A Day in the Life of the Crew
Day to day MTArray operations involve a lot of logistics and planning. The survey is set up on a 50 mile grid resulting in sites being located in a wide variety of areas with different land ownership, permit requirements and environments. Each site requires at least half a day to install, it then needs to be checked at least once before finally being extracted once it has gathered 3 weeks worth of data.
At any given time, a crew can have up to 10 sites installed and there can be up to 3 crews in the field.
Each crew is made up of two people, the more experienced of which will be the crew chief. The crew chief will usually be more involved in the logistics and planning aspect of the survey while the other person focuses on the technical aspects of instrument installation and data collection.
Since sites are so spaced out, working on the MTArray involves a lot of driving.
The crew gets a per diem that covers lodging and food, they will usually spend a day or two at a hotel or Airbnb before moving on to the area, it is truly a life on the road.
Beyond logistics and driving, setting up, maintaining and understanding the instruments is what takes up most of the crew’s day. A description of the instruments and set up can be found in our project description.
Below you’ll find a gallery of past and present crews installing sites, maintaining instruments, traveling and just generally having a good time!
