SOUTH PACIFIC APPLIED GEOSCIENCE COMMISSION

[SOPAC Trip Report 346 – Lal]

SOUTH PACIFIC APPLIED GEOSCIENCE COMMISSION

CGPS Maintenance Survey Visit – Tuvalu

South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project Phase III

SOPAC Trip Report 346

Andrick Lal Assistant Surveyor – SPSLCLM Project

Introduction The South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project aims to help Pacific Island countries understand the implications and scale of sea level and climate changes. This AusAID-funded Project was established to: 1) Set up high-resolution monitoring stations in the South Pacific region to compute relative

motions of land and sea at each station based in each of the twelve countries.

2) Carry out a geodetic survey program to measure movements of the crust at other strategic sites in each country with respect to the reference station.

3) Help identify changes to sea levels with reference to a similar network of stations in Australia and elsewhere in the world, whether these changes are due to thermal expansion of the ocean, contributions from land ice or changing properties of water from different ocean zones.

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4) Provide a measure of regional vertical controls and exchange information and data with national, regional and international climate change centres in relation to the ongoing international geodetic programmes, which incorporate satellite altimetry and radio astronomy.

The duties of the SOPAC-based Project “Assistant Surveyor” in this country visit concentrate on the following objectives: Objectives

1. In conjunction with Geoscience Australia (GA), undertake Continuous Global Positioning Systems (CGPS) maintenance visits in relation to the breakdown and upgrades of hardware and software of the station.

2. To accomplish these maintenance and upgrade tasks on CGPS stations by closely collaborating with Mr Bob Twilley of the Geoscience Australia Earth Monitoring Group.

List of People Involved/Consulted

1. Mr Fa’atasi Malologa, Senior Surveyor – Lands & Survey Department (LSD) 2. Ms Hilia Vavae, Director – Tuvalu Meteorological Service (TMS) 3. Mr Tauala Katea, Scientific Officer – Tuvalu Meteorological Service (TMS) 4. Mr Niko Iona, Observer – Tuvalu Meteorological Service (TMS) 5. Mr Tinapa Faletiute, Technician – Tuvalu Meteorological Service (TMS) 6. Mr Lopati Tefoto, General Manager – Tuvalu Telecommunications Ltd

Period of Visit

Start: 10th June 2004 End: 14th June 2004 Travel Itinerary

Thursday 10th June 2004 (0600) Suva to Funafuti (PC601) Monday 14th June 2004 (1130) Funafuti to Suva (PC602) – Flight Delayed Thursday 17th June 2004 (1300) Funafuti to Suva (PC603)

Executive Summary

The maintenance visit for the Tuvalu CGPS Station was successful with the cause of the station being down discovered. The GPS cable that connects the GPS Antenna to the concrete pillar and the GPS Receiver had been cut and there were strict bends around the area of the cut. To make matters worse the water outlet pipe from the air-conditioning unit was dripping water right onto the cut. This would surely cause the loss of reception from the first GPS Receiver; and moisture getting into the GPS cable resulting in the cutting off of communication between the Antenna and Receiver.

The modem and the hardware for the computer were upgraded from Pentium III to Pentium IV. The Tuvalu CGPS Station being out of action has been a major setback to the Project with the non-collection of GPS meaning valuable data loss.

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General The following table provides information on each of the activity/project/programme areas that were addressed during the mission and in particular notes any action required along with the person/department/organisation that takes the leading role:

Itinerary

Date Time

Activity Name – South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project Phase III (O.I.P 2.3.2)

ACTION

10/06/04

0430 0640 0900

1030

1200 1300

1500 1600

1630

1700

• Checked in at Nausori Airport. Paid for excess baggage. • Left Nausori Airport, Fiji Islands for Funafuti, Tuvalu. • Arrived in Funafuti, Tuvalu from Suva. • Checked in at the Filamona Lodge beside the Funafuti Airport. • Hired a Motor Bike for the transportation on the island • Visited the Survey Office • Visited the Meteorological Office where the CGPS Station is.

