An acoustically-linked deep-ocean observatory

Abstract

A buoy-based observatory that uses acoustic communication to retrieve data from water column and seafloor instruments has been developed and deployed in 2362 m of water offshore Vancouver Island. The system uses high-rate (5000 bps) acoustic modems that are power-efficient (on order 1000 bits per joule) to telemeter data from an ocean bottom seismometer and a sensor monitoring a cold seep site near the Nootka fault. The buoy includes a Linux-based embedded controller, the modem base station and meteorological sensors. Data is off-loaded from the buoy using ftp, and remote login capability allows the acoustic communication schedule to be modified when instruments are added or removed from the network. The system has been operational for one year, typically transferring more than 500 Kbytes of data per day from two seafloor instruments.