On May 19, the ISO issued the ISO 3482: 2022 Ships and Marine Technology-Technical Guidelines for Active Source Exploration with Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS), which is the first international standard for marine geophysical survey presided over by China, and also the first international standard presided over by SIO.

OBS has been widely applied to marine geophysical surveys in many international integrated research programs for a long time, including deep geological structure research, marine oil and gas exploration, and geological disaster warning, obtaining remarkable results. The technical requirements of OBS detection are complex, and OBS produced in different countries vary in instrument performance and operation process. In order to standardize the test validation of OBS, evaluate equipment performance, and unify the result output, SIO, together with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, South China Sea Institute of Oceanography, CAS, Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey and other units, jointly compiled the international standard for the OBS detection technology, and Academician Li Jiabiao served as the project leader.

By relying on the OBS independently developed by China, and fully studying the technical status of similar international products, this standard specifies the technical requirements for the terminology, instrument calibration, external design, OBS release and recovery, artificial seismic source, operation process, data acquisition and processing of active source exploration with OBS. In addition, key technological achievements independently innovated, such as acoustic responder, release mechanism, acquisition mode and attitude seismometer, have been transformed into international standards, greatly improving the quality of data results of active source exploration with OBS and promoting the healthy development of OBS exploration industry.

China put forward the proposal (NP) for this international standard in 2019. The proposal passed the vote of 11 member states of ISO/TC 8/SC 13 in March 2020 and was officially approved by ISO. The formulation of this standard attracted great attention. Experts from Germany, Japan and other countries repeatedly put forward different opinions due to different technological characteristics and industrial development stages. SC 13 and the standard development team actively communicated with experts from various countries through online meetings and email discussions during the pandemic, and repeatedly revised and polished the standard text. Finally, the standard was officially released 10 months ahead of the publication date stipulated by ISO. The implementation of this standard helps improve the technical performance and unify the data format of OBS in various countries, and effectively promotes international cooperation among different countries in investigation, development and utilization of submarine resources. It also plays an important role in cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road in Southeast Asia, and helps enhance the export and international influence of marine equipment independently developed by China.