The objective of the North East Pacific Time-Integrated Undersea Networked Experiments (NEPTUNE) is to establish a permanent, subsea observatory surrounding the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. To achieve this objective, a special power distribution system is designed to provide continuous power to science equipment, vehicles, and laboratories located as deep as 5 km below the water surface. The NEPTUNE power system is significantly different from terrestrial power systems in many aspects and it requires different switching, protection, and control strategies. In this paper, we address the design of system switching and fault isolation equipment.
Absfracl-An infrastructure for global, regional, and coastal suh-sen observatories is being planned to support individual and networked sensors. The main emphasis has been to provide basic power and communications capability at "primary" nodes; less has been given to the sensor network infrastructure that extends the capability of the observatory into the full three-dimensional volume of interest. Secondary cables and junction boxes are needed to extend tbe horizontal reach by tens to hundreds of kilometers from the primary nodes; moorings up into the water column and boreholes into the sediments and crust are necessary to extend the vertical reach. The support infrastructure must include navigation and communications systems, mobile platforms such as freeswimming autonomous undersea vehicles, and bottom rovers that carry sensors and provide data and energy "tanker" service. The requirements for these various network elements and possible solutions are discussed, with an emphasis on the design of a specific mooring for the ALOHA Ohservatory north of Oahu. This subsurface mooring will support' a fullwatersolumn moored proiiler with a docking station that transfers power and data, enabling adaptive sampling. The subsurface float at 200 m provides a ROV-serviceable pbtform for near surface instrumentation, such as an upward looking acoustic Doppler current profder and B winched sensor system.
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