NERCscience | Protecting subsea global telecommunications networks | NERC Impact Awards 2023 @NERCscience | Uploaded November 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
A team led by Dr Mike Clare at the National Oceanography Centre have transformed how we protect the vulnerable network of subsea cables.
The cables carry 99% of the world’s data traffic including the internet, defence information, financial transactions and other services that underpin our daily lives. Natural disasters like submarine landslides can cause damage that reduces a nation’s access to these services or even cuts them off entirely.
After the Tonga volcanic eruption of 2022 cut off the nation’s access to the internet, the team used seafloor mapping technology to assess the damage to the international subsea cable.
The research is already being used in national risk assessments, potentially helping entire countries to avoid isolation and saving hundreds of millions of pounds.
The team are finalists in the NERC Impact Awards 2023, which shine a spotlight on the UK science at the heart of the responsible management of our planet. The awards celebrate NERC-funded scientists, as individuals or teams, whose work has had a big impact on the environment, economy or society.
Find out more about the awards: ukri.org/news/announcing-the-nerc-impact-awards-2023-winners
Meet the other finalists: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLucAMf26tYbHwNHhSTKZmij1NHdoItVJQ
A team led by Dr Mike Clare at the National Oceanography Centre have transformed how we protect the vulnerable network of subsea cables.
The cables carry 99% of the world’s data traffic including the internet, defence information, financial transactions and other services that underpin our daily lives. Natural disasters like submarine landslides can cause damage that reduces a nation’s access to these services or even cuts them off entirely.
After the Tonga volcanic eruption of 2022 cut off the nation’s access to the internet, the team used seafloor mapping technology to assess the damage to the international subsea cable.
The research is already being used in national risk assessments, potentially helping entire countries to avoid isolation and saving hundreds of millions of pounds.
The team are finalists in the NERC Impact Awards 2023, which shine a spotlight on the UK science at the heart of the responsible management of our planet. The awards celebrate NERC-funded scientists, as individuals or teams, whose work has had a big impact on the environment, economy or society.
Find out more about the awards: ukri.org/news/announcing-the-nerc-impact-awards-2023-winners
Meet the other finalists: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLucAMf26tYbHwNHhSTKZmij1NHdoItVJQ
