The USArray Flexible Array (FA) has the capacity to support realtime telemetered seismic networks. The FA equipment pool includes roughly 90 Raven X cell modems that provide a low power, easy to configure and deploy telemetry solution. Succussful use of telemetry requires regular network monitoring and an ability to respond to station outages. Data from telemetered stations will flow directly from field to the PIs institution and then on to the IRIS DMC for archiving. Although data are telemetered, most experiments will record data to on-site media as a backup in the event of prolonged communication outages. If you have a passive Flexible Array experiment only recording data on-site, please visit Standalone Flexible Array Experiments for instructions on transmitting your data to the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center for archiving with the IRIS DMC.
The PASSCAL Instrument Center provides standard support for Flexible Array experiments including the archiving of on-site recorded data. The PI is responsible for network monitoring, maintaining accurate metadata, and will interface directly with the IRIS DMC to archive the realtime data. The Data Group at PASSCAL (data_group [at] passcal [dot] nmt [dot] edu) will work closely with PIs to establish dataflow from field to DMC and to provide assistance ensuring complete and accurate metadata.
That you are running the most recent PASSCAL software package for your platform (see Software Resources).
Training
PASSCAL requires the PI and key experiment personnel to have proper training on the recording instruments and the field computers. Even if you have recently had an active experiment, we recommend a refresher to learn about changes to software, hardware and recommended field procedures. Part of your training will include an introduction to Antelope, realtime tools, and a general overview of network state-of-health monitoring.You can request training here.
Realtime Network Set Up
Data Collection: PASSCAL provides the hardware and technical assistance to set up an Antelope realtime system on a local machine at the host institution.
Data Flow: For submission of realtime data to the DMC, PASSCAL staff will configure Antelope to transmit data directly to the DMC. Unrestricted data arriving at the DMC will be subject to similar quality control as Transportable Array data. Restricted data will not have quality control routines applied. Once archived, the data are available using standard DMC request tools.
Station Command and Control: Software will be provide to remotely monitor and control the seismic dataloggers, and through the datalogger, the sensors.
Identify An Open Station
All broadband experiments with 5 or more stations must identify at least one station to be unrestricted (open). These open stations will become part of the IRIS PASSCAL Unrestricted Stations Virtual Network.
Combined Realtime and Standalone-Station Networks
Most FA experiments that have telemetered stations also have a subset of standalone station as part of their network. In most cases, not only will the standalone stations have on-site recording, but the telemetered stations will too. Although telemetered station data are sent in near realtime to the DMC, on-site recorded data is considered the most complete an definitive data for these stations. For this reason, PASSCAL staff will archive all of the on-site recorded data, both telemetered and standalone stations, with the DMC. On-site recorded data will be assigned a quality flag of “D” in the miniseed header to distinguish from realtime data (quality flag "R"’). Please see Standalone Fleixible Array Experiments to get started archiving your on-site recorded data.
Collecting Your Metadata
PASSCAL staff work closely with PIs to acquire necessary and accurate metadata in order to have a complete description of the network (realtime and standalone stations).
Information Needed for Complete Metedata:
Network code: Two (2) alphabetical characters assigned by DMC at start of deployment.
Station name: Up to five (5) alphanumeric characters; no special characters allowed
Location: Latitude, longitude and elevation
Station Long Name: A long, descriptive name for the station
Start Time for configuration: Make sure the start time is exactly the same or earlier than the first trace sample for each station
Datalogger code: the type of datalogger you used for the station
Datalogger Serial Number
Sensor Type: Type of sensor for each station.
Sensor Serial Number
Sensor Orientation - (see description from the Antelope man page for db)
Sample rate(s)
Channel Description: MSEED channel names are defined by the sample rate and sensor type
Instrument (i.e. sensor) type, and channel orientation.
Close Time: When the experiment ends or this configuration changes
Maintain Accurate Metadata
After each service the PI(s) must provide to the PIC any changes to the network configuration. Examples include: changes to sample rate, datalogger or sensor swaps, and stations commissioned or decommission.
Please contact data_group [at] passcal [dot] nmt [dot] edu for further questions.
