This project will complete the design and then install an advanced cabled observatory in Monterey Bay that will serve as the test bed for a state-of-the-art regional ocean observatory, currently one component of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) cabled observatory represents the next step toward harnessing the promise of new power and communication technologies to provide a remote, continuous, long-term, high-power, large-bandwidth infrastructure for multidisciplinary, in situ exploration, observation, and experimentation in the deep sea. MARS will be located in Monterey Bay offshore the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
It will include one science node on 51 km of submarine cable with expansion capability for more nodes in the future (see graphic above). The science node will provide 8 science ports, and each port will have a 100-Mbit-persecond, bi-directional telemetry channel. The node will have the ability to deliver a total of 10 kW of power to the 8 ports. "Extension" cables can be plugged into any science port to provide power and communications up to 4 km away from the original node using the most cost effective deployment vehicle from several options including MBARI’s ROVs, ships of opportunity, or UNOLS class I, II, III or IV fleet vessels. The system will make use of the tools, techniques, and products developed over the last several decades for high reliability submarine telecommunication and military systems to ensure that this system can operate over a 30-year lifetime with minimum life-cycle cost. MARS will serve as the engineering test bed for any future regional (plate-scale) cabled observatories.
The broader implication of installing MARS is that the oceanographic community will be a giant step closer to providing real-time, continuous access to unprecedented power and communications capability underwater on a regional scale. This type of ocean observatory will revolutionize the way researchers study the ocean and the seafloor beneath. Benefits will include more cost-effective collection of much larger amounts of integrated, multidisciplinary data relevant to important scientific and societal issues, such as natural hazards, the climate system, the carbon cycle, and other biologically-mediated processes in the ocean. In addition, researchers will use such facilities to explore entirely new classes of problems currently unapproachable with existing assets.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0222650. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.