During the last few years significant interest has evolved in expanding the number and the operational characteristics of permanent measuring stations in the ocean. The anticipated new infrastructure should enable for collecting scientific data in real time or near real time over time intervals of years. Due to their expanded functionality these systems are designated as an observatory which means that they allow for power command, control and bi-directional communication to submersed instrument packages.
The reconsideration of ocean monitoring strategies led to new concepts of establishing fixed (Eulerian) observational stations. Basically one can distinguish between two main groups: the cabled and the moored buoy observatory. As a general rule cabled observatories will find their applications in coastal areas or at least areas that are in a 100–200 km range off the coast. Due to the high investments for cable laying and maintenance observatory designs for the open ocean will mostly rely on the well proven technology of moorings that has evolved during the past 30 years. The observatory concept will lead to a quantum leap in scientific data collection and ocean monitoring. However, due to the complexity of the infrastructure and the suite of instruments involved a reconsideration of how to maintain the system and how observations will be conducted has to be done. Part of the responsibility for the data collection process has to be transferred from the individual scientist or group to the team that is in charge of the according observatory site. Therefore standards and quality assurance procedures have to be introduced. Past moored stations mainly consisted of self-recording devices fixed at predefined depths within the water column. This technology has to be revised and adapted to the new demands.
