Coordinated by PLOCAN (Spain), ATLAS an EU-funded Interreg Atlantic Area project uses Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) on submarine cables to advance ocean monitoring. It promotes cross-border cooperation to boost biodiversity conservation, coastal risk prevention, and sustainable ocean management, showcasing how EU funding drives innovative, impactful research.
Unlike traditional ocean monitoring tools, which rely on individual instruments placed at specific locations, DAS creates a continuous listening system. This means the ocean can be monitored in real time, across large areas, using infrastructure that already exists on the seabed. In the ATLAS project, DAS will transform submarine telecommunication cables into novel sensors providing critical information for marine conservation, maritime safety, and natural hazard monitoring across the Atlantic.
The project leverages high-level transnational cooperation, integrating expertise from leading European research centers. Within this framework, EMSO ERIC, associated partner, plays a key role by facilitating transnational data integration, ensuring the project will contribute effectively to European marine observation frameworks, expertise in global ocean observation and the sustainability of DAS developments within the ERIC.
By sending rapid laser pulses along existing fiber optic cables, when sound waves or vibrations pass through the surrounding environment, from ships, whales, earthquakes, or moving seafloor, they cause tiny changes in the light travelling through the fibre.
The project’s main objectives include:
- Marine Mammal detection
- Ship noise monitoring
- Seismic detection
Further information: https://www.atlasinterreg.eu/