Roland Person

ESONET- European sea floor observatory network

ESONET proposes a network of sea floor observatories around the European Ocean margin from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea for strategic long term monitoring as part of the European GMES (global monitoring for environment and security) with capability in geophysics, geotechnics, chemistry, biochemistry, oceanography, biology and fisheries. Long-term data collection and alarm capability in the event of hazards (e.g. earthquakes) will be considered. Nine initial areas for ESONET development have been identified and an emergency response capability with mobile stations is proposed.ESONET is a proposed sub sea component of the European GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) to provide strategic long term monitoring capability in geophysics, geotechnics, chemistry, biochemistry, oceanography, biology and fisheries. To provide representative sampling around Europe 10 nodes are proposed in contrasting oceanographic regions: 1-Arctic, 2-Norwegian margin, 3-Nordic Seas, 4-Porcupine/Celtic, 5-Azores, 6-Iberian, 7-Ligurian, 8-East Sicily, 9-Hellenic, 10-Black Sea. In addition, a mobile response observatory will be available for rapid deployment in areas of anthropogenic or natural disasters to provide data for environment management and government agencies

The European Deep Sea Observatories Network of Excellence ESONET

ESONET is an European Network of Excellence (NoE) associating 50 partners (research centres, universities, industrials and SMEs) from 14 countries: France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria and Turkey. More than 300 scientists and engineers will participate to its activities. The goal of the ESONET NOE is the lasting integration of European research on deep sea multidisciplinary observatories. Over the initial 4 years, the approach will be to merge the programmes of members Organisations through research activities addressing the scientific objectives and networking activities specially designed for integration and spreading excellence. ESONET NoE will create an organisation capable of implementing, operating and maintaining a network of multidisciplinary ocean observatories in deep waters around Europe. The NoE will structure the resources of the participating institutes to create the necessary critical mass, remove barriers and through a joint programme of activities arrive at durable solutions for this future organisation.

ESONET - European Sea Floor Observatory Network

ESONET is a proposed sub sea component of the European GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) to provide strategic long term monitoring capability in geophysics, geotechnics, chemistry, biochemistry, oceanography, biology and fisheries. To provide representative sampling around Europe 10 nodes are proposed in contrasting oceanographic regions: 1-Arctic, 2-Norwegian margin, 3-Nordic Seas, 4-Porcupine/Celtic, 5-Azores, 6-Iberian, 7-Ligurian, 8-East Sicily, 9-Hellenic, 10-Black Sea. In addition, a mobile response observatory will be available for rapid deployment in areas of anthropogenic or natural disasters to provide data for environment management and government agencies

From ESONET multidisciplinary scientific community to EMSO novel European research infrastructure for ocean observation

Environmental and climate changes are crucial challenges for sustainable living because of their significant impact on the Earth system and the important consequences for natural resources. Oceans have a primary role in these changes as they regulate heat flux, greenhouse gases and climate whilst harboring many different life forms and resources. Understanding processes in the marine environment is of paramount importance for any prediction of short-, intermediate- and long-term global change.

Real‐time acoustic monitoring of the deep‐ocean environment

ESONET is a European Network of Excellence (NoE) associating 50 partners (research centres, universities, industrials and SMEs) from 14 countries: France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, and Turkey. More than 300 scientists and engineers will participate to its activities. The aim of the ESONET NoE is the lasting integration of European research on deep‐sea multidisciplinary observatories. ESONET is particularly sensitive on the effects of noise on marine organisms. Because our knowledge is still quite limited, ESONET is developing a Demonstration Mission, called LIDO, Listening to the Deep‐Ocean Environment, a research program that will help establishing a scientific base to allow (1) the real‐time automatic identification and classification of nonbiological and biological sounds, (2) the monitoring of marine organisms and population dynamics, (3) the assessment and control of the long term effects of anthropogenic sources on marin...

