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UBC Theses and Dissertations

Digital disk recorder for geophysics Chapel, Brian Ernie

Abstract

This thesis describes the design and testing of a floppy disk drive based digital recorder. The device was originally built for a geomagnetic research project, but is also suitable for other phenomena with time scales from fractions of a second to approximately one day. The system is designed specifically to improve the reliability for long-term observing programs and to enhance the efficency of the subsequent data analysis procedures. Using an STD-Z80 BUS microcomputer, under the control of a Forth language program, the recorder stores digital data on removable 8-inch floppy disks. This thesis explicitly addresses the issue of cost and provides the necessary detail for reproduction of the device. A procedure is described for preparing the acquired data for analysis using computing facilities equiped with an appropriate disk reader. Also presented is a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the recorder's performance when applied to both synthetic and natural signals. The latter include geomagnetically induced currents in power transmission lines.

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