Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) for ocean observation

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) is a way to sample the temperature of a fiber optic cable by measuring the Raman scattering properties along the cable. When the cable is in the ocean, the cable itself is close the the temperature of the surrounding water, and DTS can be an effective way to simultaneously measure kilometers of ocean with meter-scale accuracy at time scales of seconds to minutes. DTS can be a valuable tool to study submesoscale ocean dynamics, but calibrating and using DTS to give the resolution required to study ocean temperature changes at this scale is difficult. This experiment tested several different cables and configurations to help oceanographers use DTS effectively for ocean observations. You can learn more about the project and how to use DTS for ocean temperature sensing here.