- Took all my survey gear (Antenna and the CPU) to the CGPS Station. - Checked the operating system of the CGPS station; no GPS data was downloading into the Station. The Receiver was tracking no satellites at all. Therefore pulled out the old GPS cable from the back of the Receiver (Serial # ZR520014508) and plugged in, the new GPS cable and to the new Antenna (Serial # CR620012504), which was set-up onto the tripod. The GBSS software was initialised again by rebooting the computer. The Receiver was able to pick up satellites from the new antenna and the GBSS software was able to track the satellites and collect the GPS data with the Micromanager software also working.

• Made a phone call to Geoscience Australia from the station and let them know that the new Receiver (Serial # ZR520014508) installed by Fa’atasi is working well with the new antenna, communication between the two being through the new GPS cable.

• Dismounted the GPS antenna from the tripod. Switched off the GPS Receiver • Uninstalled the Tuvalu GPS Antenna from the concrete pillar and set it up

onto the Tripod. The GPS Receiver and the GBSS software were able to pick up the satellites from the old Antenna. That showed that the Tuvalu GPS Antenna is also working properly. The screwdriver to unwind the screws from the dome was missing from the station rack therefore a Plice was used to open the dome out.

• Checked onto the GPS cable connecting the GPS Receiver and the GPS Antenna on the pillar and found out the cable is damaged; there was a cut on the exposed cable and it was likely that the cable was twisted also with strict bends around the cut. There was no conduit around the exposed GPS cable. Please refer to the photographs taken (Annex 1).

• Therefore it was identified that the cause the GPS station not collecting any GPS data was that the cable connecting the GPS Antenna on the Pillar and GPS Receiver was damaged.

• Sent the first set of the photographs to GA via e-mail. • Made another call to the Geoscience Australia and described the problem;

which was the cut in the GPS cable and described the status of the GPS cable. - A new remedial action is to be taken and that is to install a new GPS cable underground from the GPS Receiver to the Tuvalu GPS Antenna on the Concrete Pillar, which are 52m long. Therefore the Tuvalu GPS Station will start running once the new GPS cable is installed.

• Tested the old Receiver (Serial # ZR220012402) and found that there was no power supply coming into it. Therefore I removed the old Receiver and put the new Receiver back in.

• Took a second set of photographs and sent it to GA via e-mail.

OIP/AL

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Itinerary

Date Time


ACTION

11/06/04

0800

1000

• Backed up all the GPS data from the old CPU into the four CD-R’s. • Installed the new Woomera Modem with the new RS232 cable and the power

supply cable. • Installed the new HP Pentium 4 CPU and transferred all the cables from the

back of the old CPU to appropriate ports at the back of the New CPU. • Installed the new keyboard with the existing monitor and the PS/2 mouse

being used.

OIP/AL

11/06/04

1100

1200

1500

• The Receiver cables and the power supply cables from the UPS were put in

their appropriate ports at the back of the new CPU. • The new computer was switched on. The Amazing Dialer software was

configured with the TVISP. The GBSS software was initialised and it picked up the satellites tracking and thus data collection can resume.

• A telephone call was made to GA on the status of the upgrade and with close liaison, the Micro Manager software was re-configured, with it picking up the GPS receiver and the File Transfer Protocol identified, which was latest version. Hourly GPS data was collected to test that all the software and hardware including the Receiver and the Antenna were working properly.

• Upon trying to send the GPS files for some time via the latest GPSTransfer.bat file, the FTP was not successful therefore the old ms-dos based *.bat file was used and the files were sent to GA successfully. The ms-dos based GPSTransfer.bat was used to send the GPS files through Amazing Dialer. Using the Amazing Dialer, the best time to send the files across to GA is from 5.00pm to 6.00pm.

OIP/AL

12/06/04

1000

1100

1130

• Packed up the old CPU with the keyboard and modem in the Brown box. • Packed up the new GPS Antenna with the GPS cable into the Black pelican

case. • Packed up the old GPS Receiver into the Grey pelican case. Cleaned the

GPS rack. • Went to the General Manager – Tuvalu Telecommunications Ltd with Ms Hilia

Vavae and reported the faulty telephone line to him; which has been there since last year. He arranged for a technician to fix the telephone line.

