5 major components in the VENUS network
The facility consists of three seafloor nodes on two separate cable arrays, two shore stations, a network operations centre, and a data archive. The growing VENUS community is fostered through this website.
VENUS was first proposed by a group of Canadian oceanographers in 2001. The facility supports their research but welcomes new users from everywhere. Anyone may access the data or add new tools to the array. Scan our results or see the User Guide to find out more.
What is VENUS?
VENUS is Related to NEPTUNE Canada
NEPTUNE Canada is a sister facility at Ocean Networks Canada. It is also a cabled network using many of the same concepts and designs. VENUS supports study of the seaways near shore, whereas NEPTUNE Canada is deployed into the deep sea off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Some NEPTUNE Canada experiments are tested first on VENUS; connection and data delivery mechanisms are compatible.
VENUS is a research facility
VENUS is operated by the University of Victoria. It was designed to address the five primary requirements posed by participating scientists.
1. Remote access to seafloor observations.
2. High-speed and real-time connection to instruments.
3. Ability to control instrument sampling.
4. Unlimited power availability.
5. Easy and fast access to archived data.
VENUS is able to address most of these requirements with a cabled network and new developments for interfacing instruments.
The growth of the Internet has pushed data communication technology to the point where high-speed network equipment is small, cheap, and easy to operate. VENUS has incorporated ‘off the shelf’ networking equipment with traditional marine fibre optic cables. This innovative marriage of marine and terrestrial technology delivers power for instruments and transmits data and commands between the scientist and the instruments.
The VENUS network has five major components:
1. The instruments on the seafloor in Saanich Inlet and the Strait of Georgia. We have or are planning to deploy more than 50 instruments that use a wide range of methods to gather data – physical and chemical sensors, acoustic (active and passive) sensors, and cameras. Instruments are placed in sediments, on the bottom and on an “elevator” (profiler) that rises through the water.
2. The underwater system that allows the instruments to communicate back to shore and sustains the instruments with power. The instruments plug into an interface device that we call a Scientific Instrument Interface Module (SIIM). The SIIM is then connected to the VENUS node. The node combines the data streams from the SIIMs into a single stream that is sent back to the shore station on the main fibre optic cable. The node also controls and monitors the power and communication services provided to the SIIMs.
3. The above water system that provides the power and network access for the system. Equipment in the Shore Station converts AC power to DC power that is sent to the instruments via the Node and SIIMs. The Shore Station also provides the communication bridge between the fibre optic cable and the University of Victoria via an Internet connection.
4. The Network Operations Centre (NOC) at the University of Victoria. The NOC oversees the operation of the two shore stations and the underwater arrays. Operators must evaluate the health of the system and be able to detect any faults that arise.
5. The Data Management and Archiving System (DMAS) that receives the data from the VENUS instruments. These data have to be captured for immediate use by scientists, processed for display on this website, and stored for future use. These functions are provided by the Data Management and Archiving System. The construction of DMAS and its operation is the largest component of VENUS.
The ability to interact in near real-time with the deployed experiments and their environment takes VENUS beyond the traditional definition of an observatory and into a new realm of a true undersea laboratory.
