DMS Node Focus

ASL Finds a Home

ASL has found a new home. Well, three actually. The Data Collection Center (DCC) and most of the administration have settled into a small office suite in the University of New Mexico Science and Technology Park. The Global Seismic Network (GSN) Operations and Maintenance division is in Building 57011 on Kirtland Airforce Base, about 2 miles from the original ASL facility. The warehouse and instrument lab facilities are sharing a building about 1 mile down the road from the DCC. Separating our operations into three sites has put a great strain on all of our resources. Nonetheless, everyone has risen to the occasion with innovative ideas and we have kept the stations operating and the data flowing as seamlessly as possible.

Most of the world saw ASL's move as two simple 24 hour blackouts of the Live Internet Seismic Server (LISS) data, separated by a number of months. Behind the scenes it has been nearly six months of hectic, sometimes crazy, days. There has been uncertainty about where the new ASL would be located. Once homes were found for each group within ASL, operations were relocated with impressive speed. Despite having no home, ASL could not simply ignore the GSN, so in the midst of moving, we installed a new station in Tornquist, Argentina (TRQA), upgraded the Chinese station at Qiongzhong (QIZ), and got TRQA as well as all ten of the China stations on the LISS. We also performed maintenance at seven other locations from the South Pole to Africa to Oregon. Now that we are once again "only" performing daily routine work, it almost feels like we have spare time. But that is an illusion: we are working on a number of new installations, as well as needed repairs and upgrades at other stations. We are hoping to bring all of ASL back together under one roof in the next two years, and in the midst of our daily work we are looking for that roof.

We sure miss the original ASL location in the wilderness at the base of the Monzanitos just outside Albuquerque. We took for granted the lunchtime strolls and bike rides through the desert, the tarantula migrations, and even the occasional rattlesnake waiting outside the doors. Lunchtime volleyball has also been put on hold until we are all together again.

Submitted by Valerie Payton, ASL

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