NSF PR 01-102 - December 10, 2001
New Generation of Ocean Exploration Propelled by
High-Speed Wireless Technology
Opening the door to a new stage in ocean exploration,
researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
at the University of California, San Diego, have developed
a new technology-driven approach to improving sea-going
investigations. The effort is funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF). Much like rural doctors
who increasingly use technology to access vital medical
information at remote locations, the scientists will
soon use wireless networking to link land-based tools
and resources with oceanographic ships at sea. They
will present their findings this week at the American
Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California.
"High-speed wireless networking is a key technical
development for the future of ocean research," said
James Yoder, director of NSF's division of ocean sciences.
"We see many applications, including controlling and
receiving data from sophisticated, unattended instruments,
that will be part of future ocean observatories located
in remote areas of the global ocean."
The project, "Exploring the Environment in Time: Wireless
Networks and Real-Time Management," capitalizes on
recent advances in high-speed satellite and wireless
networking through the Internet for real-time delivery
of large quantities of data at high, but affordable,
rates. Under the new design, information obtained
at sea will be transmitted instantly to shore. Thus,
scientists on land will be able to analyze the data
immediately and provide feedback to ships at sea.
The project is the next stage in oceanographic ship-to-shore
communication, an advance from prior efforts using
radio, telephone, and early satellite communications.
The scientists say the impact on scientific work aboard
ships is likely to be far-reaching. They assert it
will be possible to go to sea in the future with limited
engineering capability for scientific operations by
allowing shore-based quality control of data collected,
and videoconferencing for problem resolution. Costs
for shipboard measurements will be reduced significantly,
they believe, and the quality of data collected will
increase.
"This is a major step in bringing new satellite and
Internet technologies to oceanographic ships at sea
while doing research," said scientist Jon Berger of
Scripps. "In the future this will give us the opportunity
to make decisions on shore in real-time."
The system will be installed on the Scripps research
vessel Roger Revelle in New Zealand in February
2002. The researchers have scheduled a series of tests
on Revelle research cruises throughout the
Pacific during 2002. The project's goal is to demonstrate
the communications system in various weather conditions
and sea states while testing and developing the real-time
data quality control and archiving methodology. The
tests aboard the R/V Roger Revelle are supported
by NSF and the Office of Naval Research.
|