• Fixed the GPS Antenna back onto the concrete pillar. Ensured the cable ends are secured properly in the Antenna and Receiver. The existing GPS cable was disconnected.

• Made an inventory of things sent to GA after completion of the maintenance visit as per attached (Annex 2). - The telephone line 20094 is now working as a spare line with the 20095 being fixed to the modem. - A third set of photographs were taken.

• Preparation of the Tuvalu CGPS Maintenance Trip Report begun.

OIP/AL

13/06/04

1100

1200

• CGPS data downloading training to Meteorological Staff

- Data Downloading of the GPS U-Files using the Micro Manager software and putting the data onto a CD from the specified directory. 18 CD-R’s were handed to the Met office to download the GPS data every fortnight and send it across to GA. The cost incurred in the postage of the GPS data is to be borne by the Project. - Brief outline on the instrumentation of the CGPS station.

• Preparation of the Tuvalu CGPS Maintenance Trip Report continued.

OIP/AL TMS/HV TMS/TK TMS/NI

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Itinerary

Date Time


ACTION

14/06/04

0900

• Due to the technical problems with Air Fiji Aircraft, the flight from Funafuti to

Suva was delayed till further notice. We were advised that the next flight would be on Thursday (17/06/2004).

OIP/AL

15/06/04

0900

• Re-checked on all the hardware and software installed. • Packed and Freighted the GPS Antenna, the old GPS Receiver and the old

CPU via DHL (Tuvalu) to Geoscience Australia in Canberra with Customs Declaration attached with the equipment.

OIP/AL

16/06/04

0900

• Checked on the Project Laptop given to Tuvalu Survey Office.

- It was found, upon several attempts to dial to the CGPS Station was not successful, the the analog network cable (DA10A) connecting the network card and the telephone line was very loose in connection and therefore needs to be replaced. Also the hinge of the Laptop keyboard and the monitor is cracked which sometimes makes the Laptop monitor to switch on.

• Handed the station key and the old modem with cables to Fa’atasi Malologa.

OIP/AL

17/06/04

1430

• Departed Funafuti, Tuvalu for Suva, Fiji Islands.

OIP/AL

Any Additional Notes/Comments:

Additional Notes and Comments Action Geoscience Australia Earth Monitoring Group is the responsible agency for the CGPS Station in the SPSLCMP III therefore after findings on the cause of the breakdown of the GPS Station an approach was made to the SOPAC technician for the installation of the GPS Cable from the Receiver to the Antenna on another visit to the Tuvalu CGPS Station.

GA/SOPAC

Reference Documents SOPAC Work Plan: Ocean & Islands Activity 2.3.2/Task RT2001.13 South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project Phase III – Annual Plan 2002 – 2003 (Component 2) ANNEXES: Annex 1 : Photographs Annex 2 : List of Equipment sent to Geoscience Australia via DHL Annex 3 : Letter of Advice from Air Fiji on new flight schedule on the 17th June 2004

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Annex 1: Photographs

Location of the cause of the problem of GPS Station being down

(GPS Cable exposed beside the Meteorological Office)

At a closer view ……..

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At a more closer view with the cut ……..

The strict bends around the cut …….

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The same cut at a different angle ……….

Bit of exposed GPS cable on the ground

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The conduit (approx housing the GPS cable exposed on the ground

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Annex 2: List of Equipment sent to Geoscience Australia via DHL 1) Brown Box

a) Compaq Pentium III CPU

b) USB Mouse

c) Keyboard

d) Hardware Locks (KEA 0685 & Micromanager 0032D76520)

e) Four (4) CD’s – GPS Data.

2) Black Pelican Box

a) GPS Antenna (CR620012504)

b) GPS Cable & Joints

3) Grey Pelican Box

a) GPS Receiver (ZR220012402)

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Annex 3: Letter of Advice from Air Fiji on new flight schedule on the 17th June 2004