skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • SMART Subsea Cables for Observing the Earth and Ocean, Mitigating Environmental Hazards, and Supporting the Blue Economy
Title: SMART Subsea Cables for Observing the Earth and Ocean, Mitigating Environmental Hazards, and Supporting the Blue Economy
The Joint Task Force, Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (JTF SMART) Subsea Cables, is working to integrate environmental sensors for ocean bottom temperature, pressure, and seismic acceleration into submarine telecommunications cables. The purpose of SMART Cables is to support climate and ocean observation, sea level monitoring, observations of Earth structure, and tsunami and earthquake early warning and disaster risk reduction, including hazard quantification. Recent advances include regional SMART pilot systems that are the first steps to trans -ocean and global implementation. Examples of pilots include: InSEA wet demonstration project off Sicily at the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory Western Ionian Facility; New Caledonia and Vanuatu; French Polynesia Natitua South system connecting Tahiti to Tubaui to the south; Indonesia starting with short pilot systems working toward systems for the Sumatra-Java megathrust zone; and the CAM-2 ring system connecting Lisbon, Azores, and Madeira. This paper describes observing system simulations for these and other regions. Funding reflects a blend of government, development bank, philanthropic foundation, and commercial contributions. In addition to notable scientific and societal benefits, the telecommunications enterprise’s mission of global connectivity will benefit directly, as environmental awareness improves both the integrity of individual cable systems as well as the resilience of the overall global communications network. SMART cables support the outcomes of a predicted, safe, and transparent ocean as envisioned by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the Blue Economy. As a continuation of the OceanObs’19 conference and community white paper ( Howe et al., 2019 , doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00424 ), an overview of the SMART programme and a description of the status of ongoing projects are given.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2114717 1926188
PAR ID:
10413844
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Frontiers in Earth Science
Volume:
9
ISSN:
2296-6463
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Marine Technology Society Journal)
    Abstract The Joint Task Force, Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (SMART) Subsea Cables is working to integrate environmental sensors (temperature, pressure, seismic acceleration) into submarine telecommunications cables. This will support climate and ocean observation, sea-level monitoring, observations of Earth structure, tsunami and earthquake early warning, and disaster risk reduction. Recent advances include regional SMART pilot systems that are the initial steps to trans-ocean and global implementation. Building on the OceanObs'19conference and community white paper (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00424), this paper presents an overview of the initiative and a description of ongoing projects including: InSea wet demonstration project off Sicily; Vanuatu and New Caledonia; Indonesia; CAM-2 ring system connecting the Portuguese mainland, Azores, and Madeira; New Zealand; and Antarctica. In addition to the diverse scientific and societal benefits, the telecommunications industry's mission of societal connectivity will also benefit because environmental awareness improves both individual cable system integrity and the resilience of the overall global communications network. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; (, TNC 19)
    Bandwidth in the South Atlantic is increasing for the R&E community. In 2018, four events occurred. GEANT and CLARA announced an IRU with EllaLink, connecting Europe and Latin America . FIU signed an IRU with Angola Cables on the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) and interconnection in Fortaleza to the Monet cable connecting Brazil to Florida . AmLight-ExP announced an IRU with Angola Cable for spectrum from Florida to Fortaleza and Sao Paulo. The SACS submarine cable system started interconnecting Fortaleza and Luanda, Angola. We will report on the AARCLight study and status of network infrastructure via the South Atlantic. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Global Biogeochemical Cycles)
    The ocean plays a major role in controlling atmospheric carbon at decadal to millennial timescales, with benthic carbon representing the only geologic‐scale storage of oceanic carbon. Despite its importance, detailed benthic ocean observations are limited and representation of the benthic carbon cycle in ocean and Earth system models (ESMs) is mostly empirical with little prognostic capacity, which hinders our ability to properly understand the long‐term evolution of the carbon cycle and climate change‐related feedbacks. The Benthic Ecosystem and Carbon Synthesis (BECS) working group, with the support of the US Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Program (OCB), identified key challenges limiting our understanding of benthic systems, opportunities to act on these challenges, and pathways to increase the representation of these systems in global modeling and observational efforts. We propose a set of priorities to advance mechanistic understanding and better quantify the importance of the benthos: (a) implementing a model intercomparison exercise with existing benthic models to support future model development, (b) data synthesis to inform both model parameterizations and future observations, (c) increased deployment of platforms and technologies in support of in situ benthic monitoring (e.g., from benchtop to field mesocosm), and (d) global coordination of a benthic observing program (“GEOSed”) to fill large regional data gaps and evaluate the mechanistic understanding of benthic processes acquired throughout the previous steps. Addressing these priorities will help inform solutions to both global and regional resource management and climate adaptation strategies. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; (, Internet2 Global Summit - San Diego, CA)
    The arrival of undersea cables along the coasts of Africa over the last decade, combined with increased investment in national fiber backbones, has expedited the development of NRENs across the African continent. According to a World Bank report, there are now more than 15 NRENs operating in Africa and a dozen more in an advanced planning stage. In addition, recent investments have been made by governments and NGOs to use this new infrastructure to help connect researchers around the world to their colleagues in Africa. As part of its International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program, the US National Science Foundation is funding transatlantic bandwidth, targeted training, and pro-active application engagement in support of science collaborations in Africa. Similarly, the European Commission, via GEANT¹s AfricaConnect2 project, is providing support for the development of high-capacity internet networks and services for research and education across Africa. This increased support is helping improve connectivity for existing science collaborations while also enabling new collaborations to take advantage of the growing Research and Education infrastructure. This session will highlight how the global R & E networking community is working together to strengthen and support NRENs and research in Africa. Speakers will include IRNC PIs, representatives from GEANT, and African REN partners (Ubuntunet Alliance, WACREN, ASREN). Speakers will provide infrastructure updates, lessons learned from human capacity building workshops, reports on researcher engagement, and answer questions about current and future efforts. We will also highlight some of the challenges African NRENs and researchers working in Africa face and lead a discussion on how we can work together to begin addressing some of these challenges. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Science)
    null (Ed.)
    Seafloor geophysical instrumentation is challenging to deploy and maintain but critical for studying submarine earthquakes and Earth’s interior. Emerging fiber-optic sensing technologies that can leverage submarine telecommunication cables present an opportunity to fill the data gap. We successfully sensed seismic and water waves over a 10,000-kilometer-long submarine cable connecting Los Angeles, California, and Valparaiso, Chile, by monitoring the polarization of regular optical telecommunication channels. We detected multiple moderate-to-large earthquakes along the cable in the 10-millihertz to 5-hertz band. We also recorded pressure signals from ocean swells in the primary microseism band, implying the potential for tsunami sensing. Our method, because it does not require specialized equipment, laser sources, or dedicated fibers, is highly scalable for converting global submarine cables into continuous real-time earthquake and tsunami observatories. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email