Rev. 0, 2/16/12
3.0 Seismic Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience and EarthScope
3.1Instrumentation Services
3.1.1Management
3.1.2Governance
WBS Element 3.1 Instrumentation Services
Definition: IRIS Instrumentation Services (IS) includes all of IRIS’ primary instrumentation activities together under one umbrella. This includes PASSCAL and GSN activities, the instrumentation elements of USArray, as well as Polar and other activities. Advances in sensor and data technologies have led to increasing overlap between the technical solutions being incorporated across all IRIS instrumentation activities. Instruments Services provides coordination among these activities in terms of priority setting, execution of existing efforts, and implementation and exploration of new technologies to better leverage the collective expertise and resources.
WBS Element 3.1.1 IS Management
Definition: This task consists of support for the IS management team. This includes salary support, travel support. Activities include planning, personnel management, subaward management and preparation of annual and longer-term budgeting, budget tracking.
Assumptions: It is assumed that IS management will be stable with X FTEs and that domestic and foreign travel will be comparable to current. It is also assumed that the level of management responsibilities and activities will remain similar as at present.
Basis of Estimate: This element includes salary and indirect cost support for the X FTE. Also included are travel costs for the IS Management team.
WBS Element 3.1.2 IS Governance
Definition: This task supports the engagement of the US and international research communities that provide oversight for IRIS IS. This supports the travel costs and other related meeting costs for the IS standing committee(s)(?), working groups formed by the committee(s) (?), as well as travel for other experts that are requested to join meetings of the committees or working groups. This task does not include any salary support for IS staff or members of the committees or working groups that contribute their time.
Assumptions: It is assumed that the committee(s) will meet twice per year in face-to-face meetings and supports all related travel costs of the members and invited observers and includes airfare, hotel, and meals. It also supports working groups meeting costs, including travel costs if necessary. It also covers meeting room costs when applicable.
Basis of Estimate: Costs are assumed to be similar to previous years. It is budgeted at $1000 per person trip and $500 per day for meeting rooms.
3.1.3 Portable or PI Facilities
3.1.3.1 Management
3.1.3.2 Governance
3.1.3.3 Instrumentation
3.1.3.4 PI Support
3.1.3.5 Data
WBS Element 3.1.3 Portable or PI Facilities
Definition: IRIS PASSCAL and EarthScope Flexible Array (Portable or PI Facilities) is responsible for facilitating geophysical investigations by providing professional expertise in supporting a pool of portable seismographic instrumentation for loan to diverse scientific and educational communities. The program is responsible for providing access to professionallysupported state-of-the-art equipment and standardized data to U.S. investigators conductingseismological research through IRIS’ DataManagementCenter. IRISPASSCAL provides turnkey instrumentation and data services including the integration ofexperiment planning, logistics, training, and field support. The staff also provides hardware,software, and engineering services, all which enable the seismological community to conductnumerous customize scientific investigations each year. The program further supports Pan-IRIS objectives and in particular education.
Note: The PASSCAL and Flexible Array programs will merge in FY14. To date, we have not received the necessary guidance to understand NSF and community expectations. Several decisions may affect key WBS elements. The following descriptions are based on the nominal concept that the programs merge with a reasonable expectation of summed products and services.
WBS Element 3.1.3.1 DS Management
Definition: This task consists of support for the Program Manager at the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center (PIC). This includes salary support, travel support, and support for the development of metric estimation required for understanding PI and facility needs in supporting NSF-funded portable seismology efforts. It also includes support for the management team in terms of planning activities, personnel management, subaward management and preparation of annual and longer term budgeting, budget tracking, and pan-IRIS activities.
Assumptions: Program Management will be executed with 1 FTE. Domestic and foreign travel will be comparable to recent years. The level of report generation, metric reporting, performance metric reporting, and tracking of usage statistics will increase from previous years in the form of formal quarterly reports.
Basis of Estimate: This element includes salary and indirect cost support for the Program Manger. Support for the development of metrics and reporting requirements are included in this element. Travel costs include all program management and pan-IRIS related travel.
WBS Element 3.1.3.2 DS Governance
Definition: This task supports the U.S. research communities who provide oversight for IRIS and EarthScope operated portable seismology facility principally through the PASSCAL Standing Committee (PASC).The PASC includes the standard PASC membership, a representative from the Polar Seismology Community, and major subaward attendees. This supports the travel costs and other related meeting costs for the committee members as travel for other requested experts attendingPASC meetings. This task does not include any salary support for the Program Manager or members of the committees.
Assumptions: The PASC meets twice per year, for two days, in face-to-face meetings and supports all related travel costs of the PASC membership and invited observers, and includes airfare, hotel, and meals. This also covers meeting room costs when applicable.
Basis of Estimate: Previous years suggested and estimated cost of approximately $1000 per person per meeting, and $500 per day for meeting rooms.
