The deep ocean is largely unknown. Understanding the deep ocean is indispensable to sustaining humankind on planet Earth and avoiding major disruptions to the climate and life systems. While significant resources are invested to monitor oceans with satellites from above, ships at the surface, and floats and acoustics in the interior, only limited funds are dedicated to collecting data in the deep ocean and at the seafloor. A new generation of scientific cabled ocean observatories is emerging at a few selected sites, but there is a need and opportunity to extend observations and monitoring over much wider area of the global oceans. Submarine telecommunication cables equipped with sensors to measure key variables such as water temperature, pressure and acceleration on the ocean floor are viewed as vital to monitor climate change and to provide tsunami warnings.
Developing such a real-time ocean-wide monitoring system is a bold vision that has full chances for success. Some pioneering scientists and engineers have already proven the concept, launching ambitious initiatives in small regions of the deep ocean.
This workshop provided an opportunity to start developing a strategic plan for the deployment of dual-purpose submarine telecommunication cables in the high seas. It explored scientific and societal needs, research into new engineering technologies, business opportunities, legal challenges, and propose bases of sensor standards that may be applied for the development of submarine telecommunication cable projects that wish to be equipped with a suitable suite of sensors.
Thursday, 20 September 2012 (Room Lounge Box)
10:00 - 10:30
Opening Ceremony
Malcolm Johnson, Director
of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau,
ITU [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Mitrasen Bhikajee,
Deputy Executive Secretary,
Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission of United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO-IOC)
Geoff Love, Director of the Weather and Disaster Risk Reduction Services Department, World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
This session identified high-level scientific requirements for dual-purpose submarine telecommunication cables for climate and ocean monitoring as well as disaster warning. The session established the link to the societal benefits and raise public awareness. Questions addressed
were:
Given the future societal needs to quantify and monitor climate and ocean change and to improve disaster warning systems, how can the distribution of new and modified telecommunication cables provide an innovative observatory network?
Which variables should be measured on the ocean floor? Primary variables (temperature, pressure, acceleration) vs. secondary variables (acoustic modem/inverted echo sounders, salinity/conductivity, cable voltage).
How accurate and with which time constant can temperature, pressure and acceleration be measured today on the ocean floor? Is this accuracy sufficient to draw conclusions for the change in climate and for tsunami warnings?
What technical improvements can be expected over the next decade?
Given the engineering boundary conditions of repeaters and submarine telecommunication cables and that sensors in such a project should be built to last 25 years, how does this affect the accuracy with which temperature, pressure and acceleration can be measured? Can the sensors’ signal and performance be simulated and calibrated in lab and computer during that long period?
How densely in space and time should temperature, pressure and acceleration be measured to allow predictions about climate change and tsunami warnings? How can observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) help specify sampling requirements?
Which time-horizon is necessary to allow conclusions to be drawn for both short and long-term climate change? Years? Decades? Regional vs. global?
How will deep ocean measurements complement measurements taken from the interior, the surface and from above the ocean?
What are the larger questions that measurements at the ocean floor can help us answer? For example, what could they tells us about the large-scale ocean circulation?
How will the data be archived and made available in real-time (e.g. for tsunami warning systems)?
Which messages can scientists convey to the public?
Keynote Speech
Rhett Butler, University of Hawaii
Moderator:
David Meldrum, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IOC)
Panelists:
Geoff Love, Director of the Weather and Disaster Risk Reduction Services Department, World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
John Orcutt, Scripps Institute of Oceanography
Chris Meinig, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Tom Sanford, University of Washington
Stefano Tinti, University of Bologna, Italy
Christopher R. Barnes, University of Victoria, Canada [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Douglas Given,
Project Chief, U.S. Geological Survey,
S. California Earthquake Monitoring,
Caltech Seismological Lab [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Q&A
13:00 - 14:00
Lunch Break
14:00 - 16:00
Roundtable 2 – Engineering
This session addressed the technical feasibility of incorporating selected scientific instruments into submarine telecommunication cables, including sensor integration in optical repeaters and the transfer of data to shore. It also discussed how standards for the sensors can facilitate this process. Questions addressed
were:
Which design constraints does engineering pose on science, e.g. what are the limitations on physical size, power or lifetime for different sensors?
How stable do the sensors have to be?
How should data be transmitted from the repeaters to the shore: using a dedicated science fiber, or an out-of-band carrier on a commercial fiber, nearby gliders, or yet another method?
How can it be ensured that installing sensors will in no way affect the quality and reliability of telecommunication traffic?
Which engineering advancements are necessary to allow the measurements that scientists want to undertake?
All or most of the existing cables will not be reconfigured for climate monitoring or disaster warning but rather modified repeaters will be adopted for new cable deployments. How many of these cables and which are the likely locations of new cables planned/expected over the next decade?
Keynote Speech
Peter Phibbs, Mallins Consultants Ltd.
Moderator:
Peter Phibbs, Mallins Consultants Ltd.
Panelists:
Dave Murphy, Director of Science, Sea-Bird Electronics [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Mark Tremblay, Consultant
Masanao Shinohara, Professor, University of Tokyo [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Noriyuki Fujiwara, Senior Manager, NEC Corporation [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Q&A
16:00 - 16:30
Coffee Break
16:30 - 18:00
Roundtable 3 – Business Models
This session discussed business models for the development of a seafloor real-time climate monitoring system.
This session also tackled, but was not be limited to, issues such as ownership rights, industry benefits and governmental funding.
Questions addressed were:
What does it cost to establish a seafloor real-time monitoring system? Over which time-frame?
Who are the stakeholders?
Who are the owners of the data?
Who would provide financing? Governments? NGOs (Non-governmental organizations)? Commercial companies?
What messages and arguments are needed to convince potential sponsors?
Regarding business models and funding models, what is different from ocean floor measurements compared to measurements in the interior, the surface and from above via satellites?
How do individual cable owners get financial or other corporate benefits from the future global network which is supposed to get profit from the stakeholders through data flow and providing services worldwide?
How does investment of ocean floor measurement compare to current investment for measurements in the interior, the surface and from above?
The new cables/repeaters will be installed progressively over the next few decades, so the data will accumulate slowly – how will the predicted new installations generate enough data and from specific regions to adequately show that this program is worthwhile and worthy of support over decadal time periods?
Keynote Speech
Mark Englund, Managing Director, TE SubCom [ BIOGRAPHY ]
This session discussed how dual-purpose telecom-marine data cables fit within existing international legal frameworks for submarine cables, marine resources, and marine data collection, including theories of jurisdiction and past coastal-state practice.
This session also discussed issues with particular deployment scenarios, focusing on the high seas, and ways in which to minimize risk for telecommunication companies installing dual-purpose systems. Questions addressed
were:
From the legal perspective, what are the circumstances in which deployment of marine date cables are possible? What factors are necessary inclusions in achieving the easier deployment scenarios and how, if any can the more difficult deployment scenarios be tackled?
What are the legal and regulatory challenges?
Is there any identifiable uniformity of legal regimes in counties with respect to cable deployment?
How do legal regimes differ in countries?
What does it take to address the legal challenges?
To what extent can the Tampere Convention on Emergency Telecommunications feature in the prevention of disasters using dual-purpose telecom marine data?
Considering the Tampere Convention and UNCLOS, are the conventions mutually exclusive or can they work in co-operation? Does this discourse present any legal issues?
Can the Tampere Convention on Emergency Telecommunications be used as legal framework?
Can the scope of the Tampere Convention be used to prevent disasters?
Can UNCLOS and Tampere convention work one in operation with the other?
Due to the nature of an international submarine cable as one that traverses at least two states’ waters, is it necessary to develop guiding principles with respect to telecom-marine data cables and data gathered by them?
As a mix international submarine cable would be at least between two countries’ waters, what principles should regulate the data gathering and processing through the various sensors? Should we consider drafting some guiding principles?
Are there different models for coastal countries to manage their own cabling measurements with sensors or simply give permission to international cables to access their EEZ?
Could ITU, WMO, UNESCO IOC together with the secretariats of UNCLOS and Tampere Convention assist with the drafting of these guiding principles?
Guillaume Le Sourd, Geographic Information Systems Officer, Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, UN [ BIOGRAPHY ]
Q&A
11:30 - 12:00
Coffee Break
12:00 - 13:00
Next Steps and Wrap-up
This session wrapped up the workshop and identified future next steps.
Moderator:
Rhett Butler, University of Hawaii
Panelists:
David Meldrum, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IOC)
Peter Phibbs, Mallins Consultants Ltd.
Kent Bressie,
Wiltshire & Grannis LLP [ BIOGRAPHY ]
