Homestake Meeting, 05/15/14

Attending: Riccardo, Gwynne, Vuk, Tanner, Victor, Gary, Shivaraj, Nelson, Michael

Homestake wiki: https://zzz.physics.umn.edu/groups/homestake/home

Our agenda:

1) Homestake update

Vuk: continuing interaction with SDSTA. It looks like power will be available at all of the necessary “landings”: Yates at 1700, 4100, 4850, and Ross at 300, 800, 2000. Also, power should be available for 1700-1 seismic station, and for 4850-2,3,4. So this leaves us with battery solutions for 1700-2,3,4 and 4850-1. The 4100-2 station is unclear at this point, but it is also the lowest priority for us. One issue: fiber to 2000 via Ross has been damaged, considering rerouting via Yates - depending on this, the GPS distribution may be different.

The GPS distribution system design is near final. Liteway is making modifications to their units so that we can test them before the large order.

For network, there should be no problem at the AC-powered stations. For battery-powered stations, concerned with the power consumption due to the network switch and the media converter - if the power consumption turns out to be prohibitive, considering to store the data locally and retrieve it when the the batteries are replaced.

Gary: made a file for google-earth file for stations locations. Talked to Jaret to finalize details. Have to understand the land ownership, communicating with Jaret. Hopes that this can be done with telemetry so that the data could be taken real-time. Where should we located them - 2 criteria possible: either to get vertical or to optimize aperture (going orthogonal to the underground distribution).

Vuk/Victor/Gary: one near the open cut, one above the 4850-1, and one east-ward would probably make most sense.

Gary: hopes to scout the locations in June/July, do telemetry tests, and decide which locations are optimal.

2) UMN test setup (Tanner)

Working on data access. Can do it now in an inefficient way, through a web-browser to an IP address to turn on the baler, then go to the baler address and then download some files. Have a way of reading the miniSEED files. Did simple tests of the timing, to check if the tapping on a seismometer is recorded at correct times. So far, looks good (within 1 sec or so). Next goal, start looking at ways to stream the data to a computer via antelope software. It looks like it is possible, but will require some time to figure out.

Gary: suggest to run the demo first, to see how things work. Should talk more offline, everything revolves around orbserver.

3) Analysis of existing data

Victor: the links from Bill appear useful in terms of recovering the speed of sound at Homestake. Will have to meet with Eric to push this forward.

Vuk: Shivaraj and Noah met last week and found the problem with the recovery of simulated signals in the new radiometer code. Now planning to move onto different simulations.

Next meeting: June 12