Columbus, Ohio — In a mission of unprecedented scale, scientists are covering West Antarctica with a network of sensors to monitor the interactions between the ice and the earth below — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Credit: POLENET. GPS system at Pecora Escarpment, Antarctica

In 2007 the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the collaboration, called POLENET (The Polar Earth Observing Network -- www.polenet.org), $4.5 million to plant global positioning system (GPS) trackers and seismic sensors on the bedrock that cradles the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Lead institution Ohio State University will receive more than $2.2 million, and the rest will be divided among partners in the United States as part of an International Polar Year project.

As scientists have tried to understand how climate change is affecting the WAIS, they have long wished they could gather information from the entire region, explained POLENET leader Terry Wilson. But Antarctica contains the coldest and windiest sites on the planet — locations inhospitable to scientific instruments and the scientists who would deploy them.

Credit: Kelly Carroll. Installing a high precision GPS antenna on Deverall Island, Antarctica

During the first two field seasons POLENET scientists were able to install 17 GPS and seismic systems in West Antarctica. A total of 51 remote instrument sites are planned, and will operate at least through 2012.

"Our preliminary results show that we can dramatically improve our estimates of whether Antarctica is gaining or losing ice," said Terry Wilson, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University.

Credit: Kelly Carroll. POLENET GPS equipment and power rig on Deverall Island, Antarctica

Ice weighs down the bedrock, but as the ice melts, the earth slowly rebounds. POLENET's GPS sensors measure how much the crust is rising or falling, while the seismic sensors measure the stiffness of the bedrock — a key factor for predicting how much the bedrock will rise in the future. A few millimeters may sound like a small change, but it's actually quite large, she explained. Crustal uplift in parts of North America is measured on the scale of millimeters per year.

Credit: POLENET. Installing a seismic system at Siple Dome, Antarctica

"We're pinning down both parts of this problem, which will improve the correction made to the satellite data, which will in turn improve what we know about whether we're gaining ice or losing ice," Wilson said. Better estimates of sea level rise can then follow.

POLENET representatives will be available for comment via teleconference at 3:00PM Eastern Standard Time (20:00UTC) on Sunday February 22, 2009. Teleconference is available via Skype (www.skype.com) Skype ID: soktober




Media Contact: Kelly Carroll This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Acknowledgments: some quotes received from 2007 American Geophysical Union Press Conference.

Credit: POLENET. GPS system at Pecora Escarpment, Antarctica

On February 25th 2009, the IPY Joint Committee will release a report on ‘The State of Polar Research’. In the lead-up to this event, major IPY research projects are releasing information for the press, and making themselves available for media enquiries. A wide range of projects will be profiled reflecting the diversity of IPY. For more information, please visit http://www.ipy.org/index.php?ipy/detail/feb09_projects/ or contact Rhian Salmon ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).