|
In pursuit of its mission to provide
a widely accessible, state-of-the-art science and engineering infrastructure,
NSF invests in Tools. NSF provides support for large, multi-user facilities,
which provide access to state-of-the-art facilities essential to the progress
of research. Support for these unique national facilities is necessary
to advance U.S. capabilities required for world-class research. NSF also
invests in Internet-based and distributed user facilities, advanced computer
resources, research networks, major research instrumentation, research
resources, digital libraries, and large databases, all of which contribute
to a state-of-the-art science and engineering infrastructure resource.
Facilities and resources supported are shown in the table below:
(Millions of Dollars)
|
FY 2000 Estimate |
FY 2001 Estimate |
FY 2002 Estimate |
Academic Research Fleet |
44 |
57 |
60 |
Advanced Networking Infrastructure |
44 |
45 |
44 |
Gemini Observatories |
8 |
9 |
11 |
Incorporated Research Institutions for
Seismology |
12 |
13 |
13 |
Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave
Observatory |
21 |
19 |
24 |
Major Research Equipment |
105 |
121 |
96 |
Major Research Instrumentation |
50 |
75 |
50 |
National Astronomy Centers (including
ALMA) |
71 |
86 |
91 |
National Center for Atmospheric Research |
70 |
73 |
72 |
National SMETE Digital Library |
16 |
27 |
27 |
Ocean Drilling Program Facilities |
30 |
31 |
31 |
Partnerships for Advanced Computational
Infrastructure |
71 |
71 |
71 |
Polar Science, Operations and Logistics |
193 |
197 |
197 |
Research Resources |
112 |
125 |
122 |
Other Tools1 |
109 |
114 |
116 |
Total, Tools |
$955 |
$1,061 |
$1,024 |
The FY 2002 Request for tools totals $1,024 million, a
$37 million decrease from FY 2001. Operations and maintenance of multi-user
facilities and research resources are funded through the Research and
Related Activities (R&RA) and the Education and Human Resources (EHR)
accounts; major construction projects are funded through the Major Research
Equipment (MRE) account.
Academic Research Fleet
The Academic Research Fleet includes ships, submersibles
and large shipboard equipment necessary to support NSF-funded research
and the training of oceanographers. Twenty-eight ships are included in
the U.S. academic fleet, and are operated on behalf of the research community
primarily through NSF funding. Large ships are used for distant-water,
expeditionary projects such as global change research; intermediate-sized
ships support individual investigator research; and smaller regional ships
are available for local and coastal research. Special purpose ships are
used for submersible and remotely operated vehicle studies. NSFs
FY 2002 support for the Academic Research Fleet totals $59.90 million,
a $2.70 million, or 4.7 percent, increase over FY 2001 to provide the
resources necessary for enhanced research in fields related to biocomplexity
and planetary dynamics.
Advanced Networking Infrastructure (ANI)
ANI activities enable and expand scholarly communication
and collaboration by providing researchers and educators with network
access to high performance, remote scientific facilities including supercomputer
facilities and information resources. The very high performance Backbone
Network Service (vBNS), now in a three-year no cost extension phase, together
with the high performance connections program, have led to the development
of a new level of networking for the nations research universities,
including the UCAID/Internet2 operated network Abilene. ANI participates
in the interagency Next Generation Internet activity to complement the
university-led Internet2 effort jointly supported by the participating
universities and the private sector. In the Next Generation Internet program,
ANI focuses on advanced, high performance network connectivity between
research institutions and contributes to the basic infrastructure for
high-end research applications. NSFs FY 2002 support for ANI facilities
is $43.91 million, a decrease of $800,000, or 1.8 percent, from FY 2001.
Gemini Observatories
The two Gemini Telescopes will offer world class capabilities
and unique opportunities to the scientific community. In particular, these
telescopes are optimized for operation in the infrared region and will
be able to use adaptive optics, which at these wavelengths will provide
a resolving power almost twice that of the Hubble Space Telescope. The
northern telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, achieved first light
in December 1998 and began operations on schedule in July 2000. First
light at the southern observatory at Cerro Pachon, Chile was achieved
in November 2000. Normal science operations are expected to commence at
the Chilean site in FY 2001. The FY 2002 Budget Request includes $11.0
million for the Gemini Observatories, $2.37 million over FY 2001, with
an emphasis on support for operations at the two sites.
