Instrumental Core

该核心的总体目标是为仪器提供先进的技术支持

The overall aim of this core is to provide sophisticated state of the art support for the instrumental developments needed to reach the goals of the Center. It will accomplish this in two closely related ways: 1) to support the instrumental advances, both hardware and software needed to advance each project 2) to ufilize the instrumental and procedural developments in each project to design, construct, and test the 3 types of prototype instruments that will carry out the measurements including being field-deployable and capable of being operated by non-expert personnel with no prior training. The work plan and accompanying budget has been developed to facilitate the capabilifies of this core carrying out its responsibilities for the overall project: to develop optimized critical components to advance the technology in all three projects and then to develop a prototype that incorporates the developments. The personnel in this core have specific responsibilifies that extend across all three projects and also incorporate concepts, software, and hardware within each project. The personnel in this core will be involved in the day to day operations of the three projects, especially in the development of the specialized instrumentation to facilitate each project. Because the fime commitments among the three projects will vary over time and among individuals in this core, it is most efficient to not to try to indicate a set proportion of their efforts for the three projects. Instead we will have the capability and the flexibility to provide the effort that is need to attain maximal progress in all 3 projects and will be able to advance more quickly projects where the field deployability can be achieved most rapidly. The direct project-supporting acfivities will be roughly 40% each for projects 1 and 3 (these are at Dartmouth) and 20% for Project 2 which is centered at Florida. During the course of the grant period the personnel in this core will be spending an increasing amount of their fime and effort in the design, construction, and testing ofthe prototype instruments to be produced. The personnel ofthe projects will be closely involved in both the design and the testing phases of the prototypes that are produced. This core will also interact closely with the Core at MCW where the latter will use their specialized expertise to provide components and advice that will enable the projects to move forward as effectively and efficienfiy as possible.