Project Title

IRIS/PASSCAL seismic support

Summary

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

Program Manager:
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

The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) Instrument Center supports NSF/OPP-funded projects. PASSCAL provides OPP support through: 1) equipment testing as it arrives on continent and with rapid deployment to the field; 2) training to researchers; 3) on-continent instrument troubleshooting, performance evaluation, and data QC; 4) assisting researchers with data backup and archiving; and 5) field support, including installation and maintenance as required. Each year, the facility provides instrumentation and support to NSF-funded seismological projects while also developing cold-station deployment strategies, collaborating with vendors to develop and test equipment rated to -55°C / -67°F, building an equipment pool, and creating a cold-station techniques repository. The team has been tasked by NSF with installing and maintaining a five-station permanent network on Mount Erebus (see T-312).

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