Here are some of the articles that have been recently posted to the PASSCAL website:

EarthScope Orientation Week Kick-starts a Busy Summer for Student Interns

For the last few years, several students have gathered at the EPIC (PIC) for the EarthScope Undergraduate Internship Orientation Week.  In the EarthScope Undergraduate Intern program, fifteen students fan out to conduct seismological research at thirteen
host institutions.  The program is organized and run by Michael Hubenthal of EarthScope.  This year, the staff for the week-long orientation program included Rick Aster (NMT), Greg Chavez (PIC), Kent Condie (NMT), Katie Foster (U. of Wyoming & Program Alumnus), Bruce Harrison (NMT), Michael Hubenthal (EarthScope), Hunter Knox (Sandia National Lab), Jesse Lawrence (Stanford University), William McIntosh  (NM Bureau of Geology), Sandra Saldaña (Noble Energy), John Taber (EarthScope), and Dave Thomas (PIC), along with Student Assistant Rob Anthony (NMT Grad Student & Program Alumnus).

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Pegasus Datalogger

The Pegasus is a 3 channel high-resolution data logger. It is very low power and easily configurable via a handheld device. The Pegasus is lightweight and small in form factor. The Pegasus has 32 gigabytes of internal recording space, and is downloaded via free software through USB. It supplies MiniSEED data along with StationXML to smoothly allow data archival. It also has built-in sensor controls, automatic mass re-centering, and calibration functions. The Pegasus is currently supplied as a set with a Trillium Compact sensor for a small station footprint and ease of installation.

Features:

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Power Box

The Power Box is a combination of enclosure, solar charge controller, and connectors which ensure the battery is charged and the instrumentation is powered. Below are some pictures of the EPIC power box (and below that is the old standard EPIC power box) . All the power boxes have a 12-15 amp load capacity and a Low Voltage Disconnect (LVD) to prevent damage to the battery. These boxes are designed to work with any nominal 12 volt solar panel and any deep cycle gel-cell lead acid battery.

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Batteries

Batteries are PI Supplied.

Batteries come in two main types, primary which are single use and secondary which are rechargeable.

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Huddle testing feedback-sensors and dataloggers

Introduction

“Huddle”-testing sensors before field deployment is a key part of any seismic experiment.  Huddle-testing involves testing almost all components of the field station, for many stations, in parallel.  The number of stations that can be tested at one time is limited only by availability of personnel and lab space.

Huddle-testing potentially reduces crew time spent in the field, cost of the experiment, and the need to revisit sites.  Huddle-testing improves crew consistency and most importantly, the likelihood of successful station deployments and survival.

Visitors from Ecuador

Three engineers from the Escuela Politecnica Nacional Ecuador, Instituto Geofísico, spent the first two weeks of May here at EPIC. They are planning a network of 63 permanent broadband stations, 25 emergency sites, and 70 accelerometer stations in Ecuador. These stations will be used to monitor volcanic activity and seismic events. Ecuador is home to more than 20 volcanoes, so this is an important undertaking not only for the scientific knowledge it will provide, but also for the safety of the Ecuadoran people.

EPIC Announces Software release: Nexus, a simple tool for creating SEED meta-data.

EPIC is pleased to announce the release of Nexus, a simple tool for creating SEED meta-data.

Nexus is a software tool with a graphical interface that allows users to quickly and easily create and modify SEED meta-data. It outputs StationXML, the recently adopted replacement format for Dataless SEED. Nexus greatly simplifies preparing data for archival at the DMC. 

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EPIC Staff in the News

It's been an eventful media week for several of the staff of EarthScope EPIC, who were highlighted in a lengthy piece on women in science in the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association's magazine, enchantment, which is the second largest publication in New Mexico. Then, when a small earthquake rocked Socorro, more EPIC staff were prominently featured in a report on the quake in the local newspaper of record, El Defensor Chieftain.

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What was the Data Archiving Workshop all about?

EPIC provides a valuable service to the scientific community by loaning seismometers, data recorders, and other equipment to professional researchers. After the hardware installation and recovery for each experiment, the raw data are harvested from every recording disk. Sometimes there are thousands of them. The raw files are gathered and converted into standard forms called SEED or ph5 formats. The final phase of the research process, which all our users consent to when they request our equipment, is the submission of their data results for archiving at the EarthScope Data Management Center. It is not always a straightforward conversion, especially for new users and students. That's when the EPIC Data Group steps in to help.

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Station Enclosures

Introduction: