SMART cables are a marriage of standard fiber optic telecommunications cables with deep-sea scientific instrument packages. The regenerators (repeaters) of the cables provide a protective housing for the ocean sensors and associated electronics, as well as a source of power. Data from the sensors is conveyed in real time along a dedicated fiber optic pair. In essence, SMART cable sensors “piggyback” on the power and communications infrastructure of a million kilometers of undersea fiber optic cable and thousands of repeaters, creating the potential for seafloor-based global ocean observing at a modest incremental cost.

The ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC Joint Task Force (JTF) on SMART Cables is working to unite science with the telecom industry, to strengthen the monitoring of ocean climate change and provide early warning for earthquakes and tsunamis to benefit science and humanity.

One of JTF’s tasks is to advocate and facilitate dialogue between governments and stakeholders and thus enable rapid global adoption of SMART technology. While the first SMART cable projects will be commissioned in the near future, the JTF recognizes that the regulatory, financial and other challenges associated with the adoption of SMART technology will continue to be addressed by governments and other stakeholders.

SMART cables will dramatically improve the sampling rate and spatial resolution of ocean monitoring, which will improve our understanding of ocean circulation, ocean warming, sea level rise, and tsunamis.

JTF's Science and Implementation Whitepaper provides a comprehensive summary of the contribution that SMART cable data can make to various domains of oceanography.

SMART cables will dramatically improve the sampling rate and spatial resolution of ocean monitoring, which will improve our understanding of ocean circulation, ocean warming, sea level rise, and tsunamis.

JTF's Science and Implementation Whitepaper provides a comprehensive summary of the contribution that SMART cable data can make to various domains of oceanography.

In 2012, the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) established the ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC Joint Task Force (JTF) for SMART Subsea Cables to investigate the use of submarine telecommunications cables for ocean and climate monitoring and disaster warning. The JTF comprises approximately 170 members representing 110 organizations and 30 countries.

The world is undergoing a global transformation - ocean and climate change. Without deep ocean sensors, humankind cannot measure and understand the changes taking place now, let alone during the lives of our children and grandchildren. On a shorter time scale, tsunamis impact coastal communities with little warning and disastrous effects. Robust warning systems need to be in place to save lives.

The benefits of better detection and quantification of tsunami propagation are apparent – better warning for the people around the Indian Ocean would have saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars in 2004. Cabled sensors will provide more reliable continuous data than the current array of buoy-supported sensors.

The bottom pressure sensors will allow the science community to better understand the pressure wave propagation mechanisms in the deep ocean zones, enabling more accurate models to be built, leading to more efficient tsunami detection and prediction.

The benefits of quantifying climate change will provide important information to guide government policies. Providing long-term data on changes in deep ocean circulation and thermal regime is central in understanding global climate change

The ocean is the greatest reservoir of heat on Earth’s surface. Monitoring the heat on both the surface and at the seafloor is necessary for comprehending the changes taking place on the planet.

Tsunami warning systems are currently unreliable, and often not operational due to their dependence on ocean surface buoys that are subject to vandalism or cannot survive winter storms. Seafloor sensors are necessary for reliable warnings to save lives.

Humankind will benefit in various ways, including;

1. Fewer thousands of deaths due to tsunamis by providing better and more definitive warnings;

2. Fewer billions of dollars of capital and business interruption costs due to tsunamis;

3. Assist in quantifying the role of deep ocean circulation and temperature change in regional and 4 global warming;

4. Provide governments and the public with data necessary to address human causes of climate change and track mitigation effects;

5. Increase understanding of the oceans to support efforts to reduce speed of collapse of the world’s fisheries and develop sustainable fisheries

At this point in time, science has relatively few ocean measurements below 2 km depth, and knows very little about the deep ocean compared to the near-surface. Sampling the temperatures on the seafloor is an essential boundary condition for understanding the system.

The temperature sensors will not precisely locate thermoclines and other thermal changes in the ocean above the seabed, although the cables will lie at different depths along the continental shelf, continental slope, abyssal plain and mid-ocean ridges. However, a measurement of water temperature variations on the seabed, combined with surface temperatures from satellite imagery and data from mobile assets such as gliders can help to verify four-dimensional ocean models and improve understanding of small and large scale ocean processes.

It is important at the beginning to keep it simple. This provides for confidence building and success, which may be expanded upon technologies’ progress. The evaluation to date suggests that initially it may not be practical to install more complex instruments on the cables, due to size, shock resistance, long-term stability, maintenance requirements, capabilities of the cable technology and a number of other reasons. The instruments selected will provide valuable data to address key issues and appear to be technically feasible.

In the very few instances where continuously sampled data are measured, temperatures show both long-term stability and sudden excursions. Without frequent sampling, our view of the ocean is inadequate.

The intent is to measure temperature to at least 1/1000ºC. It is anticipated that information regarding 5 local ocean circulation and conditions will be provided by measuring temperature with great accuracy once per second. The high frequency of data collection, which can only be achieved with instruments on cables, will allow scientists to analyze micro-systems. Sensors will be places at selected locations along the cable route to measure temporal variations as well as for specific point indicators.

