Infrasound and seismic monitoring of cryospheric events at the Vernadsky station region (West Antarctica)

The cryosphere collectively describes all forms of frozen water at the Earth’s surface - sea ice, ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, snow cover, permafrost, seasonally frozen ground and solid precipitation. In terms of the ice mass and its heat capacity, the cryosphere is the second largest component of the climate system (after the ocean) It is an important component in the context of climate change as it affects and is affected by changes in temperature. Antarctica represents one of the most serious potential threats from rapid cryosphere warming at the global level.

In the Antarctic Peninsula region, researchers focused their observations of the cryosphere mainly on the ice caps of the archipelago and the glaciers of the Kyiv Peninsula. Continuous long-term monitoring of the glacier is not an easy task. For the Woozle Hill ice cap near the Vernadsky Station, the task was solved by periodic ice sampling, GNSS, photometry, and the use of GPR in the summer season. For glaciers outside the island, measurements are much more difficult and erratic.

For monitoring the local ice cap and glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula near the research station, we proposed to use an original set of seismic and infrasound equipment.