Project Title

IRIS/PASSCAL seismic support

Summary

Event Number:
T-299-M/S
NSF Agreement

Program Director:
Dr. Michael Jackson

ASC POC/Implementer:
John Rand / Paul Sullivan / Jenny Cunningham / Sheryl Seagraves

Principal Investigator(s)

Mr. Kent Anderson
kent@iris.edu
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Project Web Site:
http://www.passcal.nmt.edu/content/polar

Location

Supporting Stations: McMurdo Station, South Pole Station
Research Locations: Deep Field

Description

EARTHSCOPE SAGE is the new name for the restructured and consolidated IRIS/PASSCAL and UNAVCO activities. The organization continues to provide support to NSF/OPP-funded projects requiring seismic detection and monitoring equipment and expertise. Support provided specific to Antarctic requirements include: 1) equipment testing and availability in cold regions; 2) training to researchers; 3) on-continent instrument troubleshooting, performance evaluation, and data QC; 4) assistance to researchers with data backup and archiving; and 5) field support, including installation and maintenance as required. The organization develops cold-station deployment strategies, collaborates with vendors to develop and test equipment rated to -55°C / -67°F, builds and maintains an equipment pool, and sustains a cold-station techniques repository.

Field Season Overview

Five PASSCAL engineers will deploy this season. Two will support Wilson/POLENET (G-079-M), one will embed with Tulaczyk/TIME (C-446-M), and two will work on Anderson/Erebus Backbone Network (T-312-M). In addition, PASSCAL will provide equipment support to Anandakrishnan/GHOST (C-442-M), and Zhan/SPRESSO DAS (A-137-S), Hurford/ICERIFT (C-530-M), among other science groups. The team will install and service test stations at the T-299-M test site near Castle Rock and T-299-M test site on Observation Hill. These test sites are to further test and prove developing technologies and current equipment used by PIs requesting seismic support in polar locations. Significant infrastructure support will be needed in Crary lab space for seismic nodes requested by TIME, GHOST, SPRESSO DAS, and IceRift. Overwinter seismic node storage and Research Assistant support will continue to be needed for 200 Polar nodes, along with additional overwinter support for 199 GEOICE nodes and 419 PASSCAL nodes.

Deploying Team Members