2013-2018 UNAVCO Community Proposal Geodesy Advancing Geosciences and EarthScope: The GAGE Facility

Unavco, Inc., Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Miller 1261833 The GAGE Facility: Geodesy Advancing Geosciences and EarthScope Cooperative Agreement (CA) supports advancement of cutting-edge community geodetic research around the world. Over the last two decades, space-based geodetic observations have enabled measurement of the motions of the Earth?s surface and crust at many different scales, with unprecedented spatial and temporal detail and increased precision, leading to fundamental discoveries in continental deformation, plate boundary processes, the earthquake cycle, the geometry and dynamics of magmatic systems, continental groundwater storage and hydrologic loading. Space geodesy furthers research on earthquake and tsunami hazards, volcanic eruptions, coastal subsidence, wetlands health, soil moisture and groundwater distribution. Of particular importance are contributions to understanding of processes related to climate dynamics, including hurricane tracking and intensity, sea level rise, and changes in mountain glaciers and large polar ice sheets. As global population disproportionately increases in hazards-prone coastal and tectonically active regions of the US and across the globe, the societal relevance of quantifying, understanding, and potentially mitigating natural hazards grows. Geoscientists using global geodetic infrastructure coupled with leading edge techniques are well poised to advance basic research that is in the U.S. and global public interest as the challenges of living on a dynamic planet escalate. NSF-funded geodesy investigators are active on every continent, across a broad spectrum of the geosciences, and facilitated by data and engineering services that are now merged under the GAGE Facility. GAGE continues operations of: 1) the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), an integrated set of geodetic networks that includes 1100 continuous GPS sites (with ~350 high-rate, low-latency data streams and ~125 surface meteorological sensors), 78 borehole strainmeters and seismometers, and 6 long-baseline laser strainmeters, and tiltmeters on several volcanoes; 2) global engineering and data services primarily to NSF-funded investigators who use terrestrial and satellite geodetic technologies in their research and provision of network operations support to community GPS networks and NASA?s Global GNSS Network (GGN); and 3) Education and community outreach actvities. NSF?s Division of Polar Programs (PLR) contributes to the GAGE Facility support of PI research and GPS networks in Greenland and Antarctica. NASA contributes to the GAGE Facility to support the GGN and the activities of the IGS Central Bureau, which underlie the internationally coordinated reference frame products that make high-precision geodesy possible. ***