Completion of the Southern California Plate Boundary Observatory GPS Network and Implementation of the Low Latency Salton Trough Network

Between 2003-2008 875 permanent PBO GPS stations have been built throughout the United States. Concomitant with construction of the PBO the majority of pre-existing GPS stations that meet stability specifications have been upgraded with Trimble NetRS and IP based communications to PBO standards under the EarthScope PBO Nucleus project. In October 2008, with completed construction of the Plate Boundary Observatory, more than 1100 GPS stations now share common design specifications and have identical receivers with common communications making it the most homogeneous geodetic network in the World. Of the 875 total Plate Boundary Observatory GPS stations, 216 sites are distributed throughout the Southern California region. 102 of the sites are built as SDBM, 111 DDBM, and 3 as strainmeter GPS hybrids. Fifteen second data is archived for each station and 1 Hz and 5 Hz data is buffered to be triggered for download in the event of an earthquake. Additionally, 125 of the existing former-SCIGN GPS stations have been integrated into the SoCal region of PBO, of which 25 have real-time data streams. The Salton Trough Radio Network (STRN) comprises of 20 stations equipped with Ethernet bridge Intuicom EB6+ (900 MHz) radios to transmit a high rate low latency data stream from each permanent GPS site. The high-rate low latency UStream data will be available to researchers who are developing prototype earthquake early warning systems in Southern California. A goal of the STRN is to make the data available rapidly enough for GPS-derived coseismic and dynamic displacements to be integrated into early warning system earthquake models. The improved earthquake models will better assist emergency response. UStream data will also aid surveyors who wish to use PBO GPS stations as permanent, high-quality base stations in real- time kinematic surveys. Requests for streaming data access at available GPS sites and latency statistics are located at http://pboweb.unavco.org/?pageid=107. Collectively, the cross fault spatial distribution of these 341 GPS stations in the seismically active southern California region has the grand potential of augmenting a strong motion earthquake early warning system. The installation and telemetry of 216 GPS site and upgrades of an additional 125 stations in Southern California was achieved by a major effort by field engineers, permitting staff, data personnel, drilling contractors and oversight by PBO management. It was a job well done.