ESONET - European Seas Observatory NETwork. Network of Excellence (NoE). Periodic activity report : revision #1

The Network of Excellence ESONET started on 1st March 2007. The kick off meeting was held in Brest on 21-22-23 March 2007.\nLong term monitoring of environmental processes related to ecosystem life and evolution, global changes and geohazards, is now recognized as a necessary by the scientific community. To better understand geophysical, biogeochemical, oceanographic and biological active phenomena scientists need long time series of data coming from the deep sea and the seafloor at key provinces in the world. The objective of ESONET NoE is to prepare at European level the implementation of a network of deep sea observatories around Europe.\n\nThe structures of ESONET have been constructed during the first year through the main meetings (Kick off meeting & All Regions Workshop n°1 (WP1), Bremen Best Practices Workshop (WP2) and Training workshop (WP7)) and the first call for Demonstration missions (WP4 & 3). Integrating groups have been constituted across these different events and activities for Esonet nodes, Interoperability and standardisation issues, data management, industry and SMEs... The associated main conclusion are following:\n\n*\tKICK OFF AND FIRST ESONET ALL REGIONS WORKSHOP (WP 1 TASK)\nDuring the Kick off and General Assembly held in Brest in 21, 22, 23 March 2007, Esonet objectives have been presented and the need for integration actions have been highlighted. Eight thematic parallel sessions were organized in order to launch the networking (about EMSO, EUROSITES,…), seven parallel sessions launched the WP. It was accompanied by talks by reference speakers, members of the Steering Committee, and EC officer.\nThe first ESONET All Regions Workshop has been organised in Barcelona by CSIC and remotely by IPGP and IFREMER from 5th until 7th of September 2007. This workshop allowed for a presentation of each prospective node and all the proposals for Demonstration missions. We also invited senior representatives of the principal internationally sea observatory initiatives (USA, Canada and Japan), to give talks on both science and technological aspects. The meeting lasted 2 ½ days and we devoted two sessions to panel discussions on scientific and technological issues. The meeting was successful, with over 112 attendants from 53 partner institutes and SMEs. \nThe identification of at least a contact person for each prospective node of the ESONET observatory network has been conducted during this meeting. These contact persons will serve as the seed for the constitution of the future regional entities for each observatory site. Some regional groups are almost completed, especially when a demonstration mission has been selected. The group constitution should have been enhanced by the exchange of personnel foreseen during the first year, but even if a general call has been launched no true answer has been received. Indeed the community started to show its real interest in exchanging personnel only after the demonstration mission selection. As a corrective action a general and structured call for personnel exchange is underway.\n\n*\tTHE “BEST PRACTISES” WORKSHOP (WP2 TASK WITH AN OVERLAP OF WP1 & 3 ACTIVITIES)\nThe “Best practises” workshop has been structured into 5 sessions that covered interfacing, underwater intervention, data management, scientific demands and existing infrastructure issues. For each session the corresponding group has been built up and are working on their topic. The idea is to make efficient use of existing knowledge and come up with concepts that are sustainable within future observatory infrastructures. \nESONET is striving to play a strong role in the field of standardisation and interoperability. This applies not only on the data but also on the device level. The goal is rather ambitious but by focussing on some topics a template can be given for other areas. This approach has been persistent through all 5 sessions. \n\nGeneral conclusion:\nDuring the discussions it became obvious that a common vocabulary has to be established at least for the most basic terms. Two examples shall be given. The first is about the definition of the term observatory:\n“Observatory is a permanent infrastructure providing a certain number of services to underwater instruments, allowing their long term operation. The list of services includes: energy supply, data transmission to/from shore or to/from a vessel, time distribution, etc.”\nWith this definition it should be clear how observatories differ from stations or moorings dedicated to time series. It is the service aspect that is most important to observatory systems. Within data management there is the idea of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which actually means that standard data services are made available to the user community. This concept has to be transferred down to the hardware level.