NEMO-SN1 Abyssal Cabled Observatory in the Western Ionian Sea

Abstract

The NEutrinoMediterranean Observatory-Submarine Network 1 (NEMO-SN1) seafloor observatory is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, Western Ionian Sea, off Eastern Sicily (Southern Italy) at 2100-m water depth, 25 km from the harbor of the city of Catania. It is a prototype of a cabled deep-sea multiparameter observatory and the first one operating with real-time data transmission in Europe since 2005. NEMO-SN1 is also the first-established node of the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory (EMSO), one of the incoming European large-scale research infrastructures included in the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) since 2006. EMSO will specifically address long-term monitoring of environmental processes related to marine ecosystems, climate change, and geohazards. NEMO-SN1 has been deployed and developed over the last decade thanks to Italian funding and to the European Commission (EC) project European Seas Observatory NETwork-Network of Excellence (ESONET-NoE, 2007-2011) that funded the Listening to the Deep Ocean-Demonstration Mission (LIDO-DM) and a technological interoperability test (http://www.esonet-emso.org). NEMO-SN1 is performing geophysical and environmental long-term monitoring by acquiring seismological, geomagnetic, gravimetric, accelerometric, physico-oceanographic, hydroacoustic, and bioacoustic measurements. Scientific objectives include studying seismic signals, tsunami generation and warnings, its hydroacoustic precursors, and ambient noise characterization in terms of marine mammal sounds, environmental and anthropogenic sources. NEMO-SN1 is also an important test site for the construction of the Kilometre-Cube Underwater Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT), another large-scale research infrastructure included in the ESFRI Roadmap based on a large volume neutrino telescope. The description of the observatory and its most recent implementations is presented. On June 9, 2012, NEMO-SN1 was successfully deployed and is working in real time

Seafloor Seismic Noise at Central Eastern Mediterranean Sites

“…Technological progress has greatly improved our capability in deploying and recovering the observatories and the seafloor sensors safely. Using an electro-optical cable connecting the seafloor observatory to an on-land station, it is possible to retrieve data in real time, and to supply power to the observatory (e.g., Favali et al, 2013).…”

Marine Geohazards: A Bibliometric-Based Review

“…The marine industry was largely responsible for technical advances and science propagation, which justifies the significant number of articles that have a technical and economic perspective. More recently, there is a trend towards studies with social perspectives and networks of seafloor observatories for continuous geohazards monitoring [35,54,[217][218][219]. Therefore, direct monitoring represents a complementary manner, alongside conventional techniques in which environmental conditions call for deployment and provide enhanced confidence regarding geohazard assessments [139].…”

“…Marine geohazard surveys in the Mediterranean Sea were more frequent and this sea was the most studied, see Figures 5 and 7. For example, the publications by Italian authors revealed the impact of scientific efforts to recognize the geohazards along the Italian continental margin [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], one of the most seismically active regions in the central Mediterranean and the longest record of historical earthquakes in the world [41]. The data indicated without doubt the growth, evolution, and territorial expansion related to the research on marine geohazards.…”

Efficient artifacts filter by density-based clustering in long term 3D whale passive acoustic monitoring with five hydrophones fixed under an Autonomous Surface Vehicle

“…Static hydrophone arrays, using underwater buoys, provide stable recordings and observations of foraging [1]- [3] but can only monitor a fixed location, making it difficult to track animals over longer distances. A bottommounted array with small aperture (2m) and high sampling rate has been deployed for 3D localization of multiple whales [4], [5]. More flexibility can be achieved by mounting hydrophones on a vessel.…”