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)
IRIS was created in 1986 to install and operate a global
network of seismometers, provide portable seismometers for regional studies,
and establish a data management system to provide on-line, distributed
access to data on global seismic activity. The IRIS facility serves the
needs of the national and international seismology community by making
available seismic sensors and data acquisition systems. In addition, a
portion of the Global Seismic Network operated by IRIS is an integral
component of the nations nuclear test ban treaty monitoring capabilities.
NSFs FY 2002 support for IRIS totals $12.80 million, an increase
of $200,000, or 1.6 percent, over FY 2001.
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
The LIGO construction project began in FY 1992 as a collaboration
between physicists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to test the dynamical features
of Einsteins theory of gravity and to study the properties of intense
gravitational fields from their radiation. Today, several other institutions
are also involved. LIGO consists of identical but widely separated detectors,
one in Hanford, Washington and the other in Livingston, Louisiana, that
will be used for fundamental physics experiments to directly detect gravitational
waves and gather data on their sources. In FY 2002, $24.0 million is requested,
an increase of $4.9 million, in accordance with the funding schedule for
LIGO operations.
Major Research Equipment (MRE)
(Millions of Dollars)
|
FY 2000
Actual |
FY 2001
Current
Plan |
FY 2002
Request |
Atacama Large Millimeter Array R&D |
8.0 |
6.0 |
-- |
HIAPER |
8.5 |
12.5 |
-- |
Large Hadron Collider |
15.9 |
16.4 |
16.9 |
Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation |
7.7 |
28.1 |
24.4 |
Polar Support Aircraft Upgrades |
12.0 |
-- |
-- |
South Pole Station |
16.9 |
13.5 |
-- |
Terascale Computing Systems |
36.0 |
44.9 |
55.0 |
TOTAL, MRE |
$105.0 |
$121.3 |
$96.3 |
A total of $96.30 million is requested through the MRE
account for three ongoing projects:
-
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is planned to be
the worlds highest energy accelerator facility. NSF participation
includes contributing to the construction of two high energy particle
detectors, ATLAS (A Toroidal Large Angle Spectrometer) and CMS (the
Compact Muon Solenoid). Continued funding of $16.90 million is requested
in FY 2002.
-
Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)
will upgrade, modernize, expand and network major facilities including
shake tables used for earthquake simulations, large reaction walls
for pseudo-dynamic testing, centrifuges for testing soils under earthquake
loading, and field testing facilities. Continued funding of $24.40
million is requested in FY 2002.
-
Terascale Computing Systems will provide access
to scalable, balanced, terascale computing resources for the broad-based
academic science and engineering community served by NSF. Requested
funding for Terascale facilities totals $55.0 million in FY 2002.
NSF is not requesting additional funds in FY 2002 for four
projects, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array Research and Development
Project (ALMA R&D), the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform
for Environmental Research (HIAPER), the Polar Support Aircraft Upgrades
and the South Pole Station Modernization program. Maintenance of the ALMA
infrastructure is funded in the R&RA account. Funding for the Polar
Support Aircraft Upgrades and the South Pole Station Modernization program
is completed. No new starts are proposed. Additional information can be
found in the MRE section.
Major Research Instrumentation (MRI)
The Major Research Instrumentation Program is designed
to improve the condition of scientific and engineering equipment for research
and research training in our nations academic institutions. This
program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research
and research training in science and engineering, and to foster the integration
of research and education by providing instrumentation for research-intensive
learning environments. In FY 2002, NSF requests $50.0 million, a decrease
of $24.83 million from FY 2001, for continued support of the acquisition
and development of research instrumentation for academic institutions.
National Astronomy Centers
The three National Astronomy Centers receive approximately
93 percent of their funding from NSF. The FY 2002 Request includes $102
million (including support for Gemini):
The main facility of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere
Center (NAIC) is the 305-meter-diameter radio and radar telescope
located at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. NAIC is a visitor-oriented national research
center devoted to scientific investigations in radio and radar astronomy
and atmospheric sciences. NAIC provides telescope users with a wide range
of research and observing instrumentation, including receivers, transmitters,
movable line feeds, and digital data acquisition and processing equipment.
