The National Geoelectromagnetic Facility maintains its own instrument pool, and it provides access to two other instrument pools that are also managed by Oregon State University's EM instrument center. Two types of instruments are available:

  1. Long-period magnetotelluric systems (1 Hz sample rate) and related support equipment. Currently 71 transportable Narod Geophysics NIMS systems, plus 1 LEMI-417 system. 46 transportable NIMS are reserved specifically for OSU-USGS Cooperative Agreement MTArray work, and the remaining 25 are available for general purpose use.
  2. Ultra wide-band EM receivers configurable for dc, micro-Hz-to-MHz operations, and related support equipment. The NGF currently operates 16 Zonge ZEN Rx6 (ultra)wideband EM receivers, including 18 Zonge/Geotell ANT/4 induction coils, 30 Zonge/Geotell ANT/6 induction coils, 27 Geotell ANT/7 induction coils custom designed for the NGF, a number of Zonge/Geotell ANT/2 and 2m induction coils, and 10 LEMI 031 fluxgate magnetometers. Please see links at left under "Our instruments" for more information. If you require access to a combination of these instruments that is not found in the drop-down menus on the "Request equipment" page, please contact us directly at: ngf@coas.oregonstate.edu.

The current cost schedule for using NGF instruments is as follows:

Potential users of the NGF ultra-wideband instruments, and/or the general purpose long-period magnetotelluric instrument pools are advised to note the following direct project costs to factor in when budgeting:

Instrument staging: $1000/instrument  for NIMS and/or for ZEN  plus $100 staging cost per induction coil (ANT4/6/7) plus $200/month staging cost for LEMI fluxgate sensors (staging costs are one time cost per outbound shipment to cover instrument prep, testing and shipping preparations). Instrument use: $500/instrument/month for NIMS and/or for ZEN. The monthly cost per induction coil is $250, and for each LEMI fluxgate sensor, $500.

OSU will also provide at not additional cost per instrument up to 4 twin chamber gel-type Pb-PbCl2 electrodes per instrument. A limited number of commercially-produced solid-state electrolyte single chamber Ag-AgCl electrodes may be available upon request.

Insurance requirements: All users must supply evidence of insurance for the replacement value of NGF-managed instruments before they can be released to the user. Users are asked to insure the NIMS instruments for $18,000 replacement cost, the active source transmitters for $15,000 replacement cost, and the ultra wide-band Zen/5 instruments for $45,000 replacement cost. Users are also responsible for shipping costs to/from Oregon State University. Users will usually be responsible for providing external 12V deep cycle batteries for instrument power (exceptions can be made upon request), insulated dipole wire for electrode hookup, and all typical field supplies and hand tools necessary for installation of the instruments. Users are encouraged to provide their own field notebook computers for setup and operation of the instruments, although a limited number of NGF MacBookAir field computers can be made available, if not otherwise booked. Oregon State University will provide NIMSpy for operation of the NIMS instruments, its OSU-written Python instrument control software, a User Manual, and user training at our site at no additional cost. Software to operate the ZENs can also be provided upon request.

Additional technical services: Including remote site user training, or direct field support including full data acquisition and data processing/interpretation services can also be arranged, on a cost recovery basis.