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Telecom Cables Wanted For Climate Research
schliz writes "Oceanographers have called for telecommunications companies to use their active and retired submarine fibre to collect climate data. Sydney University's John You says voltmeters could simply be attached to cable landing stations to measure ocean currents via the electromagnetic current that they generate. More information about salinity and seismology could be collected by attaching sensors to repeater boxes that are typically installed every 100km of cable to amplify signals. Because fibre optic cables could remain under the sea for decades, they could be a consistent, continual source of data for researchers."
What if we found out something we really don't want to know?
What about the metal sheath? They don't string naked fibres across the seabed.
You do realize that undersea fiber optic cables are bundled with high voltage power lines to power all those repeaters, right?
The plan is to measure voltage generated by water moving around the cables, not current traveling through them.
In before "Who's on first?" joke!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Somebody is also very unclear in their explanation, and I think that's you...
What, exactly, do you think is wrong with the concept, again?
The summary differs with a significance from the article to a somewhat unusual degree... No, it's not really workable with how the systems are currently set up. Yes, there is a possibility for infrastructure (at significant cost) to be colocated on these lines for data-gathering purposes.
They do know they plow the cables into the sea bed floor. Something like 2m down. How is buried in the dirt/mud/sand going to read ocean currents, temp, salinity etc?
*to not be guilty of outright plagiarism, I got this from Tim Hunkin the highly-understated host of the secret life of machines.
I first read it as "...Sydney University's John You says volunteers could simply be attached to cable landing stations to measure ocean currents via the electromagnetic current that they generate..."
Mine's more interesting.
-Styopa
Dick Smith doesn't say climate change is caused by foreigners and migrants... he is talking about infinite growth in Australia (and the World)... is not possible with finite resources. As in productive farm land, water, energy, materials mined out of the ground like copper and steal (iron ore). Some efficiencies can make better use of resources.... but they will always be finite and at best reusable.
Those cables are for sending that pr0n to me, high speed from the USA, land of the free - not for proving anything scientific; besides I can lookup 'climate change' on Google or Bing or even Slashdot and hey presto - all the pros and cons are already there including lots of data (which paradoxically I could download but that would use more electricity which would probably come from a coal fired or gas fired electricity station nearby)?
Who do these scientists think they are, telling me that their scientific experiments and data collecting might tell the truth with careful analysis; I believe what I read on the Internet!
Accoring to TFS, fibre optic cables can lie around for years collecting data, which is measured by voltmeters sensing magnetically-induced currents.
Since when can you induce measurable currents in glass and plastic this way?
I would find TFS far more believable if this was being done to copper wires.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
"You was part of an international group of oceanographers..."
My first reaction was to twitch, then I realized what was going on.
This comment may contain speech figures. Reader discretion is advised.
I think I saw this posted in a commnet on /., but for those who missed it you can read all about undersea cable as a travelogue kind of story and it's actually pretty interesting.
Posting anonymously because I don't need to karma-whore.
exactly... the voltmeters would only be sending data over/through the fibre channels.
$ unzip, strip, touch, finger, grep, mount, fsck, more, yes,fsck,fsck,fsck,umount, sleep
This museum has a fascinating collection of things to do with undersea communication, focusing on the early telegraph lines. A number of cables come ashore at the museum site, and they've hooked some of them [*] up to an amplifier and loudspeaker. The currents induced in the cable form sounds that vary from noise to eerie wailings.
* copper cables that are no longer in use
If these voltmeters had been up and running in the gulf before the spill, could they have somehow informed us about the size or the spread of the spill?