Attendees:
Committee Members Present: Beatrice Magnani (chair), Lee Liberty, Marianne Karplus, Zach Eilon, Wes Thelen, Rob Evans, Paul Winberry (also Polar ex-officio), Eric Sandvol, Andy Parsekian
Ex Officio Members: Ninfa Bennington (ex-officio EMAC chair)
Board Liaisons: Susan Schwartz (PASSCAL Board Liaison)
IRIS Staff and Observers: Kent Anderson (IRIS-Portable Program Manager), Bob Woodward (IRIS President), Jerry Carter (IRIS-DS Director), Justin Sweet (IRIS- scribe), Bruce Beaudoin (PASSCAL-NMT), Sue Bilek (NMT), Galen Kaip (SSF-UTEP), Andy Frassetto (IRIS-MT Program Manager)
Action Items
Recommendations
Motions
Meeting Objectives
PASC received program status and related updates from the Program Manager, MT Manager, DS Director and subawardees. Final budget status for yr-2 was reviewed and the committee was briefed on external funding efforts, including the MSRI proposal submitted last spring. Current spending plans for the MT instruments were also presented.
IRIS President Woodward provided an update on the recent NSF Instrumentation Services joint review with UNAVCO. Both programs were given excellent ratings. The PASC reviewed IRIS’ written responses to follow-up questions from NSF, and suggested that a small virtual meeting between several governance members and NSF might be a good way to follow up on the points expressed in IRIS’ response. Woodward also provided the PASC with an update on the pending merger with UNAVCO.
Several members of the PASC provided input from their recent review and edits to the current scope management plan. The committee discussed how to best improve the plan in order to be prepared to respond to future funding increases or decreases. Based on the group’s edits and the ensuing discussion, PM Anderson was tasked with revising the scope management plan for PASC review next spring. Revision will include modeling for various potential reductions to scope.
The PASC provided input on how best to spend current and upcoming funds for procurement of mid-period sensors as part of the Wavefields frontier task. Based on PASSCAL testing and evaluation as well as usage by other members of the community, the PASC decided on a preferred broadband sensor and datalogger that they recommended the facility purchase.
Three PASC members (Eilon, Winberry, and Sandvol) are due to rotate off at the end of 2020. The PASC discussed several possible replacements for each, being careful to try and suggest individuals with similar expertise (e.g. OBS, broadbands, polar) in order to preserve the breadth of knowledge on the committee. A list of names was drafted for distribution to the full committee and final recommendation to the IRIS CoCom and then on to the Board ahead of their fall meeting in November.
PM Anderson provided a detailed update on the MSRI proposal that was submitted to NSF last spring and which would have provided additional funding for nodes, broadbands, DAS, and near-surface geophysics instrumentation. The proposal reviewed well, but unfortunately just missed the cutoff for funding. The PASC provided input on what elements might go into a revised MSRI proposal that NSF will likely call for early in 2021. After discussing several pressing instrumentation needs, the PASC tasked PM Anderson with drawing up a plan for the upcoming MSRI proposal for them to review.
Other Business