Welcome The Laboratory for Geophysical
Instrumentation welcomes you to its website. You will find information
on the different aspects of the LGI. This website will be regularly updated,
so please come back often. You will discover our objectives,
find out about where our expertise comes
from. You may also
contact us for more information.
The Laboratory's main objective is to
develop and build instruments that may be applied to all the domains of
geophysical research, this includes software, sensors, data loggers. Through
its work with many different Scientific institutes around the world, it
has build a great expertise in different fields of Metrology.
The expertise of the Laboratory for
Geophysical Instrumentation started in 1970, when electronic transducers
adapted to Earth tide measurements (strain- and tilt-meters) were first
developed. As tidal measurements require underground sites in order to
avoid the meteorological effects, many instruments have been tested in
the Underground Laboratory of Walferdange (Great Duchy of Luxembourg).
With its association with Walferdange, the Royal Observatory has thus progressively
become a leading Organisation for characterizing Earth tide instruments.
In parallel to the design of Earth tide strain instruments, many other
instruments have been developped devoted to the measurement of the parameters
that are likely to perturb the Earth tides. This experience in Metrology
and Geophysics has been acknowledged by its participation to the following
international projects:
In 1973, it was in charge of the Trans World Profile gravity project
for tide measurements
1980: Contacted by Japanese researchers of the Geophysical Observatory
of Esashi in the Ewate province, to install for comparison a capacitive
transducer on a strain meter originaly equipped with a magnetic sensor.
During the 80's, It was collaborating with Chinese scientists of the State
Bureau of Seismology of Wuhan, to study the deformation of the crust with
the help of strain meters, tiltmeters, and water tubes, and to have a better
understanding of the meteorological influences on these measurements.
In 1985, in the framework of the Turkish-German Earth Quake precursors
Research Project, it was contacted by the University of Kiel (Germany)
to measure the Temperature of the ground water near the North Anatolian
Fault.
In 1992, It was contacted by the Physical Institute of the Earth of Paris
to participate to the Volcanic survey of La Reunion - France (EVOP-Reunion
project, ENV-5V-CT92-0189)
In 1994, It was contacted by the Museo Nacional de Sciencias Naturales
- C.S.I.C. (Madrid), to participate to the Volcanic survey of the Canarian
Island of Lanzarote (EVOP-Teide project, ENV-5V-CT93-0283)
In 1996, It was contacted by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
to participate to an earthquake precursors research experiment in the Gulf
of Corinth (GAIA Project, ENV4-CT96-0276)
Also in 1996, The Nordic Volcanological Institute of Reykjavik (Iceland)
contacted the Laboratory to participate in the development of an Automated
Volcano Monitoring System (AVMS Project, ENV4-CT96-0250).
The participation to these various project lead to the definition af a
new standard data acquisition system and a set of interfaces for sensors,
named Environmental Data Acquisition System (EDAS) in 1993.