ESONET: toward an European network of excellence on subsea observatories

ESONET proposes a network of sea floor observatories around the European Ocean Margin from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea for strategic long term monitoring as part of a GMES with capability in geophysics, geotechnics, chemistry, biochemistry, oceanography, biology and fisheries. Long-term data collection and alarm capability in the event of hazards (e.g. earthquakes) will be considered. ESONET will be developed from networks in key areas where there is industrial sea floor infrastructure, scientific/conservation significance (e.g. coral mounds) or sites suitable for technology trials (e.g. deep water close to land).

Scientific specifications, common and complementary developments for deep sea and coastal fixed point multidisciplinary cabled observatories

The developments of subsea observatories has been addressed by several national and European projects involving Ifremer engineering teams during the last decade. The motivation of scientific research disciplines has been growing during the same period. The coordination of ESONET Network of Excellence has been a unique occasion to analyse the best practices world wide and propose standards and recommendations. The merger of existing observatories and construction of new deep sea observatories in Europe is now organized at European level through EMSO (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory). Its preparatory phase is now building a multi-site large research infrastructure. The French participation is planned through the EMSO-France initiative. The need to monitor the sea environment is also acute in the coastal zone as Marine Protective Areas, indicators of marine biodiversity and ecological quality are requested by the marine strategy directives (such as European Marine Strategy Framework Directive). The cost effectiveness of the long term observatories will gain from a choice of common technologies and operating methods for coastal observatories and deep sea networks. Innovative solutions are proposed in the fields of: biofouling protection, sensor web enable interface, sensor registry, data management, material choice, energy requirements, junction box designs,… A review of these solutions is presented in the paper. Coastal cabled observatories such as MeDON are used as test benches for several of these new developments. Even in the cases when depth will induce different technologies, the deep sea cabled and shallow water cabled observatories may be designed in such a way that operating methods will be similar (components, subsea intervention methods, remote maintenance procedures, network management practices, sensor calibration procedures,…). Ifremer engineering teams are using the ongoing projects to enhance reliability in shallow as well as deep water cabled observatories.

ESONET: a network to integrate European research on sea

ESONET is an European network of excellence (NoE) associating 50 partners (research centres, universities, industrials and SMEs) from 14 countries: France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria and Turkey. More than 300 scientists and engineers will participate to its activities. The goal of the ESONET NOE is the lasting integration of European research on deep sea multidisciplinary observatories. Over the initial 4 years, the approach will be to merge the programmes of members organisations through research activities addressing the scientific objectives and networking activities specially designed for integration and spreading excellence.

Marine applications of GALILEO

In this paper, various marine application of the future GALILEO positioning system are presented.

A Three-component Ocean Bottom Microprocessor-based Seismometer

Ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) have been widely used during the last thirty years to collect seismic data for the determination of the structure of oceanic lithosphere and earthquake activity. Understanding the process of the creation of crust and lithosphere at mid-ocean ridges is a major goal of marine geophysics. Seismic refraction and reflection studies provide information on crustal structure. The distribution of earthquake activity in time and space contains information on the forces active in the spreading process. To achieve these important scientific goals, a number of research groups have developed ocean bottom seismometers (Ambuter and Solomon, 1974; Prothero, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1981; Johnson et al 1977; Mattaboni and Solomon, 1977; Sutton et al, 1977; Avedik et al, 1978; Latham et al., 1978; Heffler and Varret, 1979; Kasahara et al, 1979; Koelsch and Purdy, 1979; Moore et al, 1981; Kirk et al, 1982; Whitmarsh and Lilwall, 1983). Recent developments in electronic devices and improvements in battery design have allowed the ocean bottom seismometer to become an operational tool. Considerable flexibility is provided by using low-power microprocessors. So the instrument complexity has shifted from hardware that is difficult to modify to software algorithms. This paper describes a new instrument which uses current electronics technology to achieve significant improvements in performance. This instrument is the first one of a planned network which will be used by the French scientific community.