Dear FDSN Colleagues,
Recently a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) on the “Competition of Operations of an NSF-supported Geophysical Facility to Succeed the GAGE and SAGE Facilities” was issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (
https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20037/nsf20037.jsp https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nsf.gov%2Fpubs%2F2020%2Fnsf20037%2Fnsf20037.jsp&data=02%7C01%7CRick.Aster%40colostate.edu%7Cf2637e8f13244c08c8db08d7a98adf1f%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637164286226032329&sdata=8USZSF7X%2FBzsPGVuOuPqqZy72hcC50JgHCOFIg0kqq8%3D&reserved=0). The SAGE facility includes IRIS's Data Management Center, the PASSCAL Instrumentation Center, and operating much of the GSN. The GAGE facility is the geodetic facility, which is run by UNAVCO.
This DCL outlines NSF’s plans for an open recompetition of the management of the SAGE and GAGE facilities and its expectation that this process will result in a single, integrated facility managed by a single entity at the end of the current SAGE and GAGE cooperative agreements on September 30, 2023. NSF plans to issue a solicitation for this new facility in the second quarter of calendar year 2021 with a due date for full proposals in the first quarter of 2022.
NSF is encouraging comments from the scientific community on desired capabilities, and associated rationales, for this future geophysical facility. Comments should be submitted as a pdf document not to exceed 3 pages in length and sent to Maggie Benoit at earfacilities<at>nsf.gov <earfacilities<at>nsf.gov>.
IRIS strongly encourages community members to make their voices heard and to submit white papers to NSF. The deadline for submission of these white papers is June 1, 2020.
Regards,
Rick Aster, Chair, IRIS Board of Directors
Bob Detrick, IRIS President
Jerry Carter