Jim Rinke at Fallone Nunataks during 2009/2010 POLENET Antarctic season.
Photo by Jeremy Miner.

POLENET: The Polar Earth Observing Network

POLENET Media Guide. 2009. Click pages to enlarge.

How much ice is there in the world?

Good grief, what a question.

The polar world is a woven fabric of interconnected research and exploration sparked by questions such as this. Because it is void of the permanence of any normal, settled population, the polar community tends to criss-cross the globe, offering a bit of randomness to life's path. My experience with the Antarctic Geologic Drilling (ANDRILL) program ultimately led me to work with another group of polar researchers called the Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET). Like ANDRILL, POLENET also studies the rocks beneath Antarctica's icy covering, but in a different way.

POLENET Active Earth Display Module / iPad App Concept

The following was produced for the IRIS Active Earth Display and scoped out as a future iPad concept. It is fully functional in the space below, so go ahead and explore!
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There have been many analogies used to illustrate the main goals of the POLENET program. Ultimately, each one fails in some aspect to accurately capture the complexities of the entire project, which unites over 20 countries and spans both poles. But let's use the following over-simplification to get us started:

You know the indentations that a couch leaves in a carpet pad when it sits for a long period of time? In a similar, but much more gradual way, the Earth's crust responds to a heavy load that accumulates over time-- such as that of an ice sheet. Gradually, the weight depresses the crust. As the load is removed, the crust slowly comes back up-- much like how the carpet pad will slowly regain its shape after the couch is removed. This concept is known as isostatic rebound.

Isostatic rebound takes into account the viscosity and elasticity of the Earth's mantle- the layer beneath the crust. While the Earth, from our perspective, seems to have all the consistency of a black 8 ball, it's actually much more dynamic and acts as a sort of scale that can weigh the shifting ice loads around the globe.

The following is an exaggerated example of how fluctuating water loads can cause isostatic rebound near the Amazon River. (Based on work by Bevis, et al, Ohio State University).

Global Ice Mass

Global ice mass calculations rely heavily on satellite data and gravity measurements. POLENET seeks to constrain many of these models by providing a more complete data set of isostatic rebound over time. Rather than measuring from above, POLENET measures the very place where the ice sits. POLENET also uses seismic imaging data to understand the various "ingredients" of Earth's layers underneath Antarctica's ice- are they hot, cold? Thick, thin? Stiff, slippery?

To do this, GPS and seismic stations are installed across the polar regions.

POLENET Antarctic site map.

These sorts of instruments are deployed all over the world and tell us the power of an earthquake and the movement of the continental plates.

There are major challenges when establishing this equipment in the polar regions, where rock outcrops are limited, difficult to reach, isolated in harsh climates, and completely off the power grid. Engineers at UNAVCO in Boulder, Colorado and IRIS PASSCAL in Socorro, New Mexico have developed highly-specialized GPS and seismic systems that can withstand these conditions and survive for several years of data collection.

If designing these stations is half the battle, reaching the sites and completing a successful installation rounds out the challenge. Camps at both poles serve to make these logistics possible.

In the Antarctic, Byrd Surface Camp was re-established to support a number of programs, including POLENET that require a base in West Antarctica to accomplish a very ambitious field season in remote regions.

Challenges in the Field

West Antarctica Sector Outlooks, 6, 9, 11, and 15 December, 2010.

The Antarctic summer field season runs roughly between October and February, providing a very small window of time to install a long list of sites that can only be reached by Twin Otter or helicopter, battling such challenges as weight limits, fuel loads, and of course the most fickle of all Antarctic factors- the weather. If anything will test your resolve, it's living with uncertainty.

Due to bandwidth limitations (no regular internet or cell phone reception), the team at Byrd is unable to retrieve the necessary files to create a complete forecast. Thus, weather forecasters at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in Charleston, South Carolina provide weather outlooks and forecasts multiple times a day over the Iridium satellite network. With a day shift and night shift in both the Charleston weather office and Byrd camp science and flight crew, we snatch any clear weather opportunities to visit as many sites as possible throughout the season.

Antarctic Transport. From POLENET Active Earth Display module.

Byrd Surface Camp from Twin Otter, 2010. Photo by Jeremy Miner.

Byrd Surface Camp, 2009/2010.

Basler and two Twin Otters parked at Byrd Surface Camp, 2010.

Getting to Byrd Camp requires a C-17 flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station (about 5 hours) and then an LC-130 flight from McMurdo to camp (about 3 hours). It's possible to wait days or even weeks before leaving McMurdo if a storm passes through the flight path. Patience is key.

After my one night on the ice shelf during my ANDRILL experience, I was curious what several weeks on an ice sheet would be like. The basic challenges-- food, bathing, 24-hour daylight, laundry-- all of these things can be conquered with a bit of pioneer spirit (and three amazing chefs). The real challenges come in the psycho-social dynamics of isolation.

Living and working at camp provides a profound sense of singularity in purpose and routine. Its isolation is both an escape and an entrapment. Like any remote, outlying population of people whose life focus has been narrowed for a period of time in order to accomplish a highly prioritized task, each day seems odd- void of the normal things like babies crying, dogs barking, birds singing, someone cutting you off in traffic, your cell phone ringing. Each moment is centered around the task at hand.

And when you leave, you take a piece of it with you, and that's all that remains. It's not like visiting New York City or the Taj Mahal. You can never return. The camp is torn down, people go home, the fragile balance of the miniature society dissolves as soon as you get back to McMurdo where the world seems suddenly to go much faster than what you've been used to and there are things like world news, telephones, and even traffic to contend with. Once off the continent, things like twilight, fresh fruit, and humidity seem magical.

POLENET Live Feed, 2009/2010. Launch the Live Feed now »

POLENET poster presented at International Polar Year conference. Oslo, Norway, 2010.

Education & Outreach

As the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the POLENET program, I worked with the scientists and engineers to create accessible media while we were in the field, including video podcasts and the POLENET Live Feed, which tracked our progress and shared photos and blogs during our time on the ice.