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GIANT (geodetic infrastructure)

The Geodetic Infrastructure of Antarctica Geosciences Expert Group aims to oversee the development of geodetic infrastructure across the Antarctic Continent to facilitate the monitoring of its physical processes and help coordinate various infrastructure associated with earth monitoring techniques such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), gravity meters as well as the installation of tide gauges to monitor sea level change.

About

As interest in earth sciences and the effects of change within Antarctica have grown over the years the need of earth monitoring observatories have increased. GIANT is an expert group established to oversee the development of geodetic infrastructure across the Antarctic Continent to facilitate the monitoring of its physical processes. The group has acted as an advisory committee to help coordinate various infrastructure associated with earth monitoring techniques such as GNSS, gravity meters as well as the installation of tide gauges to monitor sea level change.

GIANT Working Groups:

At the Portland meeting in 2012, the number of working groups was reduced and a list of the activities within each project of the GIANT Programme for the period 2012-14 is given below. Where possible, both the Project Leader and Co-Leader are identified. Membership is open to all.

1. Permanent Observatories

Project Leader: Kazuo Shibuya – Japan

Facilitate new geodetic observatories or repeat measurements at existing observatories (GNSS, Gravity, Tide gauge observations);
Compile a list of existing data and collocations;
Encourage site operators to make data freely accessible;
Publish links to IERS WG3 on site surveys;
Publish links to web sites with details of all permanent geodetic sites including POLENET (to be included into project 2);
Publish links to the web sites for the services for seismic and geomagnetic networks including IRIS (http://www.iris.edu/hq/) and Intermagnet (http://www.intermagnet.org);
Compile lists of absolute gravity observations in Antarctica (to be included into project 3);
Collaborate with other SCAR scientists to identify requirements for space geodetic sites;
Publicise the Ant2000 datum resolution and make available recommended practices for the use of IGS products with this datum.

2. Crustal Movement from GNSS observations (formerly Epoch Crustal Movement Campaigns)

Project Leader: Mirko Scheinert – Germany
Project Co-Leader: Alessandro Capra – Italy

Encourage and support coordination of regional episodic GNSS campaigns for reference frame densification or other targeted science applications;
Maintain “SCAR GNSS Database”;
Incorporate linkage / metadata information for permanent GNSS stations;
Encourage the use of appropriate site standards to allow multimodal use of the data;
Cooperate with IAG Subcommission 1.4f for ITRF densification;
Provide network solutions to compare with other solutions, like from POLENET.

3. Gravity Field (formerly Physical Geodesy)

Project Leader: Mirko Scheinert – Germany
Project Co-Leader: Alessandro Capra – Italy

Compile surface gravity data, promote new surveys (especially aerogravimetric surveys);
Compile metadata on all kinds of gravimetric surveys and observations in Antarctica;
Utilise gravity data for precise regional geoid determination in Antarctica;
Collaborate with IAG Subcommission 2.4f “Gravity and Geoid in Antarctica”;
Promote absolute gravity observations to provide a reference to gravity datum. These observations are best taken at bases, preferably collocated with continuous GNSS sites;
Promote gravity ties of airborne and relative gravity surveys to absolute gravity points.

4. Tide Gauge Data

Project Leader: Henk Brolsma – Australia
Project Co-Leader: Graeme Blick – New Zealand

Update the connections between tide gauge benchmarks and GNSS sites on GIANT web page;
Encourage gauge operators to calibrate gauges and make offsets available with tidal observations;
Provide best practice examples of the establishment of tide gauges, both bottom mounted and acoustic, including data communication systems and gauge calibration techniques;
Provide tide gauge data to ocean tide modellers including the IGS TIGA project;
Publicise the application of tide gauge data to key science questions through the GIANT web page.

5. Antarctic Geodesy Summer School

Project Leader: Mirko Scheinert – Germany
Project Co-Leader: Alexej Matveev – Russia

Carry out a summer school on Antarctic Geodesy at Bellingshausen in Austral summer 2013/2014;
Coordinate with similar activities within SCAR Scientific Research Programme SERCE.

