Early Cable Image
The concept of a regional ocean observatory—a cabled system that would provide continuous and abundant power as well as real-time high-bandwidth data transfer to shore—began to be seriously explored in the mid 1990s.
This vision carried with it solutions to some of oceanography’s most difficult problems: how to study natural processes on time scales that range from seconds to decades and on spatial scales from microns to kilometers.
From sketches on the backs of paper napkins, dreams began to coalesce around technological realities: A network of distributed sensors attached to a fiber-optic/power cable connected to land could capture data and immediately send it to shore. Such a system could encircle an entire tectonic plate and the ocean above it.
The engineers began to see how to make this idea a reality. The scientists began to imagine how to use such a system and to envision entirely new approaches to science.
In 2000, U.S. and Canadian NEPTUNE Feasibility Studies were published and a multi-institutional, international partnership of institutions was established. Led by the University of Washington, members were Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Victoria, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Below is a history of the development of a regional cabled ocean observatory in the Northeast Pacific, the NEPTUNE program, and key related events.
1998
June National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) funds U.S. NEPTUNE feasibility study
1999
June Canada's Institute for Pacific Ocean Science and Technology invited by U.S. to undertake feasibility study of Canadian partnership with U.S. NEPTUNE
2000
June U.S. NEPTUNE feasibility study completed and published
June National Science Foundation (NSF) funds development of cabled-observatory communications system
August National Science Board approves Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) as an NSF Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) project.
September Meeting at Emerald Lake, British Columbia - NEPTUNE organizational structure established; Executive Team formed of partner representatives: University of Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Institute for Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (Canada), and Caltech? Jet Propulsion Laboratory
October NEPTUNE Canada feasibility study completed and published
2001
June NSF funds development of cabled-observatory power system
July W.M. Keck Foundation grants award for proto-NEPTUNE experiment
December University of Victoria joins NEPTUNE partnership
2002
February Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) test bed in Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca funded by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), contingent on matching funds
February NEPTUNE cable-route desktop study completed
March NOPP funds NEPTUNE system engineering, program office, and science planning
May Memorandum of Understanding and Rules of Operation for NEPTUNE Affiliation approved by NEPTUNE partners
June Roughly half of Canadian portion of NEPTUNE costs funded by CFI, contingent (among other conditions) on matching funds from other Canadian sources
August Province of British Columbia grants VENUS matching funds
September NSF funds the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) cabled-observatory test bed in Monterey Bay
2003
April NEPTUNE Pacific Northwest Science Planning Workshop held at Portland State University, Portland Oregon
July Workshop on linkages between the OOI and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, Seattle, Washington
October Canada Foundation for Innovation and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund announce CAN$62.4 million in funding for the NEPTUNE Canada Project.
October Cabled Regional Observatory Workshop, San Francisco, sponsored by NSF. Northeast Pacific Ocean designated as site of first regional cable observatory
2004
January Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks (ORION) workshop, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Science and education planning for regional, global, and coastal ocean observatory components of the OOI.
January MARS testbed Preliminary Design Review
May NEPTUNE Canada Ocean Observing Systems Workshop, University of Victoria
May Data Communications System Peer Design Review, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
June MARS testbed Critical Design Review
September MARS Instrument Software Infrastructure NSF-sponsored sensors workshop
September NSF announces 4-year, $4 million award for ocean observatory cyberinfrastructure
September NEPTUNE Canada Second Ocean Observing Systems Workshop, Victoria
November Deep Sea/Deep Space Workshop, Big Sur, California
November NEPTUNE Canada Third Ocean Observing Systems Workshop, Halifax
2005
January ORION January 2004 Workshop report released
June Ocean Observatories Initiative Science Plan released
September First Broadcast of High-Definition Video from Seafloor: VISIONS05 and LOOKING Programs
October University of Victoria Awards NEPTUNE Canada Infrastructure Contract to Alcatel
2006
February President's FY2007 budget released; funding for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction includes Ocean Observatories Initiative
February VENUS Saanich Inlet cable installation and node deployment completed
March ORION Design and Implementation Workshop held in Salt Lake City.
June RCO Conceptual Network Design Released
August RCO Concept Design Review, MBARI
September University of Washington submits proposal to become the Implementing Organization for the Regional Cabled Observatory
2007
February President's FY 08 budget released with $330 million for the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative
May University of Washington awarded contract to begin leading construction of regional component (regional scale nodes) of the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
