UNAVCO GPS Support to the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs

FIELD SUPPORT

Based on experience from the 1994-95 season, UNAVCO specified the need for two field engineers at McMurdo Station for the summer season. The primary reason was to ensure adequate field support, while simultaneously attending to responsibilities at McMurdo Station. Once the schedule of projects was fixed, UNAVCO committed two field engineers[1] for the busiest portion of the 1995-96 season, while a single engineer handled the early season and late season workload.

The primary responsibilities of the field engineers at McMurdo Station are managing the large equipment pool and providing technical support to field projects. Equipment management tasks include checking in and testing equipment upon arrival at McMurdo, preparing the proper equipment for each science team to be supported, testing equipment between projects, repairing damaged equipment, and arranging the return shipment to CONUS. The technical support tasks include assisting with GPS project planning, providing field assistance, managing and safeguarding data, processing data, interpreting data, and acting as an information clearinghouse about GPS. The field engineer gave a Wednesday night science lecture in December.

In addition to the increased level of support available to science projects, technical support at McMurdo Station allows for maximum utilization of the GPS equipment while ensuring that the receivers and ancillary equipment remain in good repair throughout the season. Table 1 reflects a 75% direct utilization rate of the UNAVCO receivers, based on a total of 1348 receiver days provided to Polar Program support. Most of the remaining receiver time went to equipment preparation, testing, local experimentation, training, and shipment preparation.

Last modified Monday, 26-Nov-2007 22:31:09 UTC

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