Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS)

The Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) is a cabled-based observatory system, incorporating a benthic instrument node, AUVs, and various benthic and moored instrumentation. The MARS infrastructure will provide the capability to place and power instruments in areas of scientific interest in various geographical sites. This project will complete the design and then install an advanced cabled observatory in Monterey Bay that will serve as the test bed for a state-of-the-art regional ocean observatory, currently one component of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) cabled observatory represents the next step toward harnessing the promise of new power and communication technologies to provide a remote, continuous, long-term, high-power, large-bandwidth infrastructure for multidisciplinary, in situ exploration, observation, and experimentation in the deep sea. MARS will be located in Monterey Bay offshore the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).