Physical Oceanography from Deep Ocean Submarine Cable Observatories

Seafloor cabled observatories have an obvious role as part of the sustained infrastructure needed to observe climate variability. To highlight this point a couple of important discoveries of the physical climate of the ocean that have been based on data acquired at open ocean “observatories” are reviewed. Perhaps the more important role for observatories in physical oceanography may be the provision of an infrastructure that will permit long duration studies of the smaller scale processes in the ocean (e.g., vorticity waves, mesoscale eddies, sub-mesoscale vorticies, internal tides/waves, turbulence), enabling the direct study of the low-frequency variability of these phenomena as well as their interaction with other phenomena. Instrumentation developed in the last two decades, such as moored velocity and water property profilers, that can enhance the scientific return on investments in cabled observatories are noted. Some technological enhancements that are feasible and would be desirable for observatory-based instrumentation for physical oceanography are listed.