LONG-RANGE NEEDS FOR DEEP-SEA PLATFORMS - THE DEEP-SEA OBSERVATORY CONCEPT

The international community of oceanographers and ocean engineers has faced an historical deficiency in long time-series data for all oceano graphic and environmental variables in all sea states. Most measuremen ts have been confined to short time-series data collection in the deep ocean during calm to moderate sea conditions by deployment of convent ional oceanographic research ships. To a lesser extent, longer time-se ries have been obtained from moored or drifting autonomous instruments measuring selected (usually physical or optical) variables. A solutio n to this deficiency is to deploy a complete oceanographic deep-sea ob servatory designed into a large mobile ocean platform with small water -plane area displacement. This deep-sea observatory would be maintaine d at sea for periods in excess of five years with logistics and scient ific resupply accomplished through the technologies developed during t he last decade by the offshore ocean industry. Platforms of this desig n would provide fundamental information about the structure and dynami cs of open-ocean ecosystems far from land and would enable greatly imp roved ground-truth information about the state of the ocean environmen t.