A major upgrade to the radio telescope and radar was recently completed.
The FY 2002 Request includes $9.40 million for NAIC, $720,000 less than
FY 2001, and emphasis will be on extending the high frequency capabilities
of the upgraded telescope.
The National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO)
provide for research in ground-based optical and infrared astronomy. NOAO
includes Kitt Peak National Observatory, outside Tucson, Arizona; Cerro
Tololo Inter-American Observatory, in Chile; and the National Solar Observatory,
in Arizona and New Mexico, and the U.S. Gemini Office which provides support
for U.S. astronomers to use the Gemini Observatory. Large optical telescopes,
observing equipment, and research support services are made available
to qualified scientists. In FY 2002, the Global Oscillation Network Group
(GONG) at NOAO will continue monitoring small-scale oscillations of the
sun, permitting studies of the suns interior structure. The instrumentation
for the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigation of the Sun (SOLIS) will
continue refined studies of the Suns atmosphere and surface, including
determining conditions which give rise to solar flares. The FY 2002 Request
includes $32.02 million for NOAO, $1.50 million over FY 2001.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)
is headquartered at Charlottesville, Virginia, and operates radio telescopes
at sites in Arizona, New Mexico, and West Virginia. NRAO makes radio astronomy
facilities available to qualified visiting scientists and provides staff
support for use of the large radio antennas, receivers, and other equipment
needed to detect, measure, and identify radio waves from astronomical
objects. In FY 2001, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia will transition
from commissioning to operations. Following a one-time increment in FY
2001 that enabled major improvements in facilities infrastructure and
attention to deferred maintenance, the FY 2002 Request includes $40.13
million for NRAO operations, $5.30 million less than FY 2001.
The FY 2002 Request also includes an additional $9.0 million
for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Funding within the Major
Research Equipment Account for Phase I of this project was completed in
FY 2001. In FY 2002, funds provided through the Astronomy Subactivity
will maintain the established infrastructure for this project while consideration
of the Phase II construction project continues. This is a proposed international
project being undertaken in partnership with the European, Canadian and
possibly Japanese communities.
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
NCAR facilities serve the entire atmospheric sciences research
community and part of the ocean sciences community. Facilities available
to university, NCAR, and other researchers include an advanced computational
center providing resources and services well suited for the development
and execution of large models and for the archiving and manipulation of
large data sets. NCAR also provides research aircraft, which can be equipped
with sensors to measure dynamic physical, and chemical states of the atmosphere.
In addition, one airborne and one portable ground-based radar system are
available for atmospheric research as well as other surface sensing systems.
Roughly 30 percent of the funding for NCAR is provided by non-NSF sources.
In FY 2002, more than 1,500 researchers and students will use the facilities
and approximately 150 visiting scientists will stay for extended periods.
NSFs FY 2002 support for NCAR totals $71.90 million, a decrease
of $750,000, or 1.0 percent, from FY 2001.
National SMETE Digital Library
A National SMETE Digital Library (NSDL) responds to needs
articulated by the NSF, the academic community, and corporate leaders
for accelerating much needed improvements in science, mathematics, engineering,
and technology education (SMETE). The NSDL, capitalizing on recent developments
in digital libraries, will provide: a forum for the merit review and recognition
of quality educational resources; a mechanism for electronic dissemination
of information about high-quality educational materials, pedagogical practices,
and implementation strategies; a centralized registry and archive for
educational resources; and a resource for research in teaching and learning.
In addition, the NSDL will provide an infrastructure to support and accelerate
the impact of NSF programs. For example, developers of curricula and courses
will benefit from awareness and knowledge of extant instructional materials,
as well as information on their implementation. NSF support for the NSDL
in FY 2002 will total $26.80 million, a decrease of $350,000, or 1.3 percent,
from FY 2001.
