Communications
In recent years, the number and variety of automated instruments studying the world’s oceans has mushroomed. From tiny packages attached to marine mammals to sophisticated networks of instruments spread across several kilometres of seafloor, virtually all of these systems enhance their usefulness by communicating with someone ashore. Often the communication is in one direction only, from the instrument back to land, but increasingly two-way communication is used allowing an operator to send commands or new programs to the remote instrument.
Satellite communications
Satellites are the key technology that allows instruments to communicate from anywhere on the ocean surface. In particular the Iridium and ARGOS satellite systems require only small, low-power transmitters and wide-angle antennas that make them suited to battery powered instruments bobbing around on the sea surface. The smaller the instrument package is, the harder it is to provide sufficient power and to keep the antenna above the sea surface.Read more →
Underwater communications
But what about instruments such as ocean bottom seismometers that are permanently underwater?. Radio transmissions only travel a very short distance through salt water and so a different technology is required. There are some underwater observatories that provide direct cable connections for underwater instruments (eg, Neptune Canada) but these systems are hugely expensive and usually close to shore.Read more →
Internet communications
Instruments located on land or research ships can sometimes be connected directly to the Internet, either by cable or through a satellite system such as Inmarsat BGAN. This is particularly useful for instruments such as cameras that produce large amounts of data.
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Examples of data available on the web thanks to communication systems
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The Porcupine Abyssal Plain Observatory is the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) contribution to the European Ocean Observatory network and sends near real time data from a large buoy in the Atlantic via the Iridium satellite system.
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The Irish Sea Observatory is also run by the NOC and sends data via direct radio and cable links, satellite and acoustic telemetry.
