The Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility (CSSF) has announced its provision of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services to the US Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) cabled network through the University of Washington (UW)’s Regional Scale Nodes component of the OOI.

The ROPOS ROV (owned and operated by CSSF) will install secondary infrastructure, moorings and sensors to the cabled infrastructure installed in 2011 and 2012. The installation of sensors and cameras at Axial Volcano, among other locations, will provide some of the first real-time transmission of data and video imagery of an active subsea volcano.

CSSF and the University of Washington have worked collaboratively on the installation of this major project since 2011. The installation phase of this project is planned to be completed by 2015.

“It’s a significant undertaking,” said Keith Shepherd, General Manager of CSSF, “There are thousands of hours of pre-engineering and planning activities that go on in addition to the actual dives. We’re particularly excited for 2014 as we’re planning on completing the majority of the cable and equipment installations. Our work with UW in previous years undertook a lot of preliminary installation work for the observatory but the plan is to get the majority of the observatory operational this year.”

The U.S. cabled component of the OOI, or Regional Scale Nodes, is a complex network of subsea cables which provide power and data flow to-and-from a variety of sensors, cameras, and instruments which monitor and report on state of the ocean in real-time. The observatory is intended to provide previously unavailable constant data flow to scientists and users, giving a real-time view of the state of the ocean. The installation is planned for several locations including Hydrate Ridge and Axial Volcano off of the Oregon coast. The Ocean Observatories Initiative is funded by the US National Science Foundation.