Terms of reference

Provide a common geospatial reference system for all Antarctic scientists and operators;
Contribute to global geodesy for the study of the physical processes of the earth and the maintenance of the precise terrestrial reference frame;
Provide information for monitoring the horizontal and vertical motion of the Antarctic;
Provide advice to broader research community on the application of geodetic techniques and the reference frame in Antarctica;
Maintain and develop geodetic infrastructure in Antarctica (permanent observatories, GNSS and especially collocated techniques);
Contribute with data and expertise to the realisation and maintenance of a precise reference frame in Antarctica;
Contribute data and solutions for further analyses, especially for geodynamic applications (e.g. GIA);
Maintain a close interdisciplinary cooperation (especially to assist SCAR Scientific Research Programme SERCE);
Provide information on technology and data access;
Support scientists of neighbouring disciplines in the application of geodetic techniques (especially GNSS);
Develop communication and outreach, support the education of early career scientists.

News

View in all GIANT

News and Research Updates from the GIANT Community.

Members

Contact

Chairs of the GIANT group are Alessandro Capra and Mirko Scheinert.

Membership

Subscription to the SCAR GIANT Mailing List by

visiting the following website:https://mailman.zih.tu-dresden.de/groups/listinfo/scar-giantand submitting your email-address or
sending an email to the following address:scar-giant-request@groups.tu-dresden.dewith the subject subscribe.

Co-Chairs

Alessandro Capra	Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia	Italy	Aleassandro.Capra @unimore.it
Mirko Scheinert	Technische Universität Dresden	Germany	Mirko.Scheinert @tu-dresden.de

Other Members

Manuel Berrocoso	Universidad de Cadiz	Spain
Graeme Blick	Linz	New Zealand
Peter Busch	TU Dresden	Germany
Jan Cisak	IGIK	Poland
Beata Csatho	University of Buffalo	USA
John Dawson	Geoscience Australia	Australia
Giorgiana De Franceschi	Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia	Italy
Reinhard Dietrich	TU Dresden	Germany
Koishiro Doi	National Institute of Polar Research	Japan
Rene Forsberg	DTU Space	Denmark
Angelo Galeandro	Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia	Italy
Andreas Groh	TU Dresden	Germany
Brendan Hodge	UNAVCO	USA
Martin Horwath	TU Dresden	Germany
Larry Hothem	USGS	USA
Erik Ivins	JPL	USA
Thomas James	Government of Canada	Canada
Aspurah Kamburov	University of Mining and Geology Sofia	Bulgaria
Matt King	University of Tasmania	Australia
Christoph Knöfel	TU Dresden	Germany
Jeronimo Lopez-Martinez	Universidad Autonoma de Madrid	Spain
Jaakko Mäkinen	Finnish Geodetic Institute	Finland
Kenichi Matsuoka	Norwegian Polar Institute	Norway
Alexey Matveev	Aerogeodeziya	Russia
Gennadi Milinevsky	University of Kyiv	Ukraine
Monia Negusini	INAF	Italy
Elizabeth Petrie	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
Markku Poutanen	Finnish Geodetic Institute	Finland
Goncalo Prates	Univ. Algarve	Portugal
Yves Rogister	Univ. Strasbourg	France
Kazuo Shibuya	NIPR	Japan
Lars Sjoberg	KTH Royal Institute of Technology	Sweden
Norbertino Suarez	Servicio Geografico Militar	Uruguay
Terry Wilson	Ohio State University	USA
Andres Zakrajsek	Instituto Antartico Argentina	Argentina

Resources

Publications, Data and Links of interest to the Antarctic geodetic infrastructure community

Reports

Toggle	Title	Date
	pdf GIANT Report 2024 ( pdf, 182 KB )	22 Aug 2024
	pdf GIANT Expert Group Report 2020 ( pdf, 148 KB )	15 Apr 2021
	pdf SCAR XXXV Paper 15: Geosciences Group (GSG) Report ( pdf, 6.28 MB )	20 Sep 2018
	pdf SCAR EXCOM 2017 Paper 6: Report of Geosciences Group AND Geosciences Group Reports ( pdf, 937 KB )	02 Aug 2017
	pdf SCAR XXXIV WP08b: Reports from Geosciences Action and Expert Groups ( pdf, 2.13 MB )	30 Aug 2016

Publications

GIANT papers:

