The ISSC met for two one-hour long webmeetings on April 13th and 16th. First, the committee was provided with programmatic highlights and updates to action items for IS activities since the fall. Most of the discussion focused on forward-thinking initiatives, as IRIS works to conclude the NSF SAGE award and is planning for funding it may receive under NGEO. Part of this process includes guiding initiatives being promoted by the WGLTSS, PH5WG, and the QAAC, exploring topics in permanent seafloor seismic observatories, portable data formats, and quality assessment activities, respectively. As EarthScope sunsets, the TA has submitted a supplemental proposal to NSF to operate in Alaska and Canada through 2020. Meanwhile, the EMAC expressed concern about IRIS engaging with NSF to catalyze interagency dialog to complete the MT-TA in the southern tier of the contiguous U.S. A letter on the topic of completing the MT-TA in the souther tier, prepared by the EMAC and endorsed by the ISSC, will be transmitted by the committee to the BoD’s spring meeting agenda.
The ISSC also discussed the response from the DSSC to its white paper on considerations for distribution of large data volumes collected with IRIS instrumentation. The committee recommends that a group continue a long-term dialog on this cross-programmatic issue, since some topics remain potential issues in large data exchange. The group also briefly discussed small hardware acquisitions the IS Team should target with the instrument test and evaluation fund in the NSF SAGE award. Finally, the committee reflected on its possible future incarnation within the next IRIS award and the role it serves within the IRIS governance structure. Committees are extra work, but the ISSC helped to break down silos between programs and provide useful guidance to staff. Future issues, such as those presently addressed by the ISSC, could be deliberated by ad-hoc working groups.
