OceanLab partners
OceanLab Observatory
Trondheim, Norway


Data Portal
Research infrastructure for ocean observation
SENSORS PLATFORMS DIGITALISATION PROJECTS
Latest weather from the Munkholmen site

About

To see some examples of data and projects from the observatory in 2022 Click here!

OceanLab is a new state of the art national research infrastructure being established in Trondheim, Norway, together with SINTEF and NTNU, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. OceanLab laboratories in Mid-Norway will be built to meet requirements for education, research, and innovation in the marine and maritime sectors.

More information about the other elements of the OceanLab infrastructure, covering: subsea robotics, acquaculture and autonomous ships, is here.

At SINTEF and NTNU, we strive to adapt to user-requests and the ever-evolving technological developments within ocean science. The OceanLab Observatory provides a unique opportunity for marine environmental research and sensor technology development in this region, accessible to users around the world. It is a dynamic field laboratory that encourages collaboration across research communities and scientific disciplines in technology development and testing of solutions for autonomous operations and ocean ecosystem monitoring. This in-situ laboratory supports cutting-edge research with societal benefits in-line with the United Nations sustainable development goals. In addition to providing sites for 1) in situ lab experiments, 2) sensor technology innovation platforms and 3) data for fundamental research and model development, the laboratory also supports education and science communication, data supporting local environmental policymaking and communication gateways.

The Observatory will be fully operational before the end of 2022.

The OceanLab infrastructure will be an integrated part of the future Ocean Space Centre when the centre is finished. Click here for more on FjordLab and the observatory.

OceanLab observatory overview

One of the top priorities of OceanLab, which includes hubs for autonomous shipping, aquaculate and subsea robotics, is to provide the knowledge and means to support the Blue/Green shift.

The Observatory hub will provide a platform for rapid development and prototyping of sensors and marine technology. This will give users easy and fast access to test facilities and telemetry coupled digital infrastructure and several hundreds of meters of water depth.

Over the 10 year operation period of this infrastructure, this will support many new innovations and startup-ups in testing and verifying their concepts.

Contact

OceanLab contact Emlyn Davies

Please email emlyn.davies@sintef.no for enquiries.

For other nodes in OceanLab, please see the contact page, here.


Equipment

The Observatory consists of buoys and sensors. An overview of the equipment and its location is shown below.

OceanLab observoatory equipment

The buoys can provide a platform for experimens and testing, and will be collecting time-series data that will be made available.

Sensors can be rented, and data from sensors attached to the buoys are made available for use. Click here to see available sensors.

Chart of site      Data Portal

This site can be reached within about 10min on a small boat from the shore in Trondheim.

The buoy is a large platform designed as a test platform for R&D, in-situ experiments, and as a host for a large array of environmental sensors. Inside is an autonomous profiling winch for lowering sensors up and down through the water column, and four moon-pools for mounting equipment. There is also an attachment point on the side of the buoy and around the roof.

It is a DB24000 databuoy from Hydrosphere, designed and manufactuered by Mobilis.

The buoy was deployed in October 2021. We are working with integrating the sensors during the spring of 2022.

Please contact emlyn.davies@sintef.no if you would like to use space on the buoy or access data.

OceanLab Munkholmen site

Chart of site      Data Portal

This site can be reached within about 2hrs by boat from Trondheim.

This buoy is provided by OSIL. The buoy was deployed in May 2022.

Please contact emlyn.davies@sintef.no if you would like to use space on the buoy or access data.

OceanLab Ingdalen site

FjordLab is part of Ocean Space Centre and acts as an extension to the OceanLab infrastructure.

FjordLab will extend the OceanLab Observatory further out of Trondheim towards the coast, from the Hitra and Frøya region to Ålesund.

The Observatory component of OceanLab will be expanded with the addition of two ocean gliders and a new databuoy within the Hitra-Frøya area.

Please contact emlyn.davies@sintef.no for details and booking.

Digitalisation in Ocean Observation

The data portal, containing interactive dashboards for the Observatory, is available here.

If you would like API access to the data, please click here to submit a request.


The data pipeline and tools we are using:


OceanLab Digitalisation

Contact: emlyn.davies@sintef.no
Page updated: 21.12.22