Sensors to Monitor Antarctic 24/7

A network of sensors to be planted on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will enable scientists to gather unprecedented data about the harshest environment on Earth, according to news from Ohio State University (OSU).

The project, dubbed POLENET, will place rugged global positioning system (GPS) trackers and seismic sensors across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet between now and 2010. Data from the instruments will be transmitted around the clock and year-round to researchers in the U.S. via satellite. The $4.5 million project is being funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Polar Year program.

"We'll be able to do systems-scale science in Antarctica," said Terry Wilson, POLENET leader and an associate professor of earth sciences at OSU. "That wasn't possible before. This instrumentation is designed to run and record data year-round, through the dark polar night. Previous instrument deployments have largely operated only for a few months, or less, each year. This allows us to do new science."

The sensors and trackers will be flown to the remotest parts of Antarctica on ski-equipped airplanes. The goal is to install 17 trackers and 11 seismic sensors in various locations around the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by the end of February. Expeditions for the project are already under way this month.

Once in place, the network is expected to record valuable data through 2012, although some sites might continue to be used afterward as part of a permanent Antarctic observation system.

Among the insights researchers hope to gain from the network is a better understanding of how climate change is affecting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Data from the remotest parts of the continent have previously been difficult to obtain because conditions there are so inhospitable to scientific instruments and people alike.

As more information is gathered about conditions in the Antarctic, POLENET researchers plan to publish their data online. The information will be available to scientists around the world, and additional educational resources will also be provided for schools.

U.S. institutions partnering with OSU in the POLENET project include the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, New Mexico Tech, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Memphis, the University of Texas at Austin and Washington University. Scientists, students and engineers from 27 nations besides the U.S. are also participating in the project.

Ohio State University, "West Antarctica to be Covered with Scientific Instruments; Network to Keep Watch Through the Dark Polar Night." URL: (http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/polenet.htm)