CREON: Coral Reef Environmental Observatory Network
Website
http://www.coralreefeon.org/Contact
Peter Arzberger, University of California San Diego, United StatesCollaborators
Australia, Taiwan, United StatesDescription
CREON is a grassroots association of scientists and engineers working to design and build marine sensor networks to view marine worlds in real time and in many dimensions, such as temperature in 3D, to gain a better understanding of the stresses that are shaping the marine world. In particular, coral reefs around the world are exhibiting signs of decay due to global warming, over-fishing and pollution.
The group presently is deploying sensor networks in the Florida Keys, Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in French Polynesia, the Kenting Coral Reef LTR site in Taiwan, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Using a variety of platforms and instruments, the CREON group hopes to solve some of the more technical aspects in a collaborative framework.
Sensors used in coral reef observatories can generate surprisingly large amounts of data. The intersection of sensor technologies with optical networking represents a major research thrust, particularly as sensors such as HDTV cameras can generate gigabytes of information. (See GLEON for an example)