Operation and Management of the LDEO Instrument Center of the National Ocean Seismometer Pool

DESCRIPTION: After a year-long absence from the U.S. Ocean Bottom Seismometer Instrument Pool (OBSIP), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory will rejoin OBSIP with new management, a service-oriented model, a renewed testing and verification program, and improvements to their ~43 broadband sensors. Under new leadership, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Institutional Instrument Center (IIC) will join Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as one of the 3 providers of OBS for the majority of NSF-sponsored, active and passive marine seismic experiments. Prior to participating in their first field experiment as a new member of OBSIP, the researchers will undertake an exhaustive testing program and establish procedures to ensure the availability of high-quality data that can be delivered to scientists rapidly after the completion of cruises. The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory IIC expects to be fully operational by 2008. The availability of these OBS will have an immediate, positive impact on the scientific community, which must now wait up to 5 years for broadband sensors to complete funded programs. Another important broader impact is the involvement of a relatively recent Ph.D. in oversight and daily facility operations for the IIC.