Subject: [SCIGN-0110] Future needs for GPS Facility Support
From: Robin Bell
Date: 26 Oct 1995 15:59:23

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SCIGN Electronic Mail    Thu Oct 26 15:59:23 PDT 1995      Message Number 0110
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Author: Robin Bell
Subject: Future needs for GPS Facility Support

There has been some confusion on mailing lists. I am redistributing this to
ensure wide coverage at the risk of duplication.   If you have already
received this ignore this, otherwise read on:

To:     NSF and NASA GPS investigators
>From:   Robin Bell
Date:   October 23, 1995

        The UNAVCO Steering Committee is beginning the process of writing
our next proposal to the NSF Instrumentation and Facilities (I/F) Program
in Geosciences for support of GPS infrastructure, and will later in the
year submit a similar proposal to NASA.  In doing so we plan to reexamine
all of the functions currently provided by the Boulder UCAR facility as
well as the Scripps data and orbit facility, assessing their need by the
community and how these functions may be provided most cost-effectively. 
NSF and NASA infrastructure grants do not compete directly for funds with
scientific proposals submitted to the agencies' other geoscience programs;
rather they can be viewed as supplementary support for an instrumental or
organizational capability shared by a well-defined community of users.
        We solicit your input by way of a questionnaire.  We want to know
what services of one or more community  facilities you anticipate using in
your research.  Your response to  these questions may be critical to having
these services available to  you over the next 1-3 years.  Please return
the completed questionnaire to Robin Bell at Lamont
([email-masked] or Robin Bell, LDEO, Palisades, NY 10964).      
        We have listed services below under four broad categories, each
accompanied by a brief explanation of current services to provide context. 
Keep in mind, however, that different organizations and structures may be
used in the future to provide these services.  Please the questions by
indicating the priority you would assign to each function for your
research:  high (H), moderate (M), low (L), or zero (0)

Field Operations
      
The Boulder facility currently supports the collection of campaign data,
mixed-mode data, and continuous site data.  It provides technical planning
and consultation, equipment specification, fabrication, and procurement,
installation of on-site infrastructure; on-site training; remote operation
data retrieval and performance monitoring; equipment repair and maintenance
including serving as a depot-level repair facility and coordination of
in-country repair; data validation; assistance with data processing and
developing automated processing systems; in-field data management;
integration of mixed-mode operations for efficient and cost effective
experiments; and coordination with the international GPS infrastructure
including the IGS.

(1) Provide access to a central pool of receivers for campaigns of < 3
month duration.  ________

(2) Provide access to a central pool of receivers to augment mixed-mode
projects for a duration of up to 1 year.  __________

(3) For short or long-term use, provide a pool of equipment other than
receivers (i.e. solar panels, radio modems, computers, etc.).   __________

(4) Provide real-time-kinematic (RTK) equipment for projects.  _______

(5) Provide training and technical services for field campaigns. _____

(6) Provide equipment for regional continuous arrays.  ______

(7) Provide technical and logistical support for regional continuous
arrays.  _____

(8) Support directly the operation of continuous arrays in regions of
special interest (e.g., California, Antarctica) to provide reference
stations for field campaigns.  _____

(9) Repair and maintain equipment not covered by vendor warranty. _____

(10) Provide documentation for equipment, site selection, monumentation,
data links, etc.  _____

Data Management and Archiving

 There are currently three archives supported by NSF I/F and NASA funds. 
The Boulder facility stores all of the field data collected by
UNAVCO-supported investigators.  Data acquired prior to 1992 are stored on
their  original medium or 9-track tape with a simple index; more recent
data are thoroughly cataloged with a 200-field index in a modern database
and stored on modern medium in raw and RINEX format.  The extended fields
allow searching the data base using many additional parameters such as
receiver or antenna type, antenna height, monument type, etc.  An estimated
15,000 GPS occupations worldwide will be searchable in this format if all
data stored at UNAVCO are migrated to the newer format.  Scripps and the
CDDIS at Goddard serve as two of the three IGS archives for continuous
tracking data.  Scripps provides for retrieval of either raw or RINEX data
by searching a directory tree  of about 200 fixed site names.  The CDDIS
provides for retrieval of RINEX data from about 100 global sites and
selected data from sites occupied by  DOSE investigators..
 
(1) Archive future field campaign data and metadata (logs, met, etc.)  _____

(2) Archive continuous data from regional arrays.  _____

(3) Archive continuous data from IGS stations.  _____

(4) Transcribe and translate data from pre-RINEX field campaigns (1985-92).
_____ 

(5) Provide on-line access to original (raw) campaign data.  _____

(6) Provide on-line access to RINEX  campaign data.  _____

(7) Provide on-line access to campaign data.  _____

(8) Provide standard (paper) log sheets.  _____

(9) Provide field PC and/or Internet (Web) based electronic log sheets.  _____

(10) Develop and distribute other tools for preparing data and metadata for
archiving.  _____

(11) Develop data management strategies and software for continuous
stations.  _____

 ** Data Processing **

NSF I/F funds Bernese support at the Boulder facility and NASA funds 
GIPSY support at JPL. (MIT receives SCEC funds for GAMIT support.)   
Processing services are offered by Boulder and university-based analysis 
groups with investigator-provided funds.  NSF and NASA also fund the 
computation of orbital information at Scripps.  

(1) Develop software and procedures for in-field data quality control _______

(2) Maintain/distribute RINEX translators for all major receivers.  _____

(3) Maintain/update/improve high accuracy GPS positioning software.  _____

(4) Which package(s)?  ______________________________________  

(5) What features/capabilities should be added? _______________________
_____________________________________________________________________

(6) Provide high-accuracy orbital information (ephermerides/solution files)
with 1- to 7-day delay.  _____  7- to 30-day delay __________

(7) Provide real-time high-accuracy orbital information (from orbits
predicted 1-2 days ahead).  _____

(8) What orbit service(s) do you currently use? ____________________________

(9) Provide classes in data analysis.  _____

(10) Provide assistance in data analysis.  _____

(11) Perform complete analysis of GPS data.  _____

(12) Develop or distribute a kinematic analysis capability.  _____

(13) Maintain/distribute post-processing tools (e.g. GMT, modeling
software).  _____

Technology Development

The current I/F grant with the Boulder facility has supported R&D
activities designed to assist the community in obtaining improved accuracy
from GPS measurements.  

(1) Evaluate new equipment capabilities under different modes of operation
and conditions.  _____

(2) Highlight and diagnose differences between receivers/antennas.  
_____

(3) Characterize instrument performance (e.g., input power tolerances,
temperature sensitivity, antenna phase and gain patterns).  _____

(4) Develop or distribute a real-time kinematic capability.  _____

Coordinating Activities

Support community-wide and specialist workshops.  _____

Other

Are there other functions that are important to you and have not been
covered here?  

Name:                                           
Institution:                                    
Address:                                        
Phone:                                      
Fax:                                            
E-mail:                                         

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Robin E. Bell
[email-masked]
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Palisades, NY 10964

Voice   914-365-8827
Fax     914-365-8179

Secretary Mary Hurst 914-365-8494

[Mailed From: Randolph Ware <[email-masked]>]

[Mailed From: Robert Liu <[email-masked]>]