WBS Element 3.1.3.3 Instrumentation
Definition: This task supports the facility in providing access to professionally supported state-of-the-art portable seismic equipment. The IRIS PASSCAL Program Manager oversees the program operation and the PASSCAL facility Director oversees facility operations and personnel. This task provides PIs with professionally supported portable seismic equipment. The equipment includes sensing systems; recording systems power systems, telemetry, and ancillary equipment. Staff provides systems integration and prepares equipment ready for shipment to PI requested locations. Tasks related to each system include, testing, evaluating, maintenance, and repair.
Assumptions: Staff supported within this task total approximately 14 FTEs and an additional number of student help from NMT. We anticipate this level of effort to increase specifically in the areas of systems maintenance and repair as the equipment pool is mature and requiring more attention to performance standards and preparation for use.
Basis of Estimate: This task includes salary support for the approximate 14 FTEs that work on this task. Travel support for operations staff is included. It also includes support for most major equipment requirements.
WBS Element 3.1.3.4 PI Support
Definition: This task includes support for Principal Investigators (PI) during their experiment. Support includes training of field personnel, instrumentation use instruction, software and data instruction, logistics and field instruction and other related community required workshops. Personnel provide PI support through array operations, planning, and monitoring of stations. Staff provide permitting, GIS, and various forms of field support either from the facility or in field with the PI. Logisticssupport includes scheduling, packing shipping and customs support.
Assumptions: We assume that the community will continue requesting more PI support and services, therefore, we expect that the FTE required for this effort will depend upon FTE the budget and facility can afford to support. The program has flexibility in this area but to maintain current levels of support will require no less than 4 FTE.
Basis of Estimate: This task includes salary support for the approximate 4 FTEs that work on this task. Travel support for operations staff is included. It also includes support for most major equipment requirements.
WBS Element 3.1.3.5 Data
Definition: This task provides services to PIs for producing standardized archived data for research, and submission to the IRIS DMC. Staff provides data QC, state of health review, waveform reviews, meta-data QC and software engineering support. For archive, survives includes preprocessing of data, post-processing of data, and capturing metrics.
Assumptions: We assume the level of FTE effort for this area to remain unchanged, however this assumes we can provide technical solutions for producing the necessary data products. With the merger of PASSCAL and Flexible Array programs, data services level remains an open an unanswered question. Current level is approximately 5 FTE.
Basis of Estimate: This task includes salary support for the approximate 5 FTEs that work on this task. Travel support for operations staff is included. It also includes support for most major equipment requirements.
3.1.4 GSN Program
3.1.4GSN Program
3.1.4.1Management
3.1.4.2 Governance
3.1.4.3GSN Operations
3.1.4.4Geophysical Observatories
3.1.4.5Arrays
3.1.4.6Quality Assurance Systems
3.1.4.7Oceans Coordination
WBS Element 3.1.4 GSN Program
Definition: The Global Seismographic Network is a multi-use scientific facility that provides a societal resource for Earth observations, monitoring, research, and education. The GSN installs and operates an international network of geophysical observatories through a cooperative partnership of U.S. universities and government agencies, coordinated with the international community. The GSN Program is responsible for maintaining instrumentation capable of measuring and recording with high fidelity all seismic vibrations from high-frequency, strong ground motions near an earthquake to the slowest fundamental oscillations of the Earth. Sensors are accurately calibrated, and timing is based on satellite clocks. The primary focus in creating the GSN has been seismology, but the infrastructure is inherently multi-use, and has been extended to other geoscience disciplines. This summary task consists of all staff, equipment, travel, materials and supplies, subawards, quality assurance system and other direct costs associated with the operation of the GSN in partnership with the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory.
WBS Element 3.1.4.1 GSN Management
Definition: This task consists of support for the management of the GSN. This includes salary support, travel support, and basic office level support. It also includes support for GSN management in terms of planning activities, subaward management and preparation of annual and longer term budgeting, budget tracking, and reporting activities.
Assumptions: It is assumed that GSN management will be 1 FTE and that domestic and foreign travel will be comparable to levels experienced in FY11 when GSN management staff was cut from 2 FTE to 1 FTE. It is also assumed that the level of effort will remain at the current level.
Basis of Estimate: This element includes salary, travel, office and indirect cost support for the GSN Program Manager.
WBS Element 3.1.4.2 GSN Governance
Definition: This task supports the engagement of the US and international research communities that provide oversight for IRIS GSN. This supports the travel costs and other related meeting costs for the GSN standing committee (GSN SC) and any other working groups formed by the IRIS GSN SC over time as well as travel for other experts that are requested to join meetings of the GSN SC or associated ancillary meetings. This also includes travel expenses for the GSN SC chair or appointed representative to attend Board of Directors, CoCom, or other high-level meetings associated with the governance of the GSN. This task does not include any salary support for GSN staff or members of the SC groups that contribute their time.
Assumptions: It is assumed that the GSN SC will meet twice per year in face-to-face meetings and supports all related travel costs of the GSN SC members, and invited observers and includes airfare, hotel, and meals. It also covers meeting room costs when applicable.
