Participants will need a laptop computer for Friday's data processing and interpretation component of this field experience.

If your organization prohibits loading of software, or prohibits access to the cloud-based web site to process GPR data, you may want to prepare and bring your personal laptop with the software preloaded.

During enrollment, you will be required to affirm that you read, and can meet the minimum requirements for the self-installed Surfer Windows software* and also that you will be able to access the external web app GPRInsights cloud-based software application** (multi-platform).

*The gradiometer and the EMI data will be processed using a Windows based software that has a 14-day free trial evaluation. Non-Windows users should use an emulator for the Windows software. 

**The GPR data we collect will be processed using the cloud-based software that will be made available for a limited time specifically for our attendees. 

If you need IT to prepare your laptop ahead of your arrival, relevant links are provided below.

Windows Golden Software Surfer web page

GPR Insights web page

INFORMATION BELOW MAY BE INCOMPLETE. VISIT THE LINKS PROVIDED ABOVE AND CONFIRM YOUR ABILITY TO USE THESE APPLICATIONS.

Surfer’s system requirements

Surfer is a Windows based, desktop software.

For Mac, Linux, or Unix users, Surfer can be run using your preferred Windows emulator. We recommend testing the functionality with our trial version before purchasing.

Minimum requirements

Windows 10, 11 and higher
64-bit operating system
1024×768 or higher monitor resolution with minimum 16-bit color depth
At least 1GB free hard disk space. 500GB or larger hard drive with 25% disk space available recommended
2GB RAM minimum, 16GB RAM recommended
.NET Framework 4.8

3D View requirements:

Graphics card with OpenGL v3.2 or later
Dedicated graphics card (e.g. NVIDIA, AMD) highly recommended
Windows emulators, such as VMs and Parallels for Mac, may not support all the required features for viewing data in the 3D view

Fine Tuning Surfer Performance

Issues with 3D View features may be corrected by upgrading to the latest graphics drivers.
Many heavily computational operations, including gridding and contouring, are multi-threaded and processor reliant. A faster processor will improve Surfer’s performance.
For processing very large data files, such as LiDAR or some vector data files, fast and large RAM storage capacity is recommended.
Click the File | Options command and on the General page, set the Max number of processors to use all processor cores.
For improved performance, you can disable Save auto recovery information (File | Options | General). However, disabling this feature means you will lose any unsaved work if the program closes unexpectedly. Auto-recovery is highly recommended to protect your data.

GPRInsights SYSTEM

GPRInsights can be accessed as both web-based or standalone (on Windows 10 or superior) mode. The web version can be accessed from anywhere via a web browser.