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Distributed Acoustic Sensing RCN Field Experience

Date(s): May 30-June 1, 2023
Location: Golden, Colorado

Overview

The 2023 DAS field experience will be held May 30-June 1st (all day) at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. This event will include hands-on experience with distributed acoustic sensing systems and installation techniques. We encourage all to apply; we plan to support participants with a range of education/career stages and previous DAS experience.

Venue

The field experience will be held at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, at the Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing Laboratory and the Ken Larner GeoMaker Space in the Green Center. More information about these facilities is available here.

More information is also available for airport transport and on-campus parking.

Code of Conduct

All participants will be required to adhere to the EarthScope Code of Conduct.

Organizing Team

  • Eileen Martin, Colorado School of Mines, Instructor
  • Ge Jin, Colorado School of Mines, Instructor
  • Jeff Shragge, Colorado School of Mines, Instructor
  • Student Instructors, Colorado School of Mines
  • Kasey Aderhold, EarthScope Consortium Inc., Project Manager
  • Krystin Poitra, EarthScope Consortium Inc., Meeting Planner

Agenda

A program for 3 days (May 30th 8am-5pm, May 31st 8am-5pm, June 1st 8am-5pm) has been developed below.

May 29, 2023

06:30 pm – Dinner at Sherpa House (RSVP required), 1518 Washington Avenue 

May 30, 2023

08:00 am – Arrive on campus, Green Center classroom TBD

08:30 am – Introductions

09:00 am – Introductory material

12:00 pm – Lunch – on your own

01:00 pm – “Office Hours”/Q&A

01:30 pm – Splicing Demonstration in Geomaker space

02:00 pm – Rotate smaller groups through:

  • Hands-on splicing opportunity
  • Tour of fiber optic lab and on-campus resources or self-guided Geology Museum
  • Best practices – cleanliness, breathing exercises, safety

05:00 pm – Wrap Up Discussion


May 31, 2023

08:00 am – Arrive on campus, Green Center classroom TBD

08:30 am – Announce schedule, weather-dependent

  • Installation of two surface cables (1 loose and 1 pinned) and geophone array on top of buried cable in sporting field
  • Guided brainstorming session for experiment proposal design
  • Collect and review data or data exercises
  • Lunch – on your own

05:00 pm – Wrap Up Discussion

June 1, 2023

08:00 am – Arrive on campus, Green Center classroom TBD

08:30 am – Installation of DASDAE software for those who encountered issues

09:00 am – Examples of data structures, introduction of features, and who’s who in DASDAE

10:30 am – Break

10:45 am – Exercise Set: output data to pre-set grid, STA/LTA of events, comparison of spectra – using Terra15 data set 

11:45 am – Paired pairs debrief discussion

12:00 pm – Lunch – on your own

01:00 pm – “Office Hours”/Q&A

01:30 pm – Exercise Set: patchwise data, coherence matrix, gain correction, filter data

02:30 pm – Paired pairs debrief discussion

02:45 pm – Demonstration of parallelization 

03:00 pm – Break

03:15 pm – Distributed Acoustic Sensing Data Analysis Ecosystem (DASDAE) focus group discussion

04:15 pm – Future activities discussion

05:00 pm – Wrap Up Discussion

Reimbursement Policy

If selected for travel support, reimbursement of travel expenses (airfare/ground transportation/per diem) to the maximum as awarded to you will require being compliant with NSF policies, EarthScope travel policies, and supplying proper documentation. A specific DAS RCN Field Experience reimbursement form will be sent to you to fill out and return with updated instructions.

Itemized receipts are required for out-of-pocket expenses as well as proper documentation. Specific instructions sent to selected participants will include:

  • Airfare receipts should show the itinerary, itemization of cost, and class of airfare (NOTE: if using a foreign-flag air carrier, proper justification will be needed otherwise the expense may not be covered.)
  • Mileage, if applicable, should be supported by a Google map showing the starting and ending location.
    • If driving more than 500 miles one direction:
      • A printout of a comparison, economy class airfare for the applicable dates of travel between the the nearest commercial airport serving the origin and destination cities is required.
      • Reimbursement will not exceed the lesser of the cost of per-mile reimbursement plus tolls or the comparison airfare plus transfer costs to and from the airport.
    • Gas purchases are not allowed as this is covered by mileage.
    • Any other transportation expenses, such as taxi cab/Uber/Lyft (to/from airport/hotel), parking, and tolls are allowable.  Receipts should include dates, amounts, and other relevant information.
  • Rental cars are not reimbursable under this provided support.
  • No other expenses are covered outside of transportation, lodging, and per diem.

Covered hotel nights will be booked and directly billed to EarthScope; a credit card is required at check-in for any additional charges to the room bill. Unless otherwise approved, only nights of May 29th-June 1st will be covered. Participants are responsible for any other charges incurred to their room at check out.

Per diem will be calculated for you based on your travel dates, not to exceed May 29th to June 2nd and not including provided meals.

We will be following the local health orders for Colorado School of Mines. As of April 6, 2023, the recommendations are:

  • Stay home (and away from campus) when sick
  • Get tested for COVID-19 (rapid at-home or PCR test)
  • Follow isolation and quarantine guidelines if you test positive or are a close contact

Masks and COVID-19 tests will be available at this event upon request.

As part of the application process, participants will be asked to commit to not attending if they test positive or develop symptoms during or within 5 days of the start of the event, or as otherwise recommended by local health orders. The State of Colorado also maintains a COVID dashboard displaying public health data.


The research coordination network and this workshop is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation under award EAR-1948737. More information about the DAS RCN is available here. This event is also supported by funding from the National Science Foundation under award EAR-2148614.

Have questions? Please contact kasey.aderhold @ earthscope.org for more information.