MRI: TLALOCNet - Development of a continuous GPS-MET array in Mexico for atmospheric, climatic, and seismotectonic research in the Americas

1338091米勒这项主要研究仪器（MRI）计划拨款支持在墨西哥开发连续、实时、低延迟的全球定位系统（cGPS）和配置的气象传感包（温度、气压、相对湿度、地面风速）阵列，用于美洲的大气、气候和地震构造研究。这个网络被命名为TLALOCNet，以阿兹特克人掌管雨水、肥沃和水的神命名。TLALOCNet将需要在墨西哥北部的西马德雷山脉、墨西哥中部太平洋上的岛屿和墨西哥湾坎佩切湾岛上的两个地点建造六个新的GPS/Met站。在墨西哥中部靠近墨西哥俯冲带的西部沿海和内陆地区，另外18个现有的cGPS站点将升级为现代GPS接收器和阻环天线，升级电力和电信系统，气象传感器和外壳，使整个网络达到其他构造大地测量GPS网络的标准（例如，EarthScope板块边界观测站）。TLALOCNet的数据将通过联安办事处的网络服务公开和免费提供和发现。TLALOCNet数据将有可能在一个受到来自太平洋、墨西哥湾和加勒比海的大量大气水分季节性和年度影响的地区，以变革性地推进对大气动力学的了解。GPS/Met能够利用多频GPS卫星信号的延迟时间推算出GPS/Met站上方锥形的地球大气总可降水量（TPW），这些信号受到从大气顶部到接收机天线的大气湿度综合量的影响。GPS-Met对TPW的观测补充了其他通过卫星遥感方法和气象气球发射的无线电探空气象传感器对大气中水蒸气的垂直和水平时空分布的测量。GPS-Met的真正优势在于它是一种全天候观测，可以经济有效地在必要的尺度上提供更多的空间和时间覆盖，以提高对中尺度对流系统（MCS）的因果关系和演变的理解。MCS在热带地区产生了惊人的降水量和强度，特别是由于大气与山区地形的动态相互作用，水汽冷却和沉淀。在北美季风期间，MCS可能占墨西哥西北部和美国西南部年总降水量的50-70%。该地区的季节性和年度TPW可能对气候变化很敏感，由此产生的水文气象影响可能会带来大规模的社会危害（如洪水、山体滑坡），并对墨西哥和美国西南部的水资源管理产生重大影响。TLALOCNet还将维持和加强对墨西哥西部俯冲带动力学和地震周期的持续详细研究。该地区的实时、高速率GPS观测将推进俯冲地震周期的研究，包括同震破裂过程、震后断层余震和粘弹性反弹、偶发性震颤和滑动（与辅助但同时发生的地震观测相结合）以及地震间弹性应变的研究。

1338091 MillerThis Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program grant supports the development of a continuous, real-time, low latency Global Positioning System (cGPS) and collocated meteorological sensing package (temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, surface wind speed) array in Mexico for atmospheric, climatic, and seismotectonic research in the Americas. The network has been coined TLALOCNet, after the Aztec God of rain fertility and water. TLALOCNet will entail the construction of six new GPS/Met stations located in the Sierra Madre Occidental of northern Mexico, islands in the Pacific off central Mexico and two sites on island in the Bay of Campeche, Gulf of Mexico. An additional 18 existing cGPS sites along the western Coastal and interior regions of central Mexico proximal to the Mexico subduction zone will be upgraded with modern GPS receivers and choke ring antennas, upgraded power and telecommunication systems, meteorological sensors, and enclosures to bring the full network to the standards of the other tectonic geodesy GPS networks (e.g., EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory). TLALOCNet data will be openly and freely available and discovery via UNAVCO web services. TLALOCNet data will offer the potential to transformably advance understanding of atmospheric dynamics in a region that is impacted seasonally and annually with large fluxes of atmospheric moisture from the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. GPS/Met enables the derivation of total precipitable water (TPW) in the Earth's atmosphere in a cone above GPS/Met stations by using the delay time of multiple frequency GPS satellite signals that are influenced by the integrated amount of atmospheric moisture from the top of the atmosphere to the receiver antenna. GPS-Met observations of TPW complement other measurements of the vertical and horizontal spatial and temporal distribution of water vapor in the atmosphere through satellite remote sensing methods and weather balloon launched radiosonde meteorological sensors. The real advantage of GPS-Met is that it is an all-weather observation that can cost-effectively provide increased spatial and temporal coverage at scales necessary to improve understanding of the causation and evolution of mesoscale convective systems (MCS). MCS give rise to spectacular volumes and intensity of precipitation in the tropics, especially as that moisture cools and precipitates in response to the atmosphere's dynamic interaction with mountainous terrain. MCS may account for between 50-70% of total precipitation annually in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. during the North American Monsoon. Seasonal and annual TPW in this region is likely to be sensitive to changing climate and resultant hydrometeorological impacts are likely to present large scale societal hazards (e.g., floods, landslides) and have significant water resource management implications for both Mexico and the southwestern U.S. TLALOCNet will also sustain and enhance continued detailed studies of subduction zone dynamics and the earthquake cycle in Western Mexico. Real-time, high rate GPS observations in this region will advance studies of the subduction earthquake cycle, including studies of coseismic rupture processes, postseismic fault afterslip and viscoelastic rebound, episodic tremor and slip (in conjunction with ancillary but contemporaneous seismic observations) , and interseismic elastic strain.