After years of planning, purchasing, preparation, construction, and, above all, collaboration, the BELLA Program reached a milestone in its history: the final connection - and, therefore, the conclusion of construction - of the new underwater cable connection EllaLink of 6,000 km directly connecting Europe and Latin America. The work now is to put the BELLA connectivity online, providing the high capacity and low latency required for intensive data use in research and education.

Once in full operation, BELLA will expand research and education opportunities in Europe and Latin America for the next 25 years. Connectivity of high capacity and low latency together opens up many new possibilities.

For example, for Latin American users, BELLA will allow quick access to Copernicus Earth Observation data, leveraging collaboration on climate research between the two continents, helping to save lives in times of emergency; BELLA will also be important for the work of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the greatest and most precise terrestrial observatory in the world for gamma-ray astronomy at very high energy, which will open a new window to the universe.

With over 100 telescopes located in two locations - La Palma in the Canary Islands (Spain) and near Mount Paranal (Chile) - and data management in other European cities, the CTA has huge data transfer requirements.

The connectivity offered by BELLA will allow secure and fast transfer to data centers for event reconstruction and quick access to scientific data for an entire global community of researchers.

About project BELLA

Bella meets the long-term interconnectivity needs of European and Latin American research and education communities, achieved through two projects: BELLA-S, which guarantees spectrum rights in the underwater cable EllaLink and ensures "future-proof" connectivity requirements; and BELLA-T, which provides the completion of fiber connectivity to Latin American advanced networks, bringing the much-needed high-speed connectivity and equal access for research and education communities across the continent.

Source: RedCLARA