This project continues Scripps Institution of Oceanography's role as the Pacific Facility of the Ocean-Bottom Seismic Instrument Pool. Scripps maintains a fleet of 75 OBS/H of which 25 can be used in a long-deployment, broadband configuration for periods exceeding a year. Over the initial five years the combined fleet of active and passive instruments have been deployed over 500 times on 9 major marine geophysical research cruises.
Background: From the inception of the U.S. National Ocean Bottom Seismic Instrumentation Pool (OBSIP) in 1999, Scripps Institution of Oceanography has operated as one of the three institutions (Institutional Instrument Center – IIC) that support this NSF facility. The supporting institutions (others located at WHOI and LDEO), which operate as a single entity, have been designated to serve the entire US marine seismology community by providing instrumentation and expertise in collecting marine seismic data through the standard NSF proposal process. Instrument construction and testing: Throughout the duration of the OBSIP Cooperative Agreement the SIO lab operated a continuous program of instrument construction and testing. Instrument construction and fleet augmentation efforts were in direct response to the increasing demands from the marine seismic scientific community requiring larger OBS arrays and more seagoing field programs. The current SIO OBS fleet used in the support of OBSIP field programs is: -- 39 Broad-Band OBS (BBOBS) units -- 63 Short-Period (SP) units -- 15 Autonomous Broad Application Low Obstruction Noise Exempt System (ABALONES) units These instruments, along with basic supporting infrastructure and resources, will also be used toward future research endeavors as the OBSIP program continues. OBSIP supported field programs: A fundamental role of the SIO lab is to provide instrumentation and personnel with appropriate technical expertise to collect ocean bottom seismic data. To date, the SIO IIC has compiled an excellent record of supporting this research. Statistics of supported efforts include: -- 35 research projects -- 81 research cruises -- 1524 OBS instrument deployments -- 97% instrument recovery rate Data from NSF funded cruises has been distributed to Principal Investigators and have been centrally archived at the IRIS Data Management Center. Summary: The NSF funding of this project has helped maintain existing equipment, has aided in the construction of our new OBS instruments, and has allowed SIO to promote the availability of OBSIP resources to the marine seismology community. Interaction and outreach with potential users of marine seismic instrumentation has proven to be a very important component contributing toward the success of the OBSIP program. Continued NSF funding toward the maintenance of existing instruments and laboratories, along with the ongoing outreach and support within the marine seismic community, will certainly promote a successful future for the U.S. National OBSIP.
