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Objectives »» |
ESONET, in short, proposes to combine a series of cabled deep-sea observatories and water column Eulerian stations to measure long time series and critical physical, chemical and biological, as well as, interdisciplinary parameters, to supplement the conventional sea-going investigations.
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These observatories are planned to be
accomplished with power and communication means supporting the
spatially distributed sensing systems and mobile platforms. The
extent of research would therefore scale the seafloor through the
whole water column up to the air-sea interface. Combined with
satellite systems, deep-sea observatories will provide a mode of
research which can extend its observation far in space and time, in
increasing the range of vertical and lateral distribution of
information gain in real-time and delayed-time. This system would be
also powerful due to its remotely functioning capabilities without
exposing the possible dangers of a manned mission in to the sea.
Recent advancements in deep-sea
research have brought up important questions in the ocean and Earth
sciences to surface with a need of coordinated research effort.
These research efforts in the last 2 and ½ decades have brought
about enhancements in ocean monitoring systems, with the progressive
input in the need of long time monitoring systems and of stand-alone
instrument modules, capable of multi-disciplinary performance. These
stand-alone underwater observatories hence come a long way in
providing such platforms of scientific progress, which would be
capable of long time monitoring of the ocean and the ocean basins,
which would be interdisciplinary in the measurement of parameters
and multidisciplinary in its benefits.
| Further topics |
| ESONET Observatories |
“Observatories networked at seafloor level will offer Earth and ocean
scientists new opportunities to study multiple, interrelated processes
over time scales ranging from seconds to decades. These include: a)
episodic processes; b) processes with periods from months to several
years; c) global and long-term processes. Episodic processes include,
for instance, eruptions at mid-ocean ridges and volcanic seamounts,
deep-ocean convection at high latitudes, earthquakes, and biological,
chemical and physical impacts of storm events. Category “b” includes
processes like hydrothermal activity and biomass variability in vent
communities. The establishment of an observatory network will be
essential to investigate global processes, such as the dynamics of the
oceanic lithosphere and the Thermohaline circulation in the Ocean. “