The science program of the POLENET consortium will investigate polar geodynamics, the Earth's magnetic field, crust, mantle and core structure and dynamics, and systems-scale interactions of the solid Earth, the cryosphere, the oceans and the atmosphere. Activities will be focussed on the deployment of autonomous observatories at remote sites on the continents and offshore (for more information see field deployments), coordinated with measurements made at permanent stations and by satellite campaigns. Multi-disciplinary deep sea observatories on the polar seafloor will perform continuous collection of geophysical, oceanographic and geochemical data.

New datasets, coordinated data exchange and analysis and improvements in modelling capabilities are expected to result in many new advances across many branches of science (for more information see the list of significant advances expected to arise from the work of scientists in the POLENET consortium). Example projects also give a general idea of the nature of POLENET science (e.g. 1) Horizontal station velocities from the SCAR GPS network, (e.g. 2) Variations in mantle structure beneath the TransAntarctic Mountains, (e.g. 3) Joint Seismological and Geodetic Observations on David Glacier, South Victoria Land, Antarctica and (e.g. 4) Examples of seismic sources from glaciers.

In the other pages in the 'SCIENCE' area of the POLENET website, more information is provided on some of these areas (under GPS, Seismology, Other...) but note that these headings are just for convenience - POLENET science is all about integration!

Download the POLENET brouchure (PDF).

 

INTER-DISCIPLINARY EMPHASIS

Understanding the complex interactions between the solid Earth, cryosphere, oceans and climate systems requires broad interdisciplinary research. POLENET is designed to deploy a variety of sensors at each field site and to promote integrated, interdisciplinary analysis of the co-located measurements.

Geophysical observations made by POLENET will contribute to many branches of gescience and glaciology, for example, sea level and ice sheet monitoring can be fully modeled only when measurements of solid Earth motions are incorporated. Both plate tectonic and palaeoclimate studies benefit from crustal deformation results. Multidisciplinary payload on deep sea observatories will aid polar ecosystem studies based on environmental factors and defining possible links with active tectonics.