Yes. The pressure sensors are extremely accurate, and can measure pressure differences equivalent to a change in water depth of less than 1/10 mm. The periods of the tsunami wave and the data rate for collection provide sufficient information to identify a tsunami occurrence.

These instruments are qualified to ocean depth, but may require additional quality assurance to meet the longevity goals of ocean cabled systems (~25 years). It is not seen as an insurmountable issue for these small, relatively simple instruments. Furthermore, the demands to meet cable standards will raise the bar for high performance oceanographic sensors, leading to improvements in the technology

Deployment on NEPTUNE Canada does not qualify sensors to full ocean depth, limited to 2700m. It may qualify them for long-term deployment. Other ocean observatories (EMSO, DONET) are reaching depths down to 5000m.

Qualification of equipment for long-term deployment will be done in test facilities prior to deployment.

Based on NEPTUNE Canada, their useful life is at least 5-10 years. Some similar instruments that have been deployed on cabled observatories off Japan have exhibited useful lives of more than 20 years.

No. It is a fundamental goal that there will be no intervention on behalf of a sensor. Sensors on adjacent repeaters serve for redundancy. However, with technology advances in remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and wet-mate connectors, future deployments will have additional calibration and maintenance options.

Retired cables have been and are now being used for scientific sensing the deep-sea environment. A few of the seafloor measurements available today result from this successful re-use of cable technology. However, this step-wise approach, while good at certain locations, does not achieve the basin-wide coverage necessary to achieve monitoring ocean/climate and tsunamis. Only a systematic inclusion of sensors in upcoming cables can achieve this coverage over time.

Submarine telecommunications systems include optical amplifiers (“repeaters”) that draw power from a constant DC current that runs in a copper conductor in the cable. The sensors will also draw power from this constant current, but will be carefully engineered to be failsafe to faults.

The responsibility for adding sensors falls on various entities to work in concert to achieve a reliable, cost effective solution. Scientists must confirm that the instruments will meet their goals; suppliers must confirm they can power the instruments and provide a data path to shore without impact on the telecom traffic and system reliability; owners must be comfortable that the impact on their business will be minimal, and that there is some commercial sense to the scheme; military must confirm that it has no significant issues; and governments, whether national or international, which control the landing points and any transit areas, must express support. The initiative is moving forward on all of these fronts – first to canvas the various interests, then to start dealing with issues raised. Many issues and decisions will be system-specific.

There is no plan to physically connect the networks. The bandwidth requirements for the sensor data are trivial compared to current internet traffic: less than 1 part in a million. Connection to data sets is ongoing, through programs such as the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology using the basic Internet, and national academic facilities such as CANARIE, National LambdaRail, JANET etc. There is no intention that costs for connectivity to these existing systems will be borne by the cable system owners.

Yes. The system suppliers are the sources of the technologies used in submarine telecommunications systems, and hence will be relied on for technological innovations to allow their systems to support sensors. System owners will be asked to approve of adapting their proposed systems to support sensors.

Individual owners, equipment vendors, and consortia will weigh and judge the merits for their particular business plans. Governments can exert their own influences into the negotiations on landing rights. Traditional scientific monitoring systems have been wholly government run in the past, and this new paradigm for submarine telecommunication systems is evolving. While there is no well-defined funding model as yet, there is general agreement that costs must be addressed.

Initially there is likely to be no intervention for the sensors whether for repair, maintenance or calibration.

Decisions as to the details of any funding arrangement with a system owner will be made on a system-specific basis, and may include annual fees. However, increases in operations and maintenance costs, if any, are likely to be very small.

It appears likely that funding for proof of concept will come from existing government programs, in combination with individual owners. Nonetheless, philanthropic interests may intervene to “prime the pump.”

The intent is that the data will be innocuous, delivered in real time, and public.

Very unlikely to be possible, and if done, would likely be noticed in comparisons with other data sources.

A principal requirement of the system suppliers is that the sensors be firewalled away from the telecom traffic. Any potential for cross-over between the sensor data and the telecommunications data will be denied by design.

The two data traffic streams (scientific and telecom) will be segregated on the cable systems and no interaction is expected. No risk is identified here.

Since cross-over between sensor data and telecommunications data will be denied, there will be no means of impacting the telecommunication service by any remote sensor access. One of the principal requirements will be that it be firewalled away from the telecom traffic.

The system owners will have in advance provided avenues for immediate dissemination of the data to appropriate authorities. System owners will have no responsibility beyond the obligation to provide the information in a timely manner.

This effort is intended to provide crucial quantitative data that will assist governments in making rational policies, both national and international, based on science. As such, it is most timely and not at all premature.

Jurisdictions that appreciate the benefits offered by the sensors (as detailed above) will encourage owners of new cables to include the sensors, and will not attempt to use UNCLOS to place roadblocks in front of projects.