SMART Cables Observing the Oceans and Earth

The Joint Task Force, Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications (JTF SMART) Subsea Cables are working to integrate environmental sensors (temperature, pressure, seismic acceleration) into submarine telecommunications cables. This will support climate and ocean observation, sea level monitoring, observations of Earth structure, tsunami and earthquake early warning and disaster risk reduction. Recent advances include regional SMART pilot systems that are the initial steps to trans-ocean and global implementation. Building on the OceanObs’19 conference and community white paper (doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00424), this paper presents an overview of the initiative and a description of ongoing projects including: InSea wet demonstration project off Sicily; Vanuatu and New Caledonia; Indonesia; CAM-2 triangle system connecting Lisbon, Azores and Madeira; New Zealand; and Antarctica. In addition to the diverse scientific and societal benefits, the telecommunications industry mission of societal connectivity will also benefit because environmental awareness improves both individual cable system integrity and the resilience of the overall global communications network.