The Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool (OBSIP) was established in 1999 as a National Science Foundation (NSF) instrument facility that provides ocean bottom seismometers to support research and further our understanding of marine geology, seismology and geodynamics.
OBSIP is funded by the NSF and is comprised of a Management Office operated by EarthScope Consortium and three Institutional Instrument Contributors - Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) - each of whom contribute both instruments and technical support to the pool.
Ocean bottom seismometers available through OBSIP include both broadband instruments for long-term deployment of passive experiments and short period instruments that are used for active seismic refraction studies in coordination with vessels towing airgun arrays. OBSIP works closely with the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) in scheduling cruises to support OBSIP experiments. There are currently 160 broadband and 93 short period instruments in the OBSIP.
Principal investigators at research universities can request the use of instruments as part of the NSF standard proposal process. Requests for instruments from other private and public organizations and industry are permitted, but their use depends upon availability.
