FEATURE SUBMARINE CABLES
@fibresystemsmag |
www.fibre-systems.com
Can ocean cables go green?
Efforts to use submarine fibre-optic cables to gather important environmental data are off to a promising start, finds Andy Extance, but significant hurdles remain
F
ar below the surface, fibre-optic cables criss-cross Earth’s ocean floors, blind to the conditions – and the risks – in the cold and dark surrounding them. To
channel data across the world reliably, these expensive submarine networks are designed to minimise the number of parts that add to bill-of-material costs and could fail. In this austere culture, until recently, the idea of adding sensors to monitor what’s going on down there would have met with scorn. But now, driven by encouragement from scientists, the industry is seriously considering a previously unthinkable chimera: an Internet and telecommunication backbone with ‘eyes’ on it. Te idea has sprung principally from a 2010
letter to the journalNature, written by University of Sydney climatologist and oceanographer Yuzhu ‘John’ You. Tat motivated a UN agency,
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to organise a workshop in Rome in 2011 to explore using submarine cables in research. Tere, scientists made their case to their industrial counterparts. ‘Measurements that could warn of tsunamis
are taken around the oceans’ edges, mainly the Pacific Ocean, and mainly with buoys,’ said Chris Barnes from the University of Victoria, Canada. ‘Te oceans are the main driver of long-term climate change, but we know very little about ocean circulation and temperature changes in the deep ocean, as it’s difficult to get down there. We’d love to have measurements in the deep ocean every 50 kilometres to improve our knowledge. Tere could be enormous payoffs for our kids and grandkids.’ In Rome, the scientists’ enthusiasm was not
well received by industry. ‘Tere was some dispute,’ Barnes explained. ‘Te companies had lawyers there, and they were concerned that this would affect their reliability and business case.’ Nevertheless, there was still strong evidence supporting the idea, such as NEPTUNE Canada, the world’s first regional cabled ocean observatory, which became operational in 2009 and which Barnes directed from 2001-2011: a research facility consisting of hundreds of sensors connected by submarine fibre-optic cables delivering interactive real-time data – such an example justified further discussions. Aſter a 2012 meeting, the ITU joined forces
An engineer helps prepare the Remotely Operated Cable Laying System (ROCLS) for installations at the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) 1027 (Cascadia Basin) location in 2009
18 FIBRE SYSTEMS Issue 6 • Winter 2015
with two other UN agencies: the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/IOC). Together they formed a ‘Green Cables’ joint task force (JTF), and appointed Barnes the chairman. An even older precedent came from Japan, where earthquake and tsunami seismometers
Ocean Networks Canada
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37