Cost Efficient Station Monitoring and Remote Data Retrieval for Portable Seismic Stations

Remote monitoring as well as remote waveform data retrieval is an enabling capability for portable stations used in seismic hazards studies. Remote monitoring provides intra-deployment visibility of system performance to allow prompt detection, and subsequent resolution, of faults which may otherwise go undetected for the duration of the deployment and jeopardize a seismic campaign's successful outcome.  Waveform data retrieval allows intra-deployment quality control (QC) and can enable faster science. These benefits must be considered against the associated power consumption and telemetry bandwidth costs. These tradeoffs may drive a system implementation that limits remote retrieval to low resolution data or, in other use cases, restricts the retrieval of full resolution waveform data to specific periods of interest only.  In the case of deployments in harsh environments, such as polar or ocean bottom environments where field visits are cost prohibitive or may not be possible, even high cost remote retrieval of a complete data set may be preferable if it offers a savings and / or a reduction in operational risk in comparison to a station visit.

As part of this session, we discuss how advancement in low power portable geoscience instrumentation, combined with low power communication technology, deliver these new capabilities with flexible implementation balancing function and operational cost.