\nThe second example is about the definition of Best Practices:\n“Best Practices can be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people. Best Practices have evolved from benchmarking”\nThis definition describes why Best Practices are important for observatories. With a shared use of a permanent infrastructure a consensus has to be achieved on how to operate service and maintain the infrastructure. However, Best Practices are not meant as a static but a rather an evolutionary concept which means that certain procedures are improved over time.\n\nSpecific conclusions:\n\tAs a conclusion from the session on instrument qualification it has been stated that instrument qualification can be achieved by defining procedures, interfaces, and related workflows for this process. Best practices means in this case to map existing procedures from other domain into ocean sciences. For quality assurance and control this means to formalise and assure the implementation of the following steps (design, testing, integration, installation and commissioning of the according system).\nThe concept of the sensor registry and interface standardisation are the key issues to make the observatory interoperable. The registry delivers the necessary information to set up web services that allow for the implementation of an interoperable, service ori¬ented architecture. A similar approach will be pursued for other registries like for testing facilities.\nIn this context also the ISO 17025 standard for calibration of laboratory instruments will be evaluated.\n\tFor the session on underwater intervention different tasks have been identified to efficiently enhance interoperability in future observatory underwater intervention. The results will be the basis of the specification report for subsea intervention.\n\tThe following has been concluded for the data management session:\n1.\tA conceptual flow chart for ESONET Data Management has been defined\n2.\tThree working groups with distinct but related objectives in order to recommend best practices to the Data Management Council has been created.\n3.\tA calendar of tasks has been defined. \n\n\tAs a conclusion for the scientific needs in regard to generic and specific instrument packages the following points have been identified:\n\tThere is a need to compile recommendations from other programs, create a survey, and to write a report with the expert groups recommendations regarding an SSP (standard scientific package).\n\tCompile standard sensor related information from other programs., .\n\n\tWith existing infrastructures like the ANTARES and NEMO/SN1 observatories in the Mediterranean Sea a work plan as a Best Practices recommendation has been developed that take the following issues into account:\n\tinstallation work for deep sea systems\n\tmaintenance needs;\n-\tbio fouling cleaning;\n-\tcorrosion status check for some sensors;\n-\tcabling system check;\n\treliability and continuity needs in terms of data recording/transmission.\n\tvulnerability against external fault causes;\n\tenvironnemental contrains/installation permit;\n\tavailability of a shore station close to the deployment point. \n\n\nIt has to be kept in mind that ESONET is not an isolated activity but has to be seen as one component of the in situ ocean observation system. ARGO with its 3000 floats deployed is operational since 2003 and is already contributing water column data regularly to the ocean science community. It is obvious that future ocean observatories which has a focus on processes in the deep sea has to coordinate their data sharing policy with other programs like ARGO, MERSEA/MYOCEAN and the newly started EuroSites project.\n\n\tESONET DEMONSTRATION MISSIONS (WP4 TASK WITH CONTRIBUTION OF WP3)\nESONET NoE, according to the DoW, supports also pilot experiments at sea and site surveys that help to define the monitoring strategies and the most appropriate parameters to be measured in order to meet the scientific objectives. The pilot experiment are implemented in the Demonstration Missions (DMs). DMs are considered means to strengthen the integration process of the ESONET NoE scientific and technological community bringing at high level of excellence the technology at different development phases, implementing the standardisation and interoperability of the different platforms from the consortium. DMs are also aimed at acquiring relevant scientific time-series. They will be an input for integrated studies, common workshops and a raw material to demonstrate the integration of data management.\nFour DM proposals were approved for funding in January 2008:\n1.\tMARMARA-DM : The goal of the present demonstration mission is to contribute to the establishment of optimized permanent seafloor observatory stations for earthquake monitoring in the Marmara Sea, as part of ESONET NoE. \nThe Marmara Sea (MS) offers the ideal location for seafloor seismogenic observations directed towards ris

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