The Rabaul Volcano Observatory Real-Time GPS Upgrade

In January 2000 the U.S. Geological Survey installed a real-time GPS monitoring upgrade for the Rabaul Volcano Observatory (Papua New Guinea) GPS network. The upgrade included new radio modem telemetry, a computer system, backup power system, and real-time GPS monitoring software. The Rabaul Volcano Observatory GPS network consists of the reference station RVO located at Rabaul Volcano Observatory, the VIS station located at Vulcan, the SDA station located at Matupit Island, and SPT located at Sulphur Point less than 1500 meters from the central vent of Tavurvur. Real-time GPS software collects data from remote receivers once every 10 seconds. 30-second epoch, 24-hour long RINEX files are created for post processing. Real-time GPS program 3d_tracker™ processes data once every 10 seconds. Several result plots are available via the 3d_tracker interface. Baseline lengths for GPS processing were 6.1 km for SDA, 7.7 kilometers for SPT, and 8.7 kilometers for VIS. The U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance provided funding via Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, which is jointly funded by the U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program.