Environmental intelligence from a global network of ground stations

Sense the Earth as one system.

Ground stations that record the Earth across domains as one coherent, machine-readable record: solid Earth, magnetic field, ionosphere, atmosphere, and whatever else a site demands. Node 1 is live on the Cascadia margin. The network is next.

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Node 1 · hosted at RPCSO Relief: NOAA NCEI ETOPO 2022 · public domain

The problem

The world runs on environmental data. Almost none of it is recorded together.

Weather, seismic, geomagnetic, solar, atmospheric, hydrological, oceanic and hazard data are bought by every major industry, yet they arrive fragmented across domains, providers and time bases.

The Earth is a coupled system; its instruments are not. Cross-domain analysis begins with reconciliation and ends in doubt about whether two events were truly simultaneous.

Today

Separate providers. Separate domains. Separate time bases.

Cascadia Sentinel

Co-located instruments. Many domains. One coherent record.

The approach

Many domains. One coherent record.

Cascadia Sentinel addresses the fragmentation at the source: a node records many Earth-system domains at one place, at one time, in one dataset.

01

Co-located.

A common core of instruments at every node, plus the sensors each setting calls for. A desert node has no use for ocean sensors; a coastal node does.

02

Synchronised.

Every instrument is disciplined to a single GNSS-referenced clock, to microsecond and sub-microsecond order, so samples from different physics align at acquisition rather than by interpolation.

03

Fused.

All domains land in one time-aligned dataset with a provenance trail from instrument to archive, so a cross-domain question is a query, not a project.

The network detects, characterises and validates coupled signals across domains, and is built to be replicated wherever the Earth is most instructive.

Why coherence matters

Coupled physics, measured together.

When the ground, the field, the sky and the air are recorded as one dataset, the questions change.

How does a solar event arrive at the ground: through the geomagnetic field, the ionosphere, or both, and in what order? How does a coast respond to a storm across every domain at once? Which coincidences are real? A coherent multi-domain record lets these questions be tested directly, rather than assembled from unrelated archives.

Timing chain at Node 1 GNSS disciplines the node reference clock, which disciplines the seismometer, magnetometer, SID receiver and weather station over PTP where possible and NTP elsewhere, so every sample sits on one time axis. GNSS satellite time Reference clock GNSS-disciplined PTP · NTP distribution PTP where possible · NTP elsewhere Seismometer Magnetometer SID receiver Weather station UTC one time axis
How the record stays coherent: one GNSS-disciplined reference clock holds every instrument at a node to microsecond and sub-microsecond time discipline, distributed over PTP where the instrument supports it and NTP elsewhere.

Node 1 · Rugged Point

Four domains live. Two more in commissioning.

Node 1 is installed and recording at the Rugged Point Coastal Science Observatory on the outer coast of Vancouver Island, directly above the Cascadia subduction zone. RPCSO hosts the node.

Seismometer

Ground motion at the Cascadia margin, from microseisms to regional events.

Live

Magnetometer

Variations in the geomagnetic field, from diurnal drift to storm-time disturbance.

Live

SID receiver

Sudden ionospheric disturbances driven by solar activity, observed through VLF propagation.

Live

Weather station

Solar irradiance, temperature, pressure, humidity, wind and precipitation.

Live

Solar radio telescope

Solar radio emission, the activity behind ionospheric and geomagnetic disturbance, observed directly.

Commissioning

GNSS geodesy monument

Continuous, precise positioning of the ground itself: crustal deformation at the plate boundary.

Commissioning
Location
Rugged Point, outer coast of Vancouver Island · 49.96° N, 127.24° W
Setting
Cascadia subduction zone, where the Juan de Fuca plate descends beneath North America
Host
Rugged Point Coastal Science Observatory (RPCSO)
Timing
GNSS-disciplined reference clock, distributed over PTP and NTP

Together the instruments describe the site as one system: ground, field, sky and air, sampled continuously and stored as one record, so any two observations can be compared directly.

Under evaluation for Node 1
cosmic-ray detectors · gravimetry

Built to replicate

One reference build. A global network.

Node 1 is the reference build. Its core instruments, timing chain and data model are designed to be reproduced without redesign, so that each new site adds to one coherent record rather than another silo.

Every node carries the common core. Each also carries the sensors its setting calls for, because candidate sites are chosen for what the Earth does there: subduction margins, collision fronts, the auroral zone, high desert with exceptional sky.

Prospective sites are early conversations, not commitments. Drag the globe, or select a site to centre it.

Globe with Node 1 at Rugged Point as a solid dot and prospective sites, early conversations, as hollow rings.

The data product

One fused record.

Every domain at a node lands in a single time-aligned dataset.

Every domain a node records shares one time base, one format and a provenance trail from instrument to archive. The result is standardised, machine-readable and ready for analysis and model training. Partners receive the aligned, validated record, not a stack of feeds to reconcile.

Four synthetic signals on one shared time axis Illustrative synthetic data, not a recording: seismometer, magnetometer, SID receiver and weather station lanes share one time axis; a single cursor marks one timestamp across all four. Seismometer ground motion Magnetometer geomagnetic field SID receiver ionosphere Weather station solar irradiance t + 0 s t + 15 s t + 30 s t + 45 s t + 60 s shared time axis (UTC) one timestamp · four domains
Illustrative synthetic data, not a recording. Four domains on one shared time axis, as delivered.

Data and demonstrations are available under NDA to qualified partners.

Who it's for

Ground truth for the industries that run on environmental data.

Insurance, energy and utilities, mining and infrastructure, transport, agriculture, maritime, aviation, finance, government and AI companies all buy environmental data today. Almost none of it was recorded together.

Satellite and Earth-data providers

A fixed, continuously recorded, multi-domain reference on the ground for calibrating and validating space-based observation.

Insurance and infrastructure risk

Independent, coherent environmental records for modelling exposure and for characterising events after the fact.

Energy, utilities and GNSS-dependent operations

Ground-level observation of the geomagnetic and ionospheric conditions that positioning, timing and grid operations depend on.

Defence and maritime

Persistent, multi-domain environmental sensing on remote coasts, with timing you can audit.

Research and AI

Long, aligned, multi-domain time series with provenance: fusion research and training data that cannot be scraped.

A complementary layer, not another satellite feed.

Satellites see broadly and briefly. A node sees one place continuously, across every domain at once. The network is built so the two can be compared.

Where we are

Node 1 live. The network next.

  • Node 1 installed and recording at RPCSO on the Cascadia margin
  • Solar radio telescope and GNSS geodesy monument in commissioning at Node 1
  • Early conversations: Atacama Desert, French Pyrenees, Kathmandu Valley, Finnish Lapland, Tasmania
  • Next: early-access partners and the first replicated nodes
Todd Charter
Founding Director
Gerhard Anderson
Co-founder

Request early access.

We are opening the network to a small number of partners who need coherent, multi-domain environmental data. Tell us what you are trying to measure.

Request early access

Or write to contact@rpcso.com. Data and demonstrations are shared under NDA.