Meeting Documents

Assessing the Potential of SMART Subsea Cables for Monitoring Essential Ocean Variables

Abstract

Observations of the deepest depths of the ocean remain relatively sparse. Repeat ship-based hydrographic observational campaigns do not sufficiently resolve the bottom boundary layer, nor do they provide sufficient spatiotemporal resolution of the ocean’s state below 2000 meters depth. The Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (SMART) subsea cables technology emerges as a pivotal innovation, addressing these gaps by facilitating detailed monitoring of seismic acceleration and crucial ocean variables, including ocean bottom temperature, pressure, and potential future inclusions such as conductivity. This observing system can facilitate the monitoring of ocean changes such as heat content, circulation, and sea level rise as well as providing early warning for earthquakes and tsunamis, and information about the geophysics of Earth's interior.

Central to this endeavor is understanding and quantifying the benefits to ocean observation brought about by SMART cables dispersed across the global ocean. The focus of this work is to identify the optimal locations for feasible SMART subsea cabling system deployment, aiming to prioritize implementation by identifying cable routes with potentially higher impact. We propose plausible cable routes and use output data from a coupled 1/24th degree simulation to perform observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) with the adjoint-based Estimating the Circulation & Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) framework in several configurations, each meant to identify the importance of likely scenarios. We investigate how subsea cable-based observations could help constrain sea-level variations and ocean circulation fields. A critical analysis of aliasing, instrumental drift, and specific observables in strategic locations will significantly influence the eventual design of the SMART subsea cable network, paving the way for a revolutionized approach to oceanic studies.