1. EMSO European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observation Paolo Favali
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Italy
EMSO
European Multidisciplinary
Seafloor Observation

2. International interest
Introduction
Technology
International interest
Strategy 2

3. Introduction 3

4. What is the “Seafloor Observatory Science”?
New Science
studies the Earth as an integrated system: geosphere + biosphere + hydrosphere;
searches for links among phenomena, traditionally separately studied;
uses complex underwater observation systems.
“Illuminating the Hidden Planet. The future of Seafloor Observatory Science”, NRC - National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 2000

5. Scientific Sectors Role of the Ocean in Climate
Dynamics of oceanic lithosphere and Imaging Earth’s interior
Fluids and Life in the Ocean Crust
Coastal ocean processes
Turbulent mixing and Biophysical interactions
Ecosystem dynamics and Biodiversity
“Illuminating the Hidden Planet. The future of Seafloor Observatory Science”, NRC - National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 2000

6. Why to extend observations to the sea?
Because …
…more of 7/10 of the Earth surface are marine areas, almost unexplored;
… Oceans influence the Climate and its variations;
… many of the areas of geophysical and environmental interest lie on seafloors.

7. WHY SEAFLOOR OBSERVATORIES?
To overcome limitations of traditional ship-based expeditions for data and samples gathering
To study multiple, interrelated processes over time scales ranging from seconds to decades
To allow (near) real-time communication of scientific data
To advance research in the Ocean, Earth and Climate Sciences and for addressing social important issues

9. Technology 9

10. “…the term "seafloor observatories" is used to describe an unmanned system of instruments, sensors, and command modules connected either acoustically or via a seafloor junction box to a surface buoy or a fibre optic cable to land. These observatories will have power and communication capabilities and will provide support for spatially distributed sensing systems and mobile platforms. Instruments and sensors will have the potential to make measurements from above the air-sea interface to below the seafloor and will provide support for in situ manipulative experiments….”
“Illuminating the Hidden Planet. The future of Seafloor Observatory Science”, NRC - National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 2000 10

11. Favali & Beranzoli, Ann.Geophys., 2006
Definitions (1/2)
Seafloor observatory is an unmanned station, capable of operating in the long-term at the seafloor, supporting the operation of a number of instrumented packages related to various disciplines, they can have as possible configurations:
1) Autonomous: Observatory in stand-alone configuration for power, using battery packs, and with limited capacity of connection, using - for instance - capsules or acoustic link from the surface, which can transfer either status parameters or very limited quantity of data
2) Acoustically linked: Observatory able to communicate by acoustics to an infrastructure, like a moored buoy or another observatory
3) Cabled: Observatory having as infrastructure a submarine cable (retired cables, dedicated cables or shared cables devoted to other scientific activities, like Neutrino experiments)
Favali & Beranzoli, Ann.Geophys., 2006 11

12. Favali & Beranzoli, Ann.Geophys., 2006
Definitions (2/2)
Infrastructure as any system providing power and/or communication capacity to an observatory (e.g., a submarine cable, a moored buoy, another observatory); an infrastructure may also serve as support for other instrumented packages
Instrumented package as sensor or instrument devoted to a specific observation task; may be hosted inside the observatory, operated autonomously, directly connected to an infrastructure or placed in the vicinity of an observatory and interfaced to it (so having the observatory as its infrastructure)
Favali & Beranzoli, Ann.Geophys., 2006 12

13. Observatory concepts “acoustic linked observatory”
“cabled observatory” 13

14. Type of installation for seafloor observatory equipment
Burial (partial or total)
H2O
Borehole
On the seafloor
ORION-4
(SN-4)
OSN-1 14

15. GEOSTAR GEophysical and Oceanographic STation for Abyssal Research
Beranzoli et al., PEPI, 1998; Beranzoli, Favali & Smriglio (eds.), Dev. Mar. Tech., 12, Elsevier, 2002

16. MODUS
Winch/eom cable
GEOSTAR
GEOSTAR buoy

17. Scientific payload of GEOSTAR-class observatories
Broad-band three comp. seismometer
Magnetometers (vectorial, scalar)
Gravity meter
Hydrophones (for geophysics & bioacoustics)
Tsunami sensors (high resolution pressure)
ADCP
Single point three comp. current meter
CTD + Transmissometer
Gas sensors (e.g., H2S, CH4, O2 )
Automatic chemical analyser (pH, eH)
Radiometer/Nuclear spectrometer (nat. & anthrop. radionuclides)
Automatic water sampler (48 bottles, off-line)
Additional mountable payloads:
Pore pressure sensors
Heat flux probes
TV cameras ….and……and….
Unique time reference
High precision clock
(stability 10-9 ÷ 10-11)
Favali et al., Ann.Geophys., 2006

