Significant advances/deliverables that will result from POLENET activities

Anticipated Outcomes

POLENET is a multidisciplinary consortium of activities that aims to dramatically improve the coverage in geodetic, magnetic, and seismic data across the polar regions. These new data, coordinated data exchange and analysis, and improvement in modeling capabilites will result in the following anticipated major 'deliverables' for the polar science community:

1. Measurement of vertical and horizontal solid Earth deformation at mm/yr accuracy, providing first comprehensive view of bedrock motions across polar regions.
2. Improvement of global geodetic reference frame with specific focus on the Arctic and Antarctic.
3. Improved models of glacial isostatic adjustment/sea-level change, contributing to better modelling of mass fluxes of polar ice sheets and sea level change.
4. First tests of glacial isostatic adjustment models for the Antarctic interior from repeat measurements at existing GPS sites
5. Validation and improvement of glacial isostatic models for Greenland and other Arctic regions of glacial isostatic adjustment and post-glacial rebound.
6. Integration of geodetic observations with complementary seismic imaging studies.
7. First higher-resolution images of lithospheric structure across high latitudes.
8. First higher-resolution tomographic images of the Earth beneath the polar regions.
9. Understanding crust and mantle dynamics that cause earthquakes and volcanoes, including the nature of links with ice-mass change.
10. Improved understanding of the Earth's inner core.
11. Improved understanding of the secular variation of the Earth's magnetic field, core structure and dynamics, including quantification of rapid field decrease that may signal a reversal of the Earth's field and of drift of the North and South magnetic poles.
12. Improve technological capabilities for continuous measurement at autonomous observatories operating in polar conditions.
13. Enhanced capabilities for multidisciplinary observations studies of the polar seafloor.
14. A legacy framework for an ongoing international geophysical observation network.