Basis of Estimate: Costs are assumed to be similar to previous years. It is budgeted at ~$1000 per person trip and ~$500 per day for meeting rooms.
WBS Element 3.1.4.3 GSN Operations
Definition: This task includes the basic operations of the GSN consisting of the operations and maintenance of the seismic stations, support of the communications infrastructure, site improvements, hardware procurements and associated subawards required for the operations of the GSN. A majority of the tasks under GSN Operations directly funded by IRIS are performed through a subaward to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Project IDA. Tasks passed to IDA include the personnel, hardware, communications, stipends, materials and supplies, travel and associated indirect costs associated with supporting the 41 stations of the IRIS/IDA GSN network. Not all procurements are passed through the subaward and IRIS maintains procurement authority over a portion of the equipment for the GSN. This task is also shared through our partnership with the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory. Although IRIS funds are not used to support salaries at the USGS, the operations task of IRIS includes procurement of some of the GSN hardware, support of a portion of the communications infrastructure and occasional subawards to the ASL to augment operations (site improvements, training, site relocations/installations, etc). In addition to IDA and ASL support, GSN supports operations through smaller subawards to GSN network operators consisting of IRIS university members for site-specific work at select stations.
Assumptions: The level of effort applied to operations will be on the order of previous years. The GSN is substantially complete and although there will be occasional new site work to allow for station relocations, new installations, or station closures, the number of stations in the basic GSN network is expected to remain relatively stable over the duration of the next five year cooperative agreement.
Basis of Estimate: It is expected that GSN operations costs will be relatively stable over the next five years, and that the past few years of GSN operations provide a good basis for estimating these costs (these costs have been under review for several years). The majority of IRIS’ GSN operations expenses are realized in the UCSD IDA budget. Level funding of the UCSD award would include the following major expenses
1)Salaries - ~10.5 FTE for management, administration, field engineering, bench support, and development tasks (~$850K).
2)Equipment Procurement - ~$50K
3)Station stipends and remote operations costs - ~$180K
4)Station communication Costs - ~$100K
5)Miscellaneous expenses (supplies, shipping, depot expenses, etc) - ~$150K
6)Travel - ~$125K
7)Indirect charges (54.5% of everything except equipment) - ~$750K
These are estimates based on previous year’s work. Year-to-year variations allow some movement between these categories.
In addition to UCSD, there is occasional minor salary support under the smaller subawards to UC Berkeley and CalTech that are ~0.1 FTE with the remainder generally going to procurement of hardware.
WBS Element 3.1.4.4 Geophysical Observatories
Definition: As mentioned above, the GSN is a platform that allows the integration of other, non-seismological experiments to leverage the GSN infrastructure. This task is associated with contributions towards supporting other geophysical observatory equipment integration and operations at GSN stations.
Assumptions: Past year support has been provided to ColumbiaUniversity in support of operations of the GPS stations in Russia and we continue to support these operations into the future as they are a key contribution to the joint US-Russian agreements on GSN stations in Russia. We continue to support other experiments though procurement and testing of other related sensors (meteorological, microbarograph, infrasound, GPS, Geomagnetics, etc) and continue to take guidance from the community on the advantages of adding additional sensor packages to the GSN suite of instrumentation, including non-conventional ground motion sensors (rotational sensors, tiltmeters, etc).
Basis of Estimate: Past salary support of the GPS experiments have included ~0.75 man months at Columbia university. This work is heavily leveraged against Columbia’s primary support (~$80K/year) from JPL. Contributions for Columbia for GPS operations from IRIS are ~$20K/year total (~$11.8K salaries, $1.2K travel and shipping, and $7K indirect charges).
WBS Element 3.1.4.5 Array development
Definition: This task includes work required to facilitate the community discussions, planning, testing and prototyping of potential arrays as an enhancement to the GSN. With the GSN network in its current configuration relatively stable, the community has expressed the desire to investigate the possibilities of adding broadband seismic arrays to the GSN to augment global seismological studies.
Assumptions: We assume that during the next 5 years, we can support two workshops to bring together scientific and technical discussions of the array community to determine targets, array design, deployment strategies and international cooperation required to establish broadband global seismic arrays. In addition, we will evaluate array designs and equipment and look for external and international funding to allow for the installation of prototype global seismic arrays.
Basis of Estimate: Salary support for this work will come from the GSN management task and associated support from Instrumentation Services staff. Workshops costs are estimated from several workshops of similar scale that IRIS has facilitated.
WBS Element 3.1.4.6 Quality Assurance Systems
Definition: The Quality Assurance tasks required of the GSN operators go above and beyond basic operations to support the calibration and quality improvement of the GSN stations. This includes site infrastructure recapitalization, calibration missions, metadata analysis, review and correction and new reporting schemes to inform the data user community of the status of data quality of the GSN. These tasks follow on the recent major overhaul of GSN quality assessment capabilities and will further enhance the quality assurance systems (QAS) currently under development.