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Presenter: Dr. Richard Dewey - School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria
Supervisor:

Date: Mon, December 2, 2002
Time: 14:00:00 - 15:00:00
Place: EOW 430

ABSTRACT

The Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) is an innovative project to build a coastal ocean observatory in the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca to study ocean processes on a continuous basis. Historically, oceanographers have scheduled ships years in advance to go out and sample the ocean for short periods using simple lowered or moored apparatus. This technique does not provide the long-term time series necessary to understand the complex ocean systems related to fish stock assessment or climate change, nor does it permit scientists to respond when rare events occur. Permanent, cabled observatories are likely to change the nature and scope of ocean science over the next few decades. The University of Victoria has been successful in its proposals to CFI and the BCKDF in securing funds to install a three-branch observatory in the coastal waters around southern Vancouver Island. Scientists will be able to connect their instruments to a permanent facility, which will provide power and communications to a range of environment sites from Georgia Strait to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Peak data rates are anticipated to be on the order of 100 Gbytes per day, and the infrastructure is planned to run for the next 20 years. In this summary talk, I will present the general overall goals of the VENUS project, identify the key components that will need to be designed and implemented, and introduce the larger parent project, Neptune, to build a cabled observatory out into the North East Pacific.

ALL ARE WELCOME

For further information contact Dr. Harry Kwok at 721-8685 or Donna Shannon at 721-8821.