congressional approval. Measuring the observatory only by dollars, however, does not do justice to the project, which is nothing less than a whole new approach to ocean science, a revolution in oceanography.
As UW Professor of Oceanography and OOI RSN Director and Principal Investigator, John Delaney, explains: “The OOI regional cabled observatory will provide abundant power, nearly unlimited telecommunications bandwidth, and command-and-control capabilities. Together these will enable the ocean sciences to benefit from a broad spectrum of emergent technologies: in situ chemical and genomic sensors, digital imaging, robotics, cloud computing, nanotechnology, and 3D visualizations, to name a few. The result will be a human 'presence' within entire volumes of the ocean that provides real-time data on the simultaneous variations in physical, chemical, biological, and geological processes. Far more powerful than any one of these technologies, however, will be the convergence of the ensemble when applied to understanding the immense complexities of our planetary life support system – the global ocean.”
The result will be a human 'presence' within entire volumes of the ocean that provides real-time data on the simultaneous variations in physical, chemical, biological, and geological processes. --John Delaney
