InSEA Project: Initiatives in Supporting the consolidation and enhancement of the EMSO infrastructure and related Activities

Abstract

The observation of the phenomena occurring on our planet was in the past based mainly on ground monitoring with both temporal and spatial approaches. On the other hand, in the part covered by the oceans until a few years ago the monitoring was carried out through discrete measurement campaigns in time and space with the disadvantage of not having information on the variability of oceanic processes. Only more recently, since the 90s of the last century, technology has allowed the installation of multidisciplinary systems on the seabed for long periods (years), even at great depths (thousands of meters). From the circumscribed campaigns in space and time, we have therefore moved on to the installation of observatories on the seabed, to record in a continuous way the physical and chemical parameters, in order to know the state of the oceans and of the whole planet. This produces two advantages: A spatial improvement of the observations, because they extend from land to the 1. previously less known and more extensive part of the planet, i.e. the oceans that cover seventenths of the Earth’s surface; A scientific improvement, because the oceans represent a fundamental element in the 2. processes at the base of the Earth’s climate, whose knowledge on large time scales makes it possible to understand the future evolution of these processes [e.g. Favali et al., 2015].