Ocean Drilling Program Facilities
The Ocean Drilling Program is a multinational program of
basic scientific research in the oceans which uses drilling and data from
drill holes to improve fundamental understanding of the role of physical,
chemical, and biological processes in the geological history, structure,
and evolution of the oceanic portion of the Earths crust. Operational
support for this activity is shared by seven international partners, comprising
20 countries. NSFs FY 2002 support for Ocean Drilling Program facilities
totals $31.0 million, an increase of $500,000, or 1.6 percent, over FY
2001.
Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI)
Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure
provides access to, and support for, high-end computing for the national
scientific and engineering community, and the development and application
of the necessary software, tools and algorithms for use on scalable, widely
distributed resources. The $70.71 million requested in FY 2002 will permit
the PACI program, now in its fourth year, to continue the era of terascale
computing. In FY 2002, emphasis will be on scaling additional applications
codes to be ready for transitions to the Terascale Computing Systems.
Archiving and visualization of verylarge data resources will continue
to be crucial to support research in disciplinary areas. The education,
outreach and training component of PACI will continue to broaden and accelerate
the capability of the nation to utilize the advanced computational capabilities
being developed.
Polar Science Operations and Logistics
NSFs FY 2002 support for Polar Science Operations
and Logistics totals $197.31 million. Polar facilities make research possible
in the remote and hazardous Antarctic continent, where all infrastructure
must be provided. In accord with U.S. Antarctic policy, three year-round
Antarctic research stations are operated and maintained McMurdo
Station on Ross Island, Palmer Station on Anvers Island, and Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station. In addition, necessary facilities include ski-equipped
and fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, research vessels (including a specially
constructed ice-breaking research vessel), and an ice-strengthened supply
and support ship. Logistical support for polar facilities is supplied
in part by the Department of Defense. These facilities support research
activities sponsored by NSF, NASA, DOI/USGS, DOC/NOAA, DOE and DOD.
Arctic facilities include camps and sites for studies of
greenhouse gases, monitoring stations for research on ultra-violet radiation,
ice coring sites for studies of global climate history, high latitude
radar observatories and magnetometers for upper atmospheric research,
use of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, and the use of a vessel from
the academic research fleet for oceanographic research in the Arctic Ocean.
Research Resources
Research Resources supports a range of activities throughout
the Research and Related Activities account including: multi-user instrumentation;
the development of instruments with new capabilities, improved resolution
or sensitivity; upgrades to field stations and marine laboratories; support
of living stock collections; facility-related instrument development and
operation; and the support and development of databases and informatics
tools and techniques. These various resources provide the essential platforms
and tools for effective research in all areas of science and engineering.
In FY 2002, funding for Research Resources decreases $3.35 million to
a total of $121.56 million.
Other Tools
This category includes:
-
Science resources studies are a vital tool for researchers
and policymakers, providing them with data and information that is
the basis for the making of informed decisions and policy formulation
about the nations science, engineering and technology enterprise.
The primary statistical series produced by the Division of Science
Resources Studies include the education and employment of scientists
and engineers and the performance and financial support of research
and development;
-
Funding for the operations of the recently upgraded
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State
University;
-
Continued support for the operation and maintenance
of the newly upgraded Cornell Electron
Storage Ring (CESR) at Cornell University;
-
Support for the Science and Technology Policy Institute
to provide analytical support to the Office of Science and Technology
Policy (OSTP) to identify near-term and long-term objectives for research
and development, and identify options for achieving those objectives;
-
An increment of $3.50 million to strengthen support
for user programs and facilities at the National High Magnetic Field
Laboratory (NHMFL), enabling the NHMFL to properly maintain and upgrade
a unique set of continuous and pulsed-field magnets for users across
a wide range of disciplines; and
-
Continued support for the National Nanofabrication
Users Network (NNUN), an integrated network of nanofabrication user
facilities at Cornell University, Stanford University, Howard University,
Pennsylvania State University, and University of California at Santa
Barbara.
Other items within this category include facilities for
physics, materials research, ocean sciences, atmospheric sciences, and
earth sciences, and the National High Field FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry Center.
