pdf GIANT Expert Group Report 2020

Expert Group “Geodetic Infrastructure in Antarctica” (GIANT) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Mirko Scheinert (Germany, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Alessandro Capra (Italy)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Geodetic GNSS measurements on bedrock are indispensable to determine vertical and horizontal deformations of the Earth's crust in order to provide in-situ information for the study of glacial-isostatic adjustment (GIA) and plate tectonics. During last Antarctic seasons GNSS measurements were contin-ued. New data – especially episodic GNSS data – are incorporated into the “SCAR GNSS Database” maintained at TU Dresden.

The new “Geodynamics In ANTarctica based on REprocessing GNSS dAta Initiative” (GIANT-REGAIN) was announced in 2016 to realize a major reprocessing of Antarctic GNSS data to infer a consistent set of coordinates and coordinate changes for further geoscientific investigation (especially GIA). This project is still in progress, first results are expected 2020/2021.

The “2^nd SCAR Summer School on Polar Geodesy” was carried out in Ladozhskoe Ozero, Russia, 10–19 May 2018 and formed a contribution both to EG GIANT and to SCAR SRP SERCE. Members of GIANT contributed to further summer schools in the framework of SERCE, e.g. the GIA training school in Gävle, Sweden, in September 2019.

Members of GIANT actively supported the initiation of a new SCAR Scientific Research Program in sucession to SERCE and PAIS, namely INStabilities and Thresholds in ANTarctica (INSTANT). This new SRP proposal was submitted to SCAR EC in June 2020. Thus, EG GIANT requests the strong support of the SG Geosciences for this new SRP.