Building the World's First Multi-node Cabled Ocean Observatories (NEPTUNE Canada and VENUS, Canada): Science, Realities, Challenges and Opportunities

Barnes, Chris; Tunnicliffe, Verena

doi:10.1109/oceanskobe.2008.4531076

Cited by 30 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Bullseye Vent has been studied extensively in the previous 10 years including Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Expedition 311 and thus the geological setting is extensively documented [Riedel et al, 2006. Bullseye vent is also near the ODP 889 node of the north-east Pacific time series underwater networked experiments (NEPTUNE) Canada cabled observatory (Figure 1a) [Barnes and Tunnicliffe, 2008].…”

Section: Geological Setting and Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variability of in situ methane concentrations in gas hydrate‐bearing sediments near Bullseye Vent, Northern Cascadia Margin

Lapham

Wilson

Riedel

et al. 2013

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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[1] To assess the temporal variability in the methane fluxes from marine sediments that overly gas hydrate bearing sediments and the factors that might control its rate, in situ methane concentrations were measured near Bullseye Vent on the Northern Cascadia continental margin. A long-term sampling device collected overlying water and pore-fluid samples from 25 cm above seafloor, at the sediment-water interface (SWI), and 7 cmbsf (centimeters below seafloor) over a 9 month period (August 2009-May 2010. These samples provide a record at $4 day resolution of in situ methane, ethane, propane, sulfate, and chloride concentrations, as well as stable carbon isotope ratios of methane ( 13 C-CH 4 ) and dissolved inorganic carbon ( 13 C-DIC). We show that pore fluids near the SWI are saturated or supersaturated with respect to methane ($80 mM) and the methane flux from the seabed is variable over time. We hypothesized that regional seismic activity controlled this variable CH 4 flux in the Northern Cascadia continental margin setting. However, we found no direct correlation between earthquakes and CH 4 flux. We also posited alternative controls on CH 4 flux variability, such as storms, regional oceanography and microbial activity. Again, no direct correlation was seen. This study takes first steps toward exploring which physical factors play a role in methane flux from hydrate-bearing sediments.Components: 9,035 words, 7 figures.

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Section: Geological Setting and Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variability of in situ methane concentrations in gas hydrate‐bearing sediments near Bullseye Vent, Northern Cascadia Margin

Lapham

Wilson

Riedel

et al. 2013

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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“…Cabled observatories in North America include the VENUS system now installed in Canada [1], and the US NSF Regional Scale Nodes, called NEPTUNE during its design phase [2] and now moving forward to a construction phase. The capability of the cabled observatories depends upon their size and construction, but for these two large systems, many gigabits per second of data throughput is available and hundreds of Watts of power is allowed for sensors on the network.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic communications for deep-ocean observatories: Results of initial testing at the MBARI MARS node

Freitag

Ball

Koski

et al. 2010

Oceans'10 Ieee Sydney

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A prototype system for connecting remote instruments to a cabled observatory is described. The system consists of base-station modems and a data acquisition system attached to the MBARI MARS observatory in 900 m water off Monterey, California, plus remote modems used for link testing. The objective of the system is to provide a drop-in capability to connect sensors on the sea-floor or on sub-sea moorings to a cabled node that would otherwise require an ROV to make a hard-wired connection. While ROV installations of sensor-to-node cables are practical for many instruments, the acoustic connection is a way of lowering the barrier to general access of cabled nodes.The system designed for demonstration purposes is a combination of commercial components and custom hardware and software. While the system is a prototype, considerable effort was expended to make the sub-sea portion as simple and reliable as possible so as to minimize the potential for failure and the reduce the associated costs of recovering and re-deploying the system. While the system uses real-time modems (the WHOI Micro-Modem) in the sub-sea portion, a data acquisition system and streaming feed of the acoustic array allows the use of one or more software modems in the future, which can be vendor independent or conform to an established standard.The system was deployed in February 2010 and has been undergoing testing since. This paper reports on initial results obtained to-date. Several types of tests have been performed to establish performance over both short (24 hours) and medium (two week) time scales. At 2 km burst data rates of 5000 bps have been achieved with near-perfect reliability using a carrier frequency of 25 kHz and 5 kHz of bandwidth. Temporal variability is low, and the largest impacts on performance are the delayed surface bounce from the surface and acoustic interference observed during occasional ROV operations in the area.

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“…The important role of ocean observatories in future oceanography has received international acknowledgement [1]. At the beginning of this century, a construction of innovative facilities called cabled ocean observatories has been initiated by scientists and has been or being proposed all over the world [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. By netting all independent subsea instruments with terrestrial power grid and global Internet via subsea coaxial cables and special mechanic-electric facilities so that unprecedented amounts of power and wide bandwidth can be provided to access and control subsea instruments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of a mechatronic system applied for subsea science instruments

Chen

Yang

Jin

et al. 2010

2010 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics

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Due to the shortage of current research methods to observe oceans in long term, real time, an innovative mechatronic system by using coaxial cable to connect a terrestrial shore station and a subsea science platform that can provide abundant power and broad bandwidth communication for subsea instruments, are developing. In this paper, an overview of this system was presented in detail from terrestrial facility to subsea infrastructure. And specially focus on introduction of constructing the platform consisted of a high direct current voltage to low levels power conversion sub-system and a control sub-system. Validation of this system was carried out in water pool involved in three subsea in-situ application instruments.

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Building the World's First Multi-node Cabled Ocean Observatories (NEPTUNE Canada and VENUS, Canada): Science, Realities, Challenges and Opportunities

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

Temporal variability of in situ methane concentrations in gas hydrate‐bearing sediments near Bullseye Vent, Northern Cascadia Margin

Temporal variability of in situ methane concentrations in gas hydrate‐bearing sediments near Bullseye Vent, Northern Cascadia Margin

Acoustic communications for deep-ocean observatories: Results of initial testing at the MBARI MARS node

Experimental study of a mechatronic system applied for subsea science instruments

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