The EarthScope Primary Instrument Center (EPIC, formerly the PASSCAL Instrument Center) is a

research center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentric ...

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech or NMT), formerly New Mexico School of Mines, is a public university in Socorro, New Mexico, United States. It offers over 30 Bachelor of Science degrees in technology, the scien ...

for

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

research in

Earth system science Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. In particular, it considers interactions and 'feedbacks', through material and energy fluxes, between the Earth's sub-systems' cycles, processes and "spheres"—atmosp ...

. The facility provides instrumentation and support services for

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

experiments around the world, as well as those for the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

. It supports the research of the Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) and the Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE), two National Science Foundation (NSF) organizations. It was originally the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) instrument center, an IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) facility program dedicated to seismographic data collection associated with research deployments using highly portable seismology instrumentation.

History

EPIC was formerly the IRIS Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) Instrument Center. PASSCAL was first created in 1984. In 1998, two instrument centers, the Stanford and the Lamont instrument centers, were combined to form the PASSCAL Instrument Center at New Mexico Tech. Starting in 2005, the following facilities were added to PASSCAL from what was then EarthScope (2003–2018), a preceding organization to Earthscope Primary Instrument Center (EPIC):Thirty Years Supporting Portable Arrays: The IRIS Passcal Instrument Center - NASA/ADS (harvard.edu) * EarthScope Array Operations Facility * EarthScope Flexible Array In 2006, a polar support group provided instrumentation and support for portable seismic experiments to projects in the polar regions. Examples are of polar projects that PASSCAL had assisted on are the following: * Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network (GLISN) * Geophysical Earth Observatory for Ice Covered Environments (GEOICE) Later, IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) merged with UNAVCO (University Navstar Consortium) on January 1, 2023, to form Earthscope Consortium, 20 years after the separate organization of Earthscope (2003–2018) had been created. From that event, IRIS PASSCAL became the Earthscope Primary Instrument Center (EPIC).Advancing Geophysics: IRIS and UNAVCO Merge to Form EarthScope Consortium - Zawacki - 2023 - Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists - Wiley Online Library Prior to the merger, the management of the following National Science Foundation (NSF) organizations was as follows: * UNAVCO supported the Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) * IRIS PASSCAL supported the Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Post merger, EPIC supports both GAGE and SAGE as its primary mission.

Instrumentation

EPIC provides the following types of seismology instrumentation for research all over the world: * High Resolution Data Acquisition Systems * Short Period Sensors * High Frequency Sensors *

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Sensors

Geophysical network support

EPIC supports the following global and regional scientific networks: * Network of the Americas (NOTA) * Global Seismographic Network (GSN) * Global

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

Network (GGN) *

Borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

strainmeter network (BSM) * Polar network operations funded by the NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP)

Environmental Applications

The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS) as well as Earthscope through EPIC helped monitor salt mines for hydrogen storage as an alternative energy fuel.Monitoring-Salt-Domes-Used-for-Energy-Storage-with-Microseismicity-Insights-for-a-Carbon-Neutral-Future.pdf (researchgate.net)

References

Geophysics organizations Geodetic surveys Seismology measurement Research