ANSIR was created as a Major National Research Facility to encourage and assist world-class research and education in the field of seismic imaging of the Earth. It now operates in conjunction with the Earth Imaging component of the AuScope facility established under the NCRIS scheme.

ANSIR acts as a facilitation agent for reflection experiments, sinceit no longer owns any equipment.

ANSI still operates a pool of state-of-the-art seismic equipment suitable for experiments on a wide variety of scales, from the investigation of geologic structures on environmental and mine scales through to studies at the continental scale of the entire lithosphere.
Some Magnetotelluric equipment can be accessed through applications to the Facility

ANSIR equipment is available to all researchers on the basis of merit, as judged by an Access Committee. Researchers have to meet the project operating costs.

ANSIR provides training in the use of its portable equipment, and a field crew to operate its seismic reflection profiling systems.