18. A FLEET OF 6 SEAFLOOR OBSERVATORIES SINGLE-FRAME (GEOSTAR-class)
Platform
Overall dimensions (m)
(L x W x H)
Weight (kN)
(in air)
(in water)
Depth rated (m)
GEOSTAR
3.50 x 3.50 x 3.30
25.4
14.2
4000
SN-1
2.90 x 2.90 x 2.90
14.0
8.5
SN-3
SN-4
2.00 x 2.00 x 2.00
6.6
3.4
1000
GMM
1.50 x 1.50 x 1.50
1.5
0.7
MABEL (SN-2)
GEOSTAR
SN-3
SN-4
SN-1
Favali et al.,
Ann.Geophys., 2006
GMM
MABEL (SN-2)

19. Networking EC Project ASSEM (2002-2004) Corinth Gulf experiment
400 & 42 (GMM) m w.d.
(2004; 9 months) M1
ORION NODE-4 (SN-4)
GMM
Blandin et al., Ocean. Series 69, 2003
Marinaro et al., Environ. Geology, 2004
Rolin et al., Proc. Ocean 2005, 2005 Marinaro et al., Geo-Marine Lett., 2006

20. Networking EC Project ORION-GEOSTAR3 (2002-2005)
Satellite node PC
GEOSTAR (main node)
Buoy
Shore station
Ship of opportunity
Satellite
Marsili volcanic seamount
experiment
(Southern Tyrrhenian Sea)
3300 m w.d.
( ; 14 months)
GEOSTAR
ORION
NODE-3
(SN-3)
Favali et al., Ann.Geophys., 2006

21. Seafloor Experiments (1998-2007)
23 deployment & recovery successful operations down to > 3300 m w.d.
Weddell Sea
(1874 m w.d.) Dec.05-on
Marsili Volcano (3320 m w.d.) Dec.03-Apr.04 Jun.04-May 05
Adriatic Sea (44 m w.d.) Aug.-Sep.98
>100 Gbytes (binary data),
equivalent to >2000 days
of operation
Corinth Gulf (400 m w.d.) Apr-Nov 04
Patras Gulf
(40 m w.d.) Apr.-Jul.04
Sep.04-Jan.05
Offshore Ustica (2000 m w.d.) Sep.00-Apr.01
GEOSTAR
SN-1
ORION Node 3
ORION Node 4
GMM
MABEL
Offshore Catania (2105 m w.d.) Oct.02-May 03
Real time (cabled)
Jan.05-on
GEOSTAR
85 km offshore C.S. Vicente in the Sagres Plateau (Portugal) at m depth (Aug.07 –on)

22. International interest22

23. NEPTUNE (USA/Canada)
North East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiment

24. MARS Monterey Accelerated Research System
MARS Monterey Accelerated Research System
NEPTUNE Stage 1 24

25. Cable Connected Ocean Bottom Observatories (Japan)
a) JMA Omaezaki System (1978)
b) JMA Off-Boso System (1985)
c) ERI Off-Ito City System (1994)
d) NIED Hiratsuka System (1995)
e) ERI Off Sanriku Seismic Network (1995)
JAMSTEC:
A) Real Time Deep Sea Floor Observatory
Off Hatsushima Island in Sagami Bay (1993)
B) Long-Term Deep Sea Floor Observatory Off Muroto Peninsula (1997)
C) Long-Term Deep Sea Floor Observatory Off Kushiro-Tokachi (1999)
Cable Connected Ocean Bottom Observatories (Japan)

26. DONET - Dense Ｏcean floor Ｎetwork system for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (JAMSTEC, JAPAN)
20 Pressure gauges
Sensors
over 20 Seismometers

27. Major European Partnership
GEOSTAR (1), GEOSTAR 2 (2), MABEL (3), NEMO - SN-1 (4),
ASSEM (5), ORION-GEOSTAR 3 (6) , ESONET-CA (7),
KM3NET-DS (8), NEAREST (9), ESONET-NoE (10)
Italy
INGV (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Tecnomare-ENI (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9, 10)
Istituto di Scienze Marine-CNR (1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (4, 8, 10)
Germany
Technische Fachhochschule Berlin (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10)
Technische Universität Berlin (1, 2, 3, 4, 6)
IFM-GEOMAR (KDM) (4, 6, 7, 10)
France
IFREMER (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10)

28. EC Concerted Action (2002-2004) EC Network of Excellence (2007-2011)
ESONET
Arctic
Norwegian Margin
Porcupine
Azores
Black Sea
Hellenic
Ligurian Sea
Iberian Margin
Eastern Sicily
Nordic Sea
Marmara
GOALS:
Geohazards
Global change Biodiversity
ESONET
EC Concerted Action ( )
EC Network of Excellence ( )
11 Key-sites

