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Abstract:
In last few years, a number of technologies to use fibre optic cables as sensing devices have been established, among them Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and State-of-Polarisation (SoP). The potential of these technologies for monitoring a range of Earth System parameters in submarine cables has been demonstrated through several pilot experiments. Yet, continuous access to sub-marine optical fibre scientific data has currently not been achieved anywhere, neither has full integration of the various techniques.
The SUBMERSE project links Research and Education Networks (NRENs), universities, research institutes and industry to establish multi-method monitoring along submarine optical telecommunication cables at several key cable routes branching off from Portugal, Madeira, Svalbard and in the Aegean. Those pilot sites should serve as a blueprint for establishing continuous monitoring services along many more cables.
The project comprises technical developments for integrating DAS and SoP measurements, for establishing differential SoP measurements between repeaters and for operating DAS in ‘lit’ fibres, i.e., fibres carrying telecommunications traffic. Furthermore, a range of geoscientific and marine biology use cases are included, which seek to establish code/services for monitoring earthquakes, tracking whales, measuring the sea state and other Earth System variables. Effective data management, dissemination and training through community specific services will be addressed in several tasks as they are crucial for the success of this project due to the large size of data, sensitivity of a subset of the recordings and current lack of established community standards. SUBMERSE clearly commits to open and FAIR data exchange.