FY 2002 GPRA Performance Goals
for Tools
Strategic Outcomes |
No. |
Annual Performance Goals1 for Strategic Outcomes |
FY 2002 Areas of Emphasis |
TOOLS
Outcome Goal:
To provide "broadly accessible, state-of-the-art information-bases
and shared research and education tools."
|
III-3 |
NSF's performance for the Tools Strategic Outcome is successful
when, in the aggregate, results reported in the period demonstrate
significant achievement in the majority (4 of 6) of the following
indicators:
- Provision of facilities, databases or other infrastructure that
enable discoveries or enhance productivity of NSF research or
education communities;
- Provision of broadly accessible facilities, databases or other
infrastructure that are widely shared by NSF research or education
communities;
- Partnerships with other federal agencies, national laboratories,
or other nations to support and enable development of large infrastructure
projects;
- Use of the Internet to make SMET information available to NSF
research or education communities;
- Development, management, or utilization of very large data sets
and information-bases; and
- Development of information and policy analyses that contribute
to the effective use of science and engineering resources.
|
|
FY 2002 GPRA Performance Goals for Tools
Performance Area |
No. |
Annual Performance Goals for Successful
Management |
Construction and Upgrade
of Facilities |
IV-9a |
For 90 percent of facilities, keep construction
and upgrades within annual expenditure plan, not to exceed 110 percent
of estimates. |
IV-9b |
Ninety percent of facilities will meet
all major annual schedule milestones by end of the reporting period. |
IV-9c |
For all construction and upgrade projects
initiated after 1996, when current planning processes were put in
place, keep total cost within 110 percent of estimates made at the
initiation of construction. |
Operations and Management of Facilities |
IV-10 |
For 90 percent of facilities, keep operating
time lost due to unscheduled downtime to less than 10 percent of the
total scheduled operating time. |
Highlights (Tools)
High Technology Microscopes: NSF support of advances
in microscope-related technology has resulted in the development of the
confocal microscope and more recently, the development of both the two-photon
and near-field scanning optical microscopes. Two-photon confocal
microscopy has now become a standard component of laboratory instrumentation
in the area of cell biology, and has resulted in a better understanding
of the basic biological processes in both plants and animals. Moreover,
the movement of confocal and two-photon microscopy from an experimental
tool to commercial production has resulted in net gains for the U.S economy,
as the market for high technology products is a worldwide market.
National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology
Education Digital Library (NSDL): Substantial progress is being made
in laying the groundwork for the NSDL. Key user services and supporting
technical standards are being developed at the University of Missouri
and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. A demonstration project
at the University of California-Berkeley is integrating NSDL collections
and services, and intellectual property rights management models are under
development at Columbia University. Advanced user tools to map, visualize,
and analyze collected data sets are being developed at Cornell University,
and management tools for video content are being developed at Carnegie
Mellon University. The teacherLIB project at Eastern Michigan University
and the Virtual Teacher Resource Center at Ohio State are providing the
information infrastructure and content for seamless access to high quality
learning materials for pre- and in-service teachers.
National Nanofabrication Users Network (NNUN). The
NNUN, established in 1994, is a national integrated network of nanofabrication
user facilities at Cornell, Stanford, Howard, Pennsylvania State, and
the University of California, Santa Barbara. This investment supports
the national infrastructure and education needs for the burgeoning nanoscience
and technology research field by providing access, on-site and electronically
via the Internet, to advanced nano- and micro-fabrication capabilities
for researchers in diverse disciplines in academe, industry and government.
The NNUN facilities provide capabilities for advanced lithographic, etching,
deposition and growth processes in a variety of materials, together with
the expertise needed to fabricate nanometer-scale structures, custom devices,
and circuits. Since its establishment, users from 29 states, 7 foreign
countries, and over 50 start-up companies have used the facilities. The
number of unique users has reached over 1,400, an increase of about 30%
from the previous year. Significant growth has occurred in the external
academic user base in emerging areas of biology and chemistry through
outreach efforts to these communities.
