Offshore Fibre Sensing Infrastructure for Geohazards, Energy Transition, and Multidomain Marine Research

Network Panel. Image: Lee Lawson

This project establishes Australia’s first national offshore Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) capability by commissioning a long‑range interrogator system that transforms existing submarine telecommunication cables into real‑time seismic and acoustic sensor arrays.

Overview

Led by Dr Erdinc Saygin (CSIRO) with project management by Asrar Talukder, the project will procure, commission, and deploy a long‑range (>100 km) DAS interrogator system. The team will conduct onshore and offshore field trials, develop national access and operational procedures, and establish a multidisciplinary community of practice spanning universities, government agencies, and industry. 

The system will enable continuous monitoring of offshore geohazards, marine processes, and emerging energy‑transition infrastructure, supporting national resilience, environmental stewardship, and Australia’s transition to net‑zero emissions. It will also be hosted at CSIRO’s Kensington campus and made available for national research, training, and collaborative projects.

The Challenge

Australia has no dedicated offshore sensing infrastructure capable of detecting small‑magnitude earthquakes, submarine landslides, seabed instability, or environmental acoustic signals across its vast marine jurisdiction. Existing land‑based stations are too distant to monitor offshore hazards, and traditional marine seismic surveys are costly, infrequent, and environmentally intrusive. 

As offshore Carbon Capture Storage (CCS), hydrogen storage, renewable energy export cables, and subsea infrastructure expand rapidly, the absence of real‑time monitoring exposes critical assets to unmanaged geohazard risk. This project fills that gap with a scalable, low‑impact, fibre‑based sensing platform.

Expected Outcomes

  • A fully commissioned long‑range offshore DAS system hosted at CSIRO and available for national access.

  • Onshore and offshore field trials demonstrating capability for geohazard detection, CCS monitoring, oceanographic sensing, and infrastructure surveillance.

  • National operational procedures, training materials, and FAIR‑aligned data‑sharing frameworks.

  • A multidisciplinary community of practice connecting researchers, government agencies, and industry.

  • Open‑access datasets and technical learnings that de‑risk future deployments and support broader adoption of DAS technology.

What are the benefits?

  • Enhanced Research Capabilities: New research infrastructure will enhance oceanography, marine biology, climatology, and environmental monitoring. This includes serving as an alternative to conventional marine seismic surveys, thereby reducing the environmental footprint.

  • Support Australia’s Energy Transition: commissioning of next‑generation sensing technologies aligns with national net-zero priorities across CCS, hydrogen storage and offshore wind power, enhancing national infrastructure resilience.

  • Greater Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Leveraging embedded infrastructure fosters greater collaboration between research, government and industry bodies.  

Who will benefit

Several communities will benefit from this project, including:

  • Universities and research institutions working in seismology, oceanography, marine geology, engineering, and climate science.

  • Government agencies, including Geoscience Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA), and Parks Australia.

  • Energy and resources industries, particularly CCS operators, hydrogen hubs, offshore wind developers, and subsea cable operators.

  • Environmental and conservation organisations that are monitoring marine ecosystems, vessel activity, and noise pollution.

  • Infrastructure planners and regulators require geohazard and seabed stability information.

  • International collaborators through shared datasets and global DAS research networks.

Access

  • Data Access: Open data for non‑commercial users, with datasets shared through the CSIRO Data Access Portal and raw data deposited in NCI and Pawsey repositories.

  • Infrastructure Access: The project aims to offer a tiered access model for collaborative access to universities and government partners, and fee‑for‑service access for industry projects. This will include a National access framework with clear eligibility criteria, application processes, and user agreements, published via an ANSIR‑hosted portal.

 
 

Project Name
Offshore Fibre Sensing Infrastructure

Project Lead

Dr Erdinc Saygin
Asrar Talukder

Timeframe
Jan 2026 to Jun 2027

Status
Active

Funding
Pilot 5

Host
CSIRO

Other Collaborators
Australian National University (ANU)

AuScope Programs

Acknowledging AuScope

This project was made possible by support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) through AuScope. Acknowledging AuScope and NCRIS helps us demonstrate the value of shared research infrastructure, ensuring continued support and resources for the research community.

If you helped deliver this project or have benefited from its outputs, please credit AuScope so we can include your work in our impact reporting. For examples of acknowledgment, please visit our ‘Acknowledge AuScope’ page.

We’d love to see your work—please tag us on social media using:

@auscope | #AuScopeImpact | #NCRISimpact

EISDaniel VlahekPilot 5, NCRIS, Active, Submarine Fibre Sensing Australia, Offshore Geohazard Monitoring, Offshore Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), Offshore CCS monitoring