Instrumentation Services Governance

For activities sponsored under the "Seismological Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience" award from the National Science Foundation and other sources, Instrumentation Services governance encompasses several different committees and working groups, charged with overseeing a wide range of complementary and collaborative instrumentation-related activities at IRIS.

Standing Committees:

• Global Seismographic Network Standing Committee - Advise IRIS and the United States Geological Survey on policies to jointly deploy and operate the Global Seismographic Network (GSN), to ensure its integrity and long-term viability, to rapidly disseminate data collected by the GSN, and coordinate GSN linkages with other networks around the world. 
• PASSCAL Standing Committee - Advise IRIS on policies of the Portable Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) instrumentation program, addressing issues in hardware development, usage, and services related to field support and the dissemination of data collected by individual field projects

Other Committees and Working Groups:

• Electromagnetic Advisory Committee - Review and advise on the operation, evolution, and technical performance of the PASSCAL Magnetotelluric Program and any EarthScope follow-on magnetotelluric surveying activities.
  • Instrumentation Working Group
  • Data Handling and Software Working Group
• Polar Science and Technology Committee - Advise IRIS and UNAVCO in coordinating efforts in polar instrumentation and polar observing networks.
• GLISN Advisory Committee - Provide input to the Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network facility on technical issues and facility decisions, to achieve scientific goals and objectives.
• Transportable Array Advisory Committee - Review and advise the operation, evolution, technical performance, and final disposition of the EarthScope USArray Transportable Array, currently deployed in Alaska and northwestern Canada.
• Quality Assurance Advisory Committee - Encourage high-quality datasets for seismic and other geophysical observations by promoting the IRIS data quality principles, coordinating the development and use of tools to measure data quality, and enhancing quality control feedback to network operators.
• Seismic Source Facility Advisory Committee - Provide strategic vision and priorities, enhance and develop outreach, and provide community oversight of the Seismic Source Facility operated by the University of Texas, El Paso.

Additional governance bodies have existed under other recent awards from NSF and to advise temporary efforts within IRIS. The charges, memberships, and meeting summaries of these provide a record of their activities.

• Instrumentation Services Standing Committee (NSF Award #1261681: Seismological Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience and EarthScope) - Advise IRIS on Instrumentation Services activities, assessing crosscutting instrumentation needs and services, developing activities and initiatives across Instrumentation Services programs, and ensuring effective and efficient use of resources.
• PH5 Working Group - Gather the input of the seismological community to guide IRIS to the final functionality and implementation of the PH5 capability for the storage and archival or active source datasets.
• CEUSN Working Group - Review and advise on the performance of the Central and Eastern US Seismic Network as it relates to the target scientific goals and objectives for these 159 long-term EarthScope USArray Transportable Array stations.
• OBSIP Oversight Committee (NSF Award #1112722: A Community-Based OBSIP Management Office) - Advise on the appropriateness of staffing levels and budgets, the adequacy and responsiveness of service and instrumentation to the community, whether instrument developments are adequate to meet future needs, the quality of the data, and whether each  Institutional Instrument Contributor (IIC) continues to meet the IIC definition and criteria.
• Working Group on Long-Term Seafloor Seismographs - Explore the development of a pilot project for installation of a high-quality permanent seismic network in the open ocean, in support of the GSN design goals and other scientific initiatives.

More information on the IRIS governance structure can be found here.