Next-Generation Real-Time Geodetic Station Sensor Web for Natural Hazards Research and Applications

The project encompasses the following tasks, including hardware and software components: (1) Development of a power-efficient, low-cost, plug-in Geodetic Module for fusion of data from in situ sensors including GPS, a MEMS accelerometer package, and a MEMS meteorological sensor package, for deployment at 26 existing continuous GPS stations in southern California. The low-cost modular design is scalable to the many existing continuous GPS stations worldwide. (2) Estimation of new on-the-fly data products with 1 mm precision and accuracy, including three-dimensional broadband displacements and precipitable water, by new software embedded in the Geodetic Module's processor, rather than at a central processing facility. (3) Development of a Geodetic Sensor Web to allow the semi-autonomous sensors to transmit and receive information in real time by means of redundant sensor proxy servers and message broker networks to allow for robust sensor control, flow of data, data products, models and alarms, and to avoid single points of failure during emergencies. The team from SIO and JPL is working with users at the two National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices in southern California (San Diego and Los Angeles/Oxnard) and NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder to provide tropospheric signal delays and precipitable water vapor estimates for forecasting severe storms and flooding. Broadband displacements for earthquake and tsunami early warning and rapid response are being made available to users in the geophysics community through the Southern California Earthquake Data Center at Caltech. More »