For information on becoming a registered user of the NGF, which gives you access to web forms for reserving equipment, permission to post your own content on forums, and access to non-public spaces on the NGF site, please email a request to join to:

ngfatosu <<at sign>> gmail.com

The NGF loans electromagnetic geophysics instruments to academic scientists, industry and government. It is not necessary to be an EM specialist to use NGF instruments. If you would like NGF staff to acquire and process and/interpret EM data for you, we can provide this service as well. The NGF is currently managing nearly 90 long-period, wideband and ultra wideband instruments. These form the following instrument groups:

Ultra-Wideband Instrument Pool: The NGF operates 26 ultra-wideband EM geophysics data acquisition systems, the ZEN Rx6 systems co-developed by Zonge International, Inc. and Oregon State University under NSF Major Research Instrumentation funding. Three additional ZEN Rx6 instruments are currently in production. Please see the description of the Zonge Zen Rx6 system, found through the "NGF Request/Info" links to the left. These instruments are available to any academic, industry or government users. The NGF also operates 30 ANT/6, 27 ANT/7, 18 ANT/4 and a number of ANT2/2M induction coil magnetic field sensors as well as 10 LEMI 031 long-period fluxgate magnetometers that are designed to operate with the ZEN Rx6 receivers. A set of 12 OSU-designed and fabricated induction coil clamping systems are available that can be used to adapt the induction coils for subaerial deployment (for zero ground disturbance MT installations, where required).

Nine next-generation Cloud-enabled wideband MT instruments, designed and built in-house are currently in development. More details will be available once these next-generation instruments are fully integrated into the NGF instrument pool.

General Purpose Long-Period MT Instrument Pool: Of the NGF's 62 1-Hz sample rate Narod Geophysics NIMS MT instruments, 35 are available to investigators working anywhere in the world (currently 27 NSF-owned NIMS are reserved for OSU's efforts to complete the systematic mapping of the 3D resistivity structure of the conterminous US under NASA and USGS funding).

We also have one LEMI 417 long period MT instrument available. The NIMS instrumentshave been upgraded with state-of-the-art GNSS receivers capable of receiving location and timing information from all of the existing and developing global positioning satellite constellations, and with a new data logging system that will enable greater flexibility, wireless communications and the potential for data telemetry and remote command and control.

Other equipment: The NGF also can provide field support equipment (field computers, software), Pb-PbCl2 gel-style electrodes (electrodes of other chemistries are currently being developed - please check back with the NGF if you require Ag-AgCl electrodes), and other equipment you might need to conduct your experiment/survey. Oregon State University also has capabilities in marine magnetotellurics and controlled source electromagnetics, as well as ocean bottom seismic instrumentation. Please contact the NGF if your requirements extend beyond the shoreline.

Please use the NGF Equipment Request Form found under the "NGF Request/Info" links to the left, to register your interest in using NGF instruments, EarthScope instruments, or general purpose MT pool instruments. The NGF encourages submission of these forms for planning purposes (for projects that are not yet funded), as well as for those with firm requirements and specific dates Please submit your requests as early in the planning process as possible, to guarantee instrument availability when you need it, even if one or two years in advance of firm funding. The NGF operates a first-come first-served schedule priority system, so if you are planning a future EM investigation that may require NGF instruments, please be proactive and make your requests now rather than later. Please don't wait until your funding is firmed up. This is essential to the NGFs own planning process.

Costs. There may be costs to access the NGF and general purpose MT instruments, in which case you may include the cost schedule as a supplemental document in your grant application/proposal to your funding agency. Please contact the NGF (see "Contact us!" link on this page) for an up-to-date copy of the cost schedule, which is subject to change depending on NSF policy. There is no direct cost to access the NSF-owned NIMS instruments by investigators who qualify to use the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center instruments - please see link above for details..

Education and Technical Assistance. Training in the use of the NGF equipment is available, either at Oregon State University, or at your institution or field location. Field technical support is also available to assist you in your project, as required.

NSF Support. This NGF has been made possible through work supported by the National Science Foundation under Major Research Instrumentation Grant No. 0960342. Funding for this award was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.