What is an Observatory?
|Enlarge ImageIn 2003, the Hawaii-2 Observatory got its first renovation. The manipulator arm on the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason plugs in an instrument to the observatory's junction box. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the BBC Natural History Unit, courtesy of the WHOI Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory and Johnson-Sea-Link submersible, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution)
|Enlarge ImageThe University of Victoria (Canada) is leading an effort to develop a shallow-water undersea observatory. The Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea is being built in the Strait of Georgia between Victoria and Vancouver. (Courtesy of the NEPTUNE Project)
|Enlarge ImageThe NEPTUNE project aims to establish an earth/ocean observatory across the Juan de Fuca Plate off the US West Coast. Researchers propose to lay 1,865 miles of fiber-optic submarine cables linking 30 seafloor nodes that support assorted instruments and robotic vehicles. (Courtesy of the NEPTUNE Project and the University of Washington Center for Environmental Visualization.)
What is an Observatory?Ocean observatories are platforms for studying the ocean and its
fundamental processes in real time, while returning continuous streams
of data and imagery back to shore-based researchers. They include
suites of instruments and sensors, power supplies, computer command and
storage capability, and Internet connections or other advanced
communications systems. Learn more »
A few ocean observatories and observing systems are already in
operation or under construction, while several larger ones are now
being planned by universities and research institutions in conjunction
with NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), the NOAA-led
Integrated and sustained Ocean Observation System (IOOS), and other
international programs. Learn more »
To truly comprehend the ocean’s dynamic behavior and to monitor how it
affects us back on shore, scientists must do more than observe small
regions for short periods. They need to establish a presence in the
oceanplatforms from which to view how the ocean and seafloor change
with seasons, years, and decades. They need outposts from which to spy
the first tremors of an earthquake, the first roll of a tsunami wave,
the first bloom of toxic algae. Learn more »
Ocean observatories generally fall into three categories:
1) Regional, Cabled Observatories
2) Coastal Observatories and Observing Systems
3) Global Observatories
WHOI, Scripps, and Oregon State University and their partners will be
charged with building and maintaining the infrastructure for coastal
and global systems for their American scientific colleagues.
What Do Observatories Do?Citizens, sailors, and scientists have observed the seas for centuries.
First from the shore, then from ships and submersibles, and recently
from satellites. Along the way, scientists and engineers learned that
they could sometimes leave instruments in the ocean, secured by wires,
buoys, weights, and floatsalso known as the moored observatory. Each
approach has advanced our understanding of the oceans and their
interaction with the Earth and the atmosphere.
The next big leap will be ocean observatoriessuites of instruments
and sensors with long-term power supplies and permanent communications
links that can feed data to scientific laboratories and the Internet.
Spurred by advances in computing, telecommunications, and marine
architecture, researchers no longer want to just observe the ocean for
short periods in small places. They are thinking bigtectonic plate
big, ocean basin big, global system bigand long-term--with decades of
studies. They will do this by building an infrastructure that provides
a continuous flow of information and electrical power while allowing
researchers to adapt and adjust their experiments remotely as
Ocean observatories are designed to ask fundamental questions about how
the planet works. They will use novel technologies and techniques such
as satellite communications, acoustic modems, and fiber-optic cables
stretching hundreds of miles across the seafloor to ask questions of
the planet that cannot be posed by short-term expeditions.
Ocean scientists would like to sustain their observations over months
and years to see how the Earth, ocean, and atmosphere evolve. They want
to ask questions that cross scientific boundaries, such as how does
ocean chemistry affect biology or how does the geology on the seafloor
affect the physics of flowing water. Observatories will allow scientists to not only collect data passively,
but to adjust their experiments and talk to their instruments from
hundreds of miles away in shore-based laboratories. They will allow
researchers to share what they learn in real-time with scientific
colleagues, policymakers, educators, students, and the interested
Why Do We Need Observatories?Many of Earth’s most fundamental, planet-shaping processes occur in the
ocean, out of human sight. The crust is built and consumed.
Mineral-rich fluids spew from subterranean pipes. The majority of the
planet’s earthquakes and volcanoes erupt beneath this watery blanket.
Circulating currents move climate-driving heat and moisture around the
globe. Strange creatures grow at depths beyond the influence of
sunlight, providing a glimpse of perhaps the earliest life forms on the
You can observe many of these processes from a research ship, lowering
instruments, cameras, robots, and submersibles. But such expeditions
last a few days or a few weeks and can only provide snapshots. They
don’t allow you to observe changes over months or years, nor can you
capture sudden, unpredictable events unless you happen to be in the
right place at the right time.
Instruments on satellites offer useful broad and long-term observations
of the ocean. But the view is only skin deep, as cameras and lasers can
only penetrate the top few meters of water.
Moorings, drifters, and buoys have revealed much of what we know about
the patterns and changes in the sea. But until recently, such tools
were limited by the availability of ships to deploy them, the size of
computer memory, and the strength and longevity of batteries.
To truly comprehend Earth’s dynamic behavior and to monitor how it
affects us back on shore, ocean and earth scientists must do more than
observe small regions for short periods. They need to establish a
presence in the oceanplatforms from which to view how the ocean and
seafloor change with seasons, years, and decades. They need outposts
from which to spy the first tremors of an earthquake, the first roll of
a tsunami wave, the first bloom of toxic algae.
Advances in communications, robotics, computers, and sensor technology
now make it possible to get wider views of the seas and to add the
dimension of time to our big environmental questions. With arrays of
permanent, Internet-linked moorings and underwater cabled
observatories, researchers can observe the evolution of the ocean on
scales from a single, prodigious hydrothermal vent to an entire
tectonic plate of Earth’s crust.
The power lines, fiber-optic data cables, solar panels, acoustic
modems, and satellite transmitters on the next generation of ocean
observing platforms will help turn hypotheses into understanding and
help fit local and regional phenomena into the global picture