Research Objectives:
UNAVCO is a non-profit membership-governed consortium funded through NSF and NASA to support and promote high-precision measurement techniques for the advancement of Earth sciences. UNAVCO provides complete support for permanent stations, surveying, mapping, and other applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to U.S. Antarctic Program scientific investigators. UNAVCO maintains a "satellite" facility at McMurdo Station during the austral summer research season, providing a full range of geodetic GPS equipment and support services.
A large pool of high precision GPS receivers and associated equipment is provided for short term surveys through multi-year data collection in the Antarctic environment. Regular equipment upgrades assure a steady influx of modern equipment including:
+ State-of-the-art dual frequency GPS receivers
+ Power and communication systems for remote locations
+ GPS monument and antenna mount options
+ Accessories for kinematic and real-time kinematic (RTK) surveys
UNAVCO staff provides year-round support to help ensure field project success and assist with subsequent data management needs. The level of support provided is scalable to meet individual GPS project requirements. Technical support available includes:
+ Survey planning
+ Field survey and data processing training
+ Custom engineering solutions
+ System integration
+ Field assistance
+ GPS station maintenance
+ Data retrieval
+ Data flow monitoring
+ Data processing
+ Data archiving
UNAVCO also operates a community real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS base station that covers McMurdo Station and provides maintenance support to the NASA GPS Global Network (GGN) station MCM4 at Arrival Heights.