Brain Image Database: Brain scans are an important
tool for medical science, basic research and education, but this expensive
technology is often out of reach for many institutions. A multidisciplinary
team of cognitive neuroscientists, computer scientists, psychologists,
and mathematicians has developed a repository for images of human brain
scans that is available free to researchers and educators worldwide. The
National Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Data Center has
been established with a 5-year grant from NSF. The brain images come from
fMRI results published in peer-reviewed journals. Once the data are received,
all traces of personal identity information are removed and the image
files are converted into a standard format. Computational tools
were essential to the triumph of the human genome project, and we want
to bring this power into brain research, says Michael Gazzaniga,
director of Dartmouths Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. Researchers
and educators with modest budgets will now have access to recent fMRI
data.
Auto-Nowcaster. The Auto-Nowcaster system, jointly
sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of the
Army, the National Weather Service, and NSF under the U.S. Weather Research
Program, provides one-hour nowcasts of thunderstorms and strong winds.
The Sterling Virginia National Weather Forecast Offices severe storm
warnings for 1998 were far moreaccurate than any previous year, and they
give partial credit to the Auto-Nowcaster system for the improvement.
Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure
(PACI): PACI researchers are creating innovative ways to harness computing
power to solve heretofore unsolvable problems. Scientists at the National
Computational Science Alliance (NCSA) located at the University of Illinois,
along with scientists at the University of Iowa and Argonne National Laboratory,
have demonstrated the power of combining computers at multiple locations.
By linking over 1,000 computers from around the world-computers from five
different vendors operating together as a single parallel computer-they
solved a quadratic assignment that has been unsolved for over 30 years:
to find the lowest cost assignment of facilities to locations that will
minimize the cost of moving material flows. Quadratic assignment problems
arise in such varied applications as locating factories, hospital layouts
and designing computer chips.
Ultraviolet (UV) Monitoring Network. The National
Science Foundation Ultraviolet (UV) Monitoring Network was established
in 1987 by the NSF Office of Polar Programs in response to serious ozone
depletion reported in Antarctica. The first instruments were installed
in 1988 and the network has operated since then. The network was the first
automated, high-resolution UV scanning spectroradiometer network in the
world. It has been successfully operated in the harshest environments
on Earth (Antarctica and the Arctic) and is currently providing data to
researchers studying the effects of ozone depletion on terrestrial and
marine biological systems. Network data is also used to develop and verify
models of atmospheric light transmission and ozone depletion impacts.
Data is available at no cost to all interested parties via CD-ROM or the
Internet.
NSFs Science Resources Studies (SRS) responsible
for the collection, dissemination and analysis of information on the nations
scientific and technical resources. SRS primary statistical series
include the education and employment of scientists and engineers and the
performance and financial support of research and development. Users traditionally
had obtained SRS information through publications and general-purpose
databases. Recently, however, SRS web site has become the main interface.
These data provide a vital tool for researchers and policymakers. For
example, the databases and website recently were utilized to inform the
policy debate on H-1B visas for high-tech workers. The web site provides
complete access to SRS publications, related reports and databases. The
SRS databases are WebCaspar, an integrated database of statistical data
dealing with science and engineering at U.S. academic institutions and
SESTAT, an integrated system covering the employment of scientists and
engineers in the nation.
Quieter Solid State Laser Patented Following LIGO Supported
Development. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
(LIGO) provides 10W of single frequency light to measure the disturbance
of LIGOs arm cavities caused by the passage of gravitational
waves. LIGOs requirement for solid-state infrared lasers as
ultra-stable light sources for each of its interferometers required
teaming university laser scientists with industry. That teaming has
now led to a new commercial product, the Lightwave 6000 laser and
a patent for a new laser stabilization technique by a LIGO industrial
partner, Lightwave Electronics of Mountain View, California. The
partnership has continued to develop improvements. One of the requirements
of the project, the stringent amplitude (brightness) stability, led
Lightwave to develop a new optical technique that uses a nonlinear
optical parametric oscillator. This oscillator, for which Lightwave
has a patent pending, offers a broadband suppression of amplitude
noise. This development, which will help the next generation of LIGO
detectors to meet their ever-tightening sensitivity goals, is expected
to be of interest in industrial applications requiring quiet laser interferometry.
For example, the oil industry uses low-noise laser-fiber interferometers
to sense the presence of oil though variations in the propagation of
induced seismic disturbances.
|