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New Tech Lets Submarines 'Email' Planes (bbc.com)
A way for submerged submarines to communicate with planes has been developed by researchers at MIT. From a report: At present, it is difficult for planes to pick up underwater sonar signals because they reflect off the water's surface and rarely break through. The researchers found an extremely high-frequency radar could detect tiny ripples in water, created by an ordinary underwater speaker. This could let lost flight recorders and submarines communicate with planes. Submarines communicate using sonar waves, which travel well underwater but struggle to break through the surface. Planes communicate using radio signals that do not travel well in water. At present, submarines can surface to send messages - but this risks revealing their location. Sometimes, buoys are used to receive sonar signals and translate them into radio signals. "Trying to cross the air-water boundary with wireless signals has been an obstacle," said Fadel Adib, from the MIT Media Lab. The system developed at MIT uses an underwater speaker to aim sonar signals directly at the water's surface, creating tiny ripples only a few micrometres in height. These ripples can be detected by high-frequency radar above the water and decoded back into messages.
The researchers found an extremely high-frequency radar could detect tiny ripples in water, created by an ordinary underwater speaker.
Umm, couldn't an adversary use the same tech to detect the larger ripples (albeit not targeted) generated by the sub displacing water as it moves?
You idiot millenial bitches this is not goddamn email
Because letting a buoy with an antenna rise up to the surface would be too difficult. Let's analyze micro water ripples in a lab setting instead, it will totally work on the oceans.
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I thought this was the purpose of HAARP?? (I kid; nobody actually believed that...)
New sub, who dis?
;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
FTA: "it does not work when there are waves taller than 16cm (6in) in the water." Doesn't most of the ocean have waves higher than 6 inches?
Either the sub crew is reciting Beowulf in pig-latin or the prawns are farting.
rewriting history since 2109
Geez, and my crummy ISP only lets me do 10mb of attachments.
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At present, it is difficult for planes to pick up underwater sonar signals because they reflect off the water's surface and rarely break through. The researchers found an extremely high-frequency radar could detect tiny ripples in water, created by an ordinary underwater speaker. This could let lost flight recorders and submarines communicate with planes.
In all the stories about MH370, I never understood why it was apparently so difficult to locate the flight recorder. Now, finally, in a story that has absolutely nothing to do with MH370, I understand.
I'm glad I now know, but sure would have been nice if at least one of the many MH370 stories had actually explained this.
The real solution (one that I think is already being used) - is quantum entangled communication.
The problem with quantum entangled communication is that it requires cold fusion reactors to power it. Otherwise it doesn't have enough energy to travel through the ether.
There is one fact that reduces the usefulness of this as a military communications channel that I haven't seen mentioned by anyone else. As far as I know, subs communicate with higher authority using VLF, ELF and SLF frequencies. The way it would work is that the sub would tow a very long antenna behind it while on cruise in order to communicate with the base station(s), which in turn routed the signals to the land based submarine command facility and the joint chiefs communication facility. From there, it could be further routed by conventional radio or satellite to naval or aviation assets in the area of operations.
They are low-bandwidth frequencies of course, but you can transmit a hell of a lot of information using pre-generated code phrase books/databases to cover most contingencies.Those of use who deal with passwords and IT security are well aware of how quickly the number of possible alphanumeric character combinations goes up as you add successive characters to a required length. (for those of us who don't know: an 8 character string has 218,340,105,584,896 possible combinations so you could have that many code phrases in a database)
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There's a reason subs are sea-gapped.
The problem with this is that you have to have a pretty good idea of where the submarine is in the first place. This is what we ran into when we were trying to communicate with submarines with blue-green lasers and other optical means (i.e. line of sight). We had to fly our aircraft in a search pattern over the area where we THOUGHT the submarine was (maybe by appointment or the fact that that was its patrol area), hoping to pick up a signal from it. If an enemy was watching us, he'd have had a pretty good idea where to start looking himself.
You know, the latest public information about submarine technology is like from the 1970s. What I suspect is that the state of the art is WAY beyond civilian technology. I always thought they would find a way to use gravitational waves to communicate through masses like water and the earth's crust. I bet you could vibrate a bar in the direction of its length, at a very high frequency to send a rather directional gravity wave that could be picked up by a another massive sensor.
Take off every 'sig' !!
And quantum entanglement is SUPPOSED to be incapable of transmitting information.
Take off every 'sig' !!
Submarines already have towed floating antenna arrays which are capable of communicating with satellites which can then relay messages to planes all over the globe. They also have towed sonar arrays, towed optics arrays to communicate digitally with light.
Looks like some of these MIT boys n' girls should have joined the Navy before inventing solutions to things which don't have a problem.
Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
They've solved the Planes & Submarines. When will they solve the Trains & Automobiles?
Hmmm?
detect tiny ripples in water, created by an ordinary underwater speaker. This could let lost flight recorders and submarines communicate with planes.
Chances are this underwater speaker would have to be quite "loud," and connected to a powerful amplifier that would quickly drain the battery in a flight recorder.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
The whole of the physics world for thirty years bent over backwards to substantiate statements like that - whilst arguing with Einstein who himself was certain that their ideas were hogwash - and that quantum communication was probably pretty simple. He didn't figure out how to do it in his lifetime, but then he had much less powerful tech in his laboratory in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Quantum comm has to be done indirectly, that's all.
Personally, I'm convinced that quantum communication is in use today, by folks who like the idea of having all that power all to themselves.
Did they do this in a calm, still pool, or did they do this in the noisy, wavy ocean? If it was in a pool, get a dozen kids playing "Marco Polo" and see if it still works.
Why not "talk to" the (people on) planes instead? Is this what the buzz-word mindset is creating? We need extra technology just to communicate? Now transmitting data through multiple mediums is already fancy but even a digital version of this doesn't need a keyboard, visual display and dedicated server.