West Antarctic Ice Sheet Monitored by Sensors
20.12.2007 - Logistics, Other
New collaboration named POLENET will plant global positioning system (GPS) trackers and seismic sensors on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) bedrock. The aim of this sensors network is to monitor the interactions between the ice and earth 24 hours a day.
Lead by Ohio State University, the POLENET network has just been awarded .5 million by the National Science Foundation, to be divided among partner universities as part of an International Polar Year project.
The WAIS region remains one of the least accessible places in Antarctica. Scientists have long wished to understand how climate change is affecting the WAIS, but some of these sites are inhospitable to both scientific instruments and to scientists who could deploy them. By being planted into the snow, the rugged POLENET sensor instruments will be able to collect data and send it back to the United States by satellite.
First expeditions arrived in Antarctica in early December 2007. By the end of February 2008, 17 trackers and 11 seismic sensors should be installed around the WAIS. The network should be complete by 2010 and will record data into 2012. POLENET data should be accessible to scientists worldwide on the internet and educational programs will be developed for schools.
