The case for an Urban Ocean Observatory

Abstract

Over the last 16 years the authors have been developing a distributed multi-static active sonar system for port underwater surveillance. Our continuing mission is to develop a robust capability that classifies and tracks the smallest possible objects found in a harbor. We are essentially trying to simultaneously image the entire operational space, and indeed the solution is looking less like a sonar system and more like an imaging system. Developing such a system is a process of continuous optimization, including compensating for the highly time and space variable harbor ocean. Advancement requires greater and greater accuracy and resolution in our environmental measurements and modeling. We envision the system itself becoming a tomographic tool for determining and predicting the ocean state. Here, we make the case for establishing an Urban Ocean Observatory to achieve more rapid and long term progress. Such a laboratory would allow us to efficiently integrate into one test bed, the often stove-piped technologies developed by the underwater acoustic and oceanographic communities. We can study the long term effects of underwater surveillance systems on marine life. The Urban Ocean Observatory can also act as a scale model and speed advancement towards similar littoral and deep water solutions.