Article Abstracts | January 2008
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A Better View of the Ocean
Photonics technologies are being used in instruments and for communications in cabled ocean observatories.
by Hank Hogan, Contributing Editor
With the new year, there will be new scientific outposts in the ocean. Unlike floating buoys or transiting ships, these cabled and fixed observatories should allow researchers to measure that which has been hidden and should enable them to do so potentially for decades. The scientific payoff could be immense. For landlubbers, the cabling that connects the observatories to the shore also may allow the viewing and virtual exploration of the sea from top to bottom.
The ocean plays a key role in weather and climate, but scientists have faced a problem when trying to study it. To a large degree, the ocean is opaque to light. Thus, many tools that work on and for land cannot measure the ocean. For example, satellite-borne lasers can’t map the ocean floor from outer space. They can touch only the surface. Similarly challenged, ships and submersibles can stay on station only for short times, making it difficult to measure long-term phenomena or short, episodic events that come and go...
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