MBARI plans to participate in the
NEPTUNE project. This
project is a cooperative effort among the University of
Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboraory (PMEL), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, National Aeronautics
& Space Administration (NOAA), and MBARI to install a fiber-optic cabled observatory
spanning the Juan de Fuca plate. The first two nodes of the NEPTUNE
observatory will be installed in Monterey Bay. MBARI plans
to operate the Monterey test nodes, establish the remotely
operated vehicles (ROV) protocols for
installing and servicing instruments, integrate autonomous
underwater vehicles (AUVs) into the cabled
observatory infrastructure, initiate an education program in conjunction
with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and, of course, doing science
experiments. After the initial funding from the Packard Foundation,
funding for the Monterey test bed would be covered by the National
Science Foundation through an Major Research Equipment grant for
NEPTUNE.
"The goal of NEPTUNE is to establish a coherent system of high speed, submarine communication-control links using fiber-optic cables to connect remote, interactive experimental sites with land-based research laboratories and classrooms. The system will provide real-time flow of data to shore, interactive control over robotic vehicles on site, and power to the instruments and the vehicles. This facility will enable a broad range of long-term, real-time, four-dimensional experiments focused on dynamic earth processes. Because many globally significant processes operate at or
below the scale of tectonic plates, the NEPTUNE cable system will be constructed at the scale of a lithospheric plate. NEPTUNE will allow scientists and educators to analyze and utilize data bearing on the linkages and feedback mechanisms within and between key oceanographic and plate tectonic processes. More complete understanding and effective modeling of complex natural systems requires a continuous interactive presence within these active portions of our planet. A comprehensive,
long-term investigation of one such system can provide new and detailed insights into the dynamic behavior of similar systems that operate throughout
our planet.
The site selected for NEPTUNE is the Juan de Fuca Plate located within several hundred miles of the US-Canadian West Coast. This site has
several advantages. It is the only locale this close to North America where
a full suite of plate tectonic activities is operative, producing a broad spectrum of interactive physical, chemical, and biological processes within a few hundred kilometers of land. It is the locus of active continental shelf sedimentation and a variety of oceanographic processes tied to North American weather and climate and to a major fishing industry. Using remote intervention capabilities, coupled with real-time data flow from thousands of instruments, many of these basic oceanographic and geophysical systems will be explored with entirely new investigative strategies. Extended characterization of complex, co-varying processes will provide a powerful complement to the traditional focus on spatial characterization achieved by mapping and sampling, which has dominated the ocean sciences for fifty years. Long-term commitment to well-designed experimental inquiries will reveal much about the dynamic behavior of our planet."
quoted from the Executive
Summary for the Neptune Project."
