Station Service Statistics for Alaska Transportable Array: Suspected Causes and Potential Mitigation Approaches

Date: 4/24/2019

Time: 06:00 PM

Room: Fifth Avenue

The Alaska Transportable Array (Alaska TA) is a broadband seismic network made up of 280 new and existing stations that uniformly cover Alaska and north-west Canada. Over five field seasons, from 2013-2017, 194 new stations were installed as part of EarthScope’s Alaska Transportable Array. Most of these new stations have a nearly identical design and installation methodology which ensured that the stations could be built, transported, and installed at the field location efficiently and predictably. The stations were installed over a vast area in a variety of environments from rain forests and swamps to mountains and arctic tundra. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) has been a critical phase of the project and has been ongoing since the first stations were installed in 2013. In late 2017 following the completion of installation,the project shifted primarily to O&M and will continue until the last of the Alaska TA stations are removed. This presentation focuses on O&M activities with an emphasis placed on network performance statistics, a review of the types of failures seen at Alaska TA stations, and how the design of the stations as well as the O&M activities have been modified to address common failure modes. Statistics on failures of station equipment (seismometers, digitizers, telemetry systems, etc.) will be presented along with failure rates due to extreme weather damage from wildlife. This analysis will inform plans for future improvements to further increase the reliability and resilience of the stations.

Presenting Author: Max Enders

Authors