PROJECT NEPTUNE: A REGIONAL CABLED OBSERVATORY IN THE NE PACIFIC

The Earth, ocean, planetary, and biological sciences are in a transformational period triggered by the confluence of technological advancements in sensor technologies, robotic systems, high-speed communication, nanotechnology, and dramatically escalating capabilities to computationally simulate reality

A regional ocean observatory design that capitalizes on these advances is the NEPTUNE facility that will be located in the northeast Pacific Ocean. A network of fiber-optic/power cable will host 30-50 subsea observatories at nodes along the cable and will enable real-time, long-term, interactive studies of Earth and ocean processes. To be spatially associated with the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, the NEPTUNE infrastructure is being designed to have an expected lifetime of 30 years. It will serve as a community resource, much like a research vessel is an observational platform open to a wide range of users (www.neptune.washington.edu).

NEPTUNE’s regional-scale observatory concept is based on the premises that 1) many globally significant planetary phenomena operate at or below the regional scale, and 2) thorough 4-D examination of at least one tectonic plate/mesoscale system will generate major new insights into all such systems. Regional-scale observatories also have a specific and vital role in integrating across the boundaries of coastal and global observatories. To accomplish this integration, regional observatories must 1) span coastal to global systems, thereby linking all processes; 2) document variability over many scales of space and time; 3) expand surface (satellite) and point (mooring) coverage to an entire volume; 4) archive data so as to enable modeling and data assimilation; 5) maximize the scientific return from the investment in a regional facility; and, 6) maintain optimal flexibility and expandability to operate for many decades.

To help fulfill this role, NEPTUNE will draw power via two shore stations and receive and exchange data with scientists through 3000 km of submarine fiber-optic cables. Each observatory, and cabled extensions, will host many scientific instruments on the surrounding seafloor, in seafloor boreholes and buoyed through the water column. Remotely operated and autonomous vehicles will reside at depth, recharge at observatories, and respond to distant labs.