Completion of magnetotelluri array in CONUS - phase 2PERIOD of performance: 6/1/2022 through 5/31/2024AWARD purpose - this proposal is to continue to support USGS's aim to complete the…

Completion of magnetotelluri array in CONUS - phase 2PERIOD of performance: 6/1/2022 through 5/31/2024AWARD purpose - this proposal is to continue to support USGS's aim to complete the longperiodmagnetotelluric (MT) transportable array (mtarray) survey throughout the remainingterritory of the conterminous united states (CONUS). Executive order 13865 directs thesecretary of the interior to: 'to complete a magnetotelluric survey of the contiguous unitedstates to help critical infrastructure owners and operators conduct EMP vulnerabilityassessments'.from april 2020 through may 2022 USGS and oregon state university (OSU) have sited, permitted, installed, operated, extracted, and carried out data analysis and data archival formtarray under cooperative agreement G20AC00094. We propose to continue this activity fortwo years under a new cooperative agreement, with the goal of completing the mtarray over theentirety of the conterminous US by the end of the cooperative agreement period.activities to be performed - OSU will provide 4X4 field trucks and specialized mtinstrumentation to measure the time-variations in the naturally occurring electric and magneticfields at ground level to field crews that will install and operate the equipment typically for 3-6WEEKS per site, covering a region in the southern US adjoining and inland of the gulf coast on agrid of locations spaced typically 70 KM apart. The stations are extracted after data qualitystandards have been met following data analysis by oregon state university and USGS.a total of 116 MT station installations are planned each year over the two-year period of thecooperative agreement, of which 101 are at primary station installation target locations, and 15PER year are relocations to alternative sites when local noise sources or other operating factorsmake the primary station location unsuitable for achieving data quality standards. At each stationlocation, measurements of vector electric and magnetic fields sampled once each second, andcalculated electromagnetic impedance and magnetic field induction vectors, quantities sensitiveto the electrical properties of the earth's crust and upper mantle will be primary deliverables, along with supporting metadata and daily field crew production reports.beneficiaries - the MT data and derived data products are of direct benefit to power utilities, industry groups and federal regulators in their efforts to protect the power transmission networkfrom the impacts of space weather (geomagnetically induced currents or gics) on thetransmission system. Other potential beneficiaries include pipeline operators, also subject to riskfrom gics, as well as downstream operators of other critical infrastructure dependent onuninterrupted power and pipeline products, and national labs, academic researchers and othersapplying these data to fundamental research into earth structure and geospace science.subrecipient activities - green geophysics is OSU's contractor for securing site use permitsand for providing field crews to carry out the MT station installations. Chaytus research andengineering LLC provides MT instrumentation engineering support for operation andmaintenance of OSU's MT instrumentation.