Collaborative Research: CFS (Track III): Centers for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPs)

This award will fund the operation of the Centers for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPs). The mission of CTEMPs is to accelerate discovery in Earth sciences by making state-of-the-art environmental sensing instruments and technical skills available to the NSF and broader research communities. The CTEMPs’ instruments provide cm-to-km-scale measurements of temperature, acoustics, topography and surface reflectance. The high spatial and temporal resolution observations facilitated by CTEMPs have led to breakthroughs in soil moisture quantification, glacial dynamics, groundwater/surface water interactions, snow hydrology, ocean dynamics, topography, atmospheric mixing, limnology and geomorphology. The Center has a history of helping researchers to access technology, training, and gain expert support in the Earth sciences and engineering communities. CTEMPS is operated as a community user facility by four institutions: University of Nevada, Reno; Oregon State University; Desert Research Institute; and Colorado School of Mines. CTEMPs assists research teams from all over the world in experimental design, field implementation and data analysis in four core instrument services: fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS), distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), transformational field-based instrumentation via the Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS Lab), and small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS). Beginning in 2023, CTEMPs will focus on the following four objectives: 1. Continue to deliver instrumentation and expertise through its DTS, OPEnS Lab and sUAS programs to research projects in Earth, polar, oceanographic and atmospheric sciences, 2. Expand the instrument pool to include instruments and expert support for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in the training and instrument loan programs, 3. Act as a coordinator of a federated system of sUAS sensors and platforms to reduce barriers to transformative new Earth surface science, and 4. Provide transdisciplinary workshops for early career scientists through hands-on training in multi-sensor observations and experimental design. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.