9314823 Grassle The Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) and the Oceanographic Systems Laboratory (OSL) of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will collaborate and install a long-term underwater observing system that connects remotely- operated seafloor observatories with shore-based laboratories/ control stations via an electro-optical cable. The Long-term Ecosystem Observatory-15 (LEO-15) will be established offshore from the Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS). An electro- optical cable will be buried from RUMFS, near Little Egg Inlet, NJ to about 10 km out onto the continental shelf, thence to two initial platforms at two sites on the continental shelf. A system of this nature will provide remote operational control of intercon- nected ocean-based sensors and vehicles for an extended period of time. The buried seafloor cable will provide electrical power and real-time, broad bandwidth, bi-directional communication to a number of seafloor based systems. With some routine maintenance, a reliable long-term system can be developed and put into opera- tion. The successful installation and operation of the LEO-15 facility will provide the engineering experience and motivation necessary to expand this system into deeper water, and to install additional sites, worldwide, in both coastal and deep-water. The system will provide simultaneous real-time data from a broad array of sensing systems on time scales from seconds to years and spatial scales from millimeters to within radii of 100 m of nodes along the cable and, with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), to kilometers. Data from LEO-15 may be used 1) to calibrate informa- tion from earth-orbiting satellites; 2) to measure boundary condi- tions for coupled benthic boundary layer and coastal circulation models; 3) to monitor in situ experiments on processes related to upwelling, plankton blooms, benthic flux, sediment transport and cross-s helf transport, and 4) to study the behavior, recruitment, and sources of mortality in commercial fish and shellfish species. The Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences has committed to a long-term research that would utilize the Observatory, and has made a substantial financial commitment to the project as well.
