- Surface buoy
- Hyperbaric chamber
- Climate chamber
- CTD
- Hydrophone
- Seismometer
- Current meter
- Acoustic modems
- VEMCO Acoustic TAG Reader
- Crawler (IoV, internet operated vehicle)
- Underwater fiber optic networks
OBSEA is a wired underwater observatory, 4 km from the coast of Vilanova i la Geltrú, in an area protected from fishing. It is connected to the coast by a mixed power and communications cable. It also has a surface buoy. Both stations (underwater and surface) have sensors for monitoring the environment, and are available for undertaking projects in which a controlled test site is needed in the sea. The OBSEA observatory forms part of the distributed European research infrastructure EMSO ERIC (European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory.
Due to its characteristics, which make this facility unique in Spain, the OBSEA observatory is used as a test site in research projects in which validation of sensors, instrumentation and new measurement methods and protocols are required. Companies and institutes from Spain and other countries use the services that the UPC offers through this facility.
The second objective is continuous monitoring of the Catalan coast. Since its installation in 2009, the UPC has gathered time series of underwater images and physical variables that have enabled and will enable studies of biodiversity and climate change.
The observatory’s main characteristics are:
- Provides a source of uninterrupted power to the scientific instruments.
- Provides a high bandwidth communication link.
- Provides real-time data and avoids problems encountered in battery-powered systems.
- Has an optical Ethernet network that transmits data continuously from marine sensors connected to the observatory.