PBO Transitions to Operations and Maintenance Phase

Overview

October 14, 2008

The Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) has transitioned from facility construction to operations and maintenance as of October 1, 2008. All permanent PBO geodetic and strain instruments are operational, portable GPS equipment is being used in NSF-funded experiments and data from all the EarthScope observatories are fully documented and openly available to the public.

An operations and maintenance phase is necessary to continue operating and distributing data from more than 1100 permanent continuously operating GPS receivers, 103 borehole strainmeters, and five laser strainmeters that were installed during the construction phase of the past five years.

Many of the PBO employees that were responsible for the construction of this unprecedented geodetic observatory concluded their employment with UNAVCO as of October 1, 2008. Their dedication and effort towards the completion of the observatory on-time and under budget deserves recognition and thanks. A dedicated staff of GPS and strainmeter network engineers, data-management professionals, and a management team will continue to monitor equipment and data.