CAREER: Integrating Research and Education to Apply High-Rate GPS Into Natural Hazards Reduction

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Global Positioning System (GPS) has grown to become one of the principal tools applicable to many disciplines, including geography, earth sciences, atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, civil engineering, surveying, and others. GPS with a low-sampling rate (e.g., 30 second per sample) has been used by geoscientists for more than two decades to study plate motions. The new aspect of this project is to study high-rate GPS (e.g., 1 sample per second or higher), which is critical to conduct real-time monitoring and early-warning of natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides. This project will foster the integration of education and research through conducting independent research, improving current geosciences curriculum, supporting and mentoring undergraduate and graduate research, and promoting faculty expertise development. The research component of this project will focus on improving precision of real-time high-rate GPS and promoting its applications in natural hazards monitoring and early-warning, while the educational component will focus on implementing GPS into earth science education at college as well as pre-college levels. Both components are based on a high-rate GPS network funded by a NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program. The high-rate GPS network includes six permanent GPS stations and four campaign GPS stations located in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These permanent GPS stations are colocated with seismic stations operated by the Puerto Rico Seismic Network and Strong Motion Program and closely-spaced with sea level tide gauge stations operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The integrated GPS-Seismic-TideGauge observation system has become a fundamental infrastructure for earthquake and tsunami research in Puerto Rico and its surrounding regions. The final goal of this project is to promote applications of real-time high-rate GPS in natural hazards reduction, and fuel our new generation (graduates, undergraduates, and K-12 students) with the cutting-edge GPS technology to prepare for a broad set of career paths. The specific objectives of the research are to (1) systematically evaluate the performance of high-rate (5-Hz, 10-Hz, or higher) GPS as a new seismometer, (2) develop new methods of improving precision of high-rate GPS, and (3) integrate real-time high-rate GPS into the earthquake monitoring and tsunami early-warning system operated by the Puerto Rico Seismic Network at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Real-time high-rate GPS technology is an integration of advanced GPS satellite, internet, real-time communication, solar power, computer, and visualization technologies. These new technologies will inspire students? interests in a spectrum of science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) disciplines, and attract more students to earth science majors, which will increase the diversity of earth science community. Education and outreach are the vital parts of this project. We will support two graduates, two undergraduates, and one high-school earth science teacher (in summer) each year. We will also develop a series of education and outreach activities related to the applications of GPS. They are expected to enhance public awareness of science and new technologies and increase the participation of underrepresented groups (Hispanics) in earth science research.