| 英文摘要: | Non-technical Summary
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the Academies) is convening an ad hoc "meeting of experts" to discuss and provide individual, expert opinions on a National Science Foundation (NSF) report from a recent workshop supported by NSF's Division of Earth Sciences (EAR). The workshop gathered input from numerous Earth scientists on future research and facility needs for advancing the understanding of Earth processes that generate movement of Earth's tectonic plates, earthquakes, gravity, tidal motions, the motion of ice sheets, and other phenomena. Two large multi-user facilities supported by NSF currently provide instrumentation, networks, data, and educational materials for this kind of deep-earth research. As the multi-year operational agreements for these facilities will expire in 2018, NSF is preparing to recompete one or more Cooperative Agreement(s) to support management and operation of future facilities with these kinds of capabilities. Continuing to advance research on Earth processes through multi-user access to a range of technologies, data, and networks will enhance opportunities for scientific collaboration among a broad research community, increase understanding of changes in the behavior of the Earth, and help to inform decision making regarding preparation for and adaptation to these changes. Additional, independent opinions from the experts convened by the Academies is helping to strengthen the scientific framework for the recompetition of these facilities and thus support key research on deep-earth processes, their results and impacts.
Technical Description
The Division of Earth Sciences in the Directorate for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) currently supports two large multi-user facilities, the Geodesy Advancing Geosciences and EarthScope (GAGE) Facility and the Seismological Facilities for Advancement of Geosciences and EarthScope (SAGE), that provide geodetic, seismic, and geophysical instrumentation, data and data management, network operations, education, and workforce training to a broad research community. GAGE and SAGE operate global and regional networks of continuously operating geodetic, seismic, and related geophysical instrumentation; portable seismic, geodetic, and related geophysical instrumentation; systems for archiving, managing, and distributing geophysical data; they also develop education and outreach materials for various audiences. NSF is preparing to recompete Cooperative Agreement(s) for these kinds of research facilities and recently funded a workshop to identify key scientific questions and facility needs for future seismic and geodetic research. This project is bringing together an ad hoc "meeting of experts" with backgrounds in solid Earth science and particular expertise in seismology, geodesy, geodynamics, active tectonics, structural geology, and natural hazards to discuss and provide individual, expert opinions on the NSF-generated report from that workshop. The experts are focusing particularly upon science and research questions posed by the community at the workshop; the types of seismic and geodetic facilities that are essential to support this research; and education, outreach, training, and workforce development opportunities provided by such research and the associated facilities. |