Development of an undersea science node for cabled ocean observatories

Cabled ocean observatories could provide a large amount of undersea instruments with sustained considerable electrical power and broadband two-way communications bandwidth for decades. Then scientists could remotely perform interactive and adaptive experiments and analyze long time-series high-resolution data from interesting events. A multidisciplinary undersea science node for deep-sea chemical-physical-biological research is developed with emphasis on reliability, flexibility, and fault resilience. The science node, rated up to 4000 m, is consisting of an in-situ seawater parameter analyzing system, an in-situ dynamic environment monitoring system, an in-situ biodiversity observing system, and an underwater junction system. After high pressure experiments and shallow seawater trials, the science node has been tested on Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) managed by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).