NEPTUNE Canada – Deploying New Cabled Observatory Technologies in the Deep Ocean By Steve Lentz
The NEPTUNE Canada Cabled Ocean Observatory System is an underwater cable system built specifically to support scientific research. For the first time, NEPTUNE will enable collection of oceanographic, seismic, climate, and ecosystem data from deep under the ocean continuously in real time, over its planned service life of twenty-five years. NEPTUNE Canada is the first stage of a joint Canada - US network envisioned to provide access to the entire Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, an area of over 200 000 km2 off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. The University of Victoria (UVic) leads a consortium of 12 Canadian universities responsible for implementation and operation of NEPTUNE Canada with funding provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund. Funding for the US portion of NEPTUNE is being sought from the US National Science Foundation. NEPTUNE represents a fundamental step forward for the science of Oceanography. Oceanographers have traditionally relied on ships, buoys, or deep water moorings to collect data. Ships can remain on station for only a limited time within a narrow weather window, while buoys and moorings have limited electrical power and data bandwidth, as well as limited reliability. Out of commission telecom and military cables have been used for scientific research, but these may not be in ideal locations and also
have power or bandwidth limitations. Cabled observatories have been built off the coast of Japan to support a seismic network; however, these observatories, built to a submarine telecommunications system design, have been unable to offer users the power required for a wide range of their instruments and experiments. Several “near-shore” singlesite observatories located a few tens of kilometers off shore have been built and operated successfully; NEPTUNE will stretch this limit to multiple sites and hundreds of kilometers. NEPTUNE’s ability to provide access to the deep ocean environment, frequent data collection, real time data delivery, instantaneous command and control, and continuous long term observation goes far beyond the capabilities of conventional oceanography. While these new capabilities are of great interest to researchers, NEPTUNE will also provide an outreach function for the science of Oceanography by delivering real time video, still photographs and data to schools, universities, policymakers, and the public throughout the world. Major research themes for NEPTUNE are plate tectonics, seabed fluid dynamics including gas hydrate formation, ocean climate change, marine biology, and deep sea ecosystems. Initially, one site on the continental shelf, two sites on the continental slope and two sites in deep water have been selected for connection to NEPTUNE. The shelf site is Folger Passage, located just 30
Verena Tunnicliffe, University of Victoria