Geophysical Instrument Pool Potsdam (GIPP): Enabling large-scale seismic projects for 30 years – experiences and challenges

In addition to permanent geophysical observation networks, temporary field measurements are an important component of solid Earth research. In seismology in particular, there has been a steady increase in the number of measuring devices used within one deployment. This is mainly due to the fact that dense networks (as opposed to individual stations with large distances between them) allow wave fields to be recorded in their entirety enabling new processing methods and higher-resolution subsurface imaging.

Since the maintenance of such large numbers of devices required for dense networks is not a side issue, instrument pools are necessary to supply devices for the academic community. One of the largest instrument pools in Europe is the Geophysical Instrument Pool Potsdam (GIPP), which is operated by the GFZ (gipp.gfz.de). The GIPP provides geophysical and geodetic measurement technology (e.g., recorders and sensors) for temporary active seismic, passive seismological, electromagnetic, and GNSS experiments. The equipment is supplied for usage at universities and research institutes worldwide and free of charge for non-commercial experiments. We team up with our partners in Europe through the ORFEUS Mobile Pools Service Management Committee. Together we are working on improving the cooperation between the major European instrument pools and offering services that facilitate access to instruments, also within the EPOS-ON project.

Over the past 30 years, we have supported more than 500 geophysical field experiments. The data of these experiments is archived at GFZ and is made available to the public, e.g., via the GEOFON repository. The majority of the seismological experiments consists of fewer than 50 stations, but the number of large networks (with up to 500 devices) is increasing. These large networks are realized either in the form of rolling arrays or as temporary installations (LARGE-N), sometimes in collaboration with other providers.

In this presentation, we give an overview of the latest deployments, our data management approach, the challenges that we are facing due to the high demand of LARGE-N experiments, and technological advances in our equipment, particularly in robust node-type field recorders. Thereby, we want to discuss the challenges and potentials of such pools, making them best setup for future research.