Hawaii-2 Observatory (H20)

The NSF Academic Research Infrastructure Program has funded a proposal, "The Hawaii-2 Observatory: a deep-ocean geoscience facility re-using the Hawaii-2 telephone cable," submitted by R. Butler (Principal Investigator, IRIS), A. Chave, J. Catipovic, D. Yoerger (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), F. Duennebier (University of Hawaii), and J. Hildebrand (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) through IRIS and in cooperation with AT&T, which is generously donating the cable to the project. The site of the Hawaii-2 Observatory (H2O) midway between Hawaii and California optimizes coverage for the IRIS Global Seismographic Network, and will potentially contribute to geomagnetism, tsunami studies, and physical oceanography. The proposed design of H2O is simple: a junction box (j-box) with eight independent underwater-mateable connectors will be spliced into the Hawaii-2 cable.

A broadband Guralp seismometer and hydrophone package will be deployed (plugged in) at the same time as the j-box. Ample power available to the observatory (>1000 watts) broadly opens up the types of instrumentation that can be added (or changed) later using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a manned submersible, or the Scripps wire-line re-entry thruster package. The installation of an acoustic modem at H2O makes available an easy, inexpensive deployment mode for future autonomous scientific instrumentation, which can be deployed from an ordinary research vessel passing over the H2O site. The cable will be powered from the AT&T Makaha cable station on Oahu. Telemetry from the Hawaii-2 cable terminus at Makaha will be linked to a data collection center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and will be available in real time via Internet. Data will be archived and distributed by the IRIS Data Management Center in Seattle.

For more information you may contact Rhett Butler, (Principal Investigator, IRIS).

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