29. ESONET Eastern Sicily node
NEMO - SN-1: The first real-time cabled seafloor observatory in EUROPE
ESONET Eastern Sicily node
(since January 2005)
INGV
Favali et al., NIMA, 2006;
Migneco et al., NIMA, 2006
Optical sensors
Electronic vessels
Established on the basis of an agreement between (MoU, 2001):
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
(INFN)
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica
e Vulcanologia (INGV)

30. Towards the multidisciplinary seafloor observation networks
Strategy
Towards the multidisciplinary
seafloor observation networks
The NEW FRONTIER 30

32. “European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures”
European Commission
September 2006
ESFRI - European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures
REPORT
“European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures”
Selection of
35 new large-scale Research Infrastructures
“Research Infrastructures” refers to tools that provide essential
services to the scientific community for basic or applied research
European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory EMSO

33. EMSO-Preparatory Phase Start: 1st April 2008 (4 years)
Coordinator: INGV - Paolo Favali
(Representing the Italian Funding Agency: University & Research Ministry)
Main objectives:
To establish the governance entity for the EMSO
infrastructure serving scientists and stakeholders in and outside Europe for long-term deep water observations and investigations
To enable the deployment of the infrastructure and its long-term management, including the solution of technical bottlenecks
To promote the catalytic process and synergic effort at EC and national levels, coordinating and harmonising all available resources

34. General Information
Project Costs: € / EC Funding: €
Kick-off meeting held in Wien on 14st April 2008

35. Work-Breakdown Structure
Work package
Work package title
Lead beneficiary
WP 1
Management
INGV
WP 2
Governance structure
WP 3
Legal work
IMI
WP 4
Financial work
UIT
WP 5
Business plan
WP 6
Logistic work
UTM-CSIC
WP 7
Strategic work
KDM
WP 8
Technical work
IFREMER

36. Project Objectives
Definition and agreement upon the governance and legal form for the Core Legal Entity (CLE) and for each Regional Legal Entities (RLEs)
Design of a funding plan including contributions from national, European, and international funding resources. More specifically, a business plan covering both the investment and the operational expenditures for the first decade of service will be set up
Achievement of a long-term commitment from the involved funding agencies will be obtained through the activation of discussion tables where the largest possible political convergence will be reached and formalised in specific agreement protocols and MoUs
Definition of operational procedures with regard to deployed instrumentation, logistic intervention and maintenance will be defined
Definition of a long-term strategy and choice of sites
Establishment of the engineering specifications for each chosen site

37. Issues to be solved
The diversity of regional sites in terms of available legal frameworks;
The harmonisation of funding (National, European, International, industrial) with respect to scope, objectives, and timing;
The logistic constraints regarding available resources, and environmental protection;
Possible technical bottle necks for which currently no off-the-shelf solution is available

38. WPs Interconnections WPs are dedicated to 2 major groups of activities
Creation of EMSO organisational Body
Design of EMSO technical-economic plan

39. Technical Economic Plan
Creation of EMSO
organisation body
FUNDING AGENCIES
AGREEMENT AND COMMITTMENT
Technical Economic Plan
EMSO-PP will constitute the roundtable to build consensus among Nations

40. Decision Making Structure of EMSO-PP

41. Advisory Board (1/2) It will be composed of external members
Scientists, technologists, managers and legal advisors, providing the required expertise and coming also from outside the Europe
In charge of:
Overseeing the project development and advising continuously on the progress;
Providing expert support on specific matters (e.g., legal, financial, engineering);
Networking with other infrastructure projects, providing hints on possible integration and sharing of solutions

42. Advisory Board (2/2) Membership:
ESFRI-European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (EC)
KM3NET-PP (EC)
JAMSTEC-Japan Agency for Marine-earth Science and TEChnology (Japan)
ONC-Ocean Network Canada (Canada)
OOI-Ocean Observatory Initiative (USA)
EIB-European Investment Bank (Europe)

43. Ultimate output of organisation body set-up
Integration of regional infrastructures managing sub-sea observatory sites (RLEs-Regional Legal Entities) all having a single coordination entity (CLE-Core Legal Entity)
Regional Legal Entities
(RLEs)

44. Analysis of European structures with similar characteristics
Benchmarks with existing organisations at European level (e.g., CERN, ESA, EMBL, etc.)
Different solutions of management, decision making procedures and responsibilities will be reviewed with respect to possible application to EMSO

45. Example 1 (EMBL)

46. Example 2 (Elettra synchrotron)

47. Financial engineering
Research
Infrastructure
Member
States
European
Commission
Other
Stakeholders
(e.g., Industry)
EIB
Funding through national programmes
Funding through RTD programmes or inclusion in DG-REGIO/DG-DEV strategic plans
Loans
Up to 50% of project costs

48. EMSO coordination team
Thank you
for your attention
EMSO coordination team 48