For the first time, a submarine telecommunications cable will include infrastructure for studying ocean floor conditions. "Ella Link GeoLab" will provide the European scientific community with real-time data.
The EllaLink Group and EMACOM – Madeira Telecomunicações announced today the creation of a infrastructure dedicated to sending real-time data on seabed conditions – the “EllaLink Geo Lab.” This information will be key to “understanding the future of our planet,” they emphasize, highlighting the applications of this data in areas such as seismology, volcanology, marine ecology, for example.
The presented infrastructure integrates, as its core technology, a distributed acoustic sensor that will utilize dedicated fiber from the Ella Link communication system in the Madeira region. The sensor will collect data along the submarine cable's path, which will then be transmitted to the coast. without any impact on telecommunications traffic or equipment wear.
The European scientific community will thus have access to data generated by the EllaLink Geo Lab. Given that this facility will be installed on the Portuguese continental shelf, The project has the collaboration of GÉANT and the National Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN) of the Foundation for Science and Technology.
Nuno Feixa Rodrigues, member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), highlights the “Ella Link GeoLab” as “much more than just a sophisticated scientific infrastructure”. “It is a scientific challenge linked to several areas of knowledge”, highlights, underlining the FCT's commitment to “support and energize the national and international scientific community to achieve this ambition”.
For Philippe Dumont, CEO of the Ella Link Group, the information collected by this structure is essential for understanding "a time of constant environmental change," and there is essential information that can be collected through analysis of the ocean floor. “We are proud to lead the way into a new era where submarine cable systems support this scientific advancement.”, he reinforced.
The Ella Link submarine cable will connect South America and Europe, with entry points to be installed in Sines and Fortaleza, Brazil. This structure is expected to become operational in the first four months of 2021. For more information, visit: https://ella.link/