Matveev, A. J., Milinevsky, G., Schenke, H. – W., Shibuya, K., Sjöberg, L. E., Zakrajsek, A., Fritsche, M., Rülke, A., Dietrich, R., Groh, A., Knöfel, C., Scheinert, M., Capra, A., Cisak, J., Dongchen, E., Eiken, T., Fox, A., Hothem, L. D., Johnston, G., & Malaimani, E. C. (2015): The Antarctic Regional GPS Network Densification: Status and Results (pp. 1–7). International Association of Geodesy Symposia. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Andrews, S.B., P. Moore and M.A. King (2015): Mass change from GRACE: a simulated comparison of Level-1B analysis techniques. Geophysical Journal International, 200(1): 503-518, doi:10.1093/gji/ggu402.
Aoyama, Y., K. Doi, H. Ikeda, H. Hayakawa and K. Shibuya (2016): Five years’ gravity obser- vation with the superconducting gravimeter OSG#058 at Syowa Station, East Antarctica: gravitational effects of accumulated snow mass, Geophys. J. Int., 205, 1290–1304.
Aoyama, Y., T.-H. Kim, K. Doi, H. Hayakawa, T. Higashi, S. Ohsono, K. Shibuya (2016): Ob- servations of vertical tidal motions of a floating iceberg in front of Shirase Glacier, East Antarctica, using a geodetic-mode GPS buoy, Polar Science, 10, 2, 132–139.
Aoyama, Y., H. Ikeda, H. Hayakawa, K. Doi, Y. Fukuda, K. Shibuya (2015): Observation and Data Archiving System of a Superconducting Gravimeter at Syowa Station, Antarctica, In- ternational Journal of Geosciences, 6, 1116-1126.
Beem, L.H., S.M. Tulaczyk, M.A. King, M. Bougamont, H.A. Fricker and P. Christoffersen (2014): Variable deceleration of Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica. Journal of Geophys- ical Research: Earth Surface, 119(2): 212-224, doi:10.1002/2013jf002958.
Bouman, J.; Fuchs, M.; Ivins, E.; van der Wal, W.; Schrama, E.; Visser, P.N.A.M.; Horwath, M. (2014): Antarctic outlet glacier mass change resolved at basin scale from satellite gravity gradiometry. Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1002/2014GL060637
Bradley, S.L., R.C.A. Hindmarsh, P.L. Whitehouse, M.J. Bentley and M.A. King (2015): Low post-glacial rebound rates in the Weddell Sea due to Late Holocene ice-sheet readvance. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 413(0): 79-89, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.12.039.
Ekaykin, A.; Eberlein, L. ; Lipenkov, V.; Popov, S.; Scheinert, M.; Schröder, L.; Turkeev, A. (2016): Non-climatic signal in ice core records: lessons from Antarctic megadunes. The Cryosphere, 10, 1217–1227, 2016, doi:10.5194/tc-10-1217-2016.
Gunter, B.C., O. Didova, R.E.M. Riva, S.R.M. Ligtenberg, J.T.M. Lanaerts, M. King, M.R. van den Broeke and T. Urban (2014): Empirical estimation of present-day Antarctic glacial iso- static adjustment and ice mass change. The Cryosphere, 8(2): 743-760, doi:10.5194/tc-8- 743-2014.
Hirt, C.; Rexer, M.; Scheinert, M.; Pail, R.; Claessens, S.; Holmes, S. (2016): A new degree- 2190 (10 km resolution) gravity field model for Antarctica developed from GRACE, GOCE and Bedmap2 data. Journal of Geodesy, 90:105-127, doi: 10.1007/s00190-015-0857-6.
Jentzsch, G., R. Ricker, A. Weise, A. Capra, M. Dubbini, and A. Zanutta (2014): Micro-Gravity Measurements in NorthernVictoria-Land, Antarctica: A Feasibility Study. In: C. Rizos and P. Willis (eds.), Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet, International Association of Geodesy Symposia 139, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 429–434, doi: 10.1007/ 978-3-642-37222-3_57.
King, M.A. and A. Santamaría-Gómez (2016): Ongoing deformation of Antarctica following recent Great Earthquakes. Geophysical Res. Lett., 43(5): 1918-1927, doi:10.1002/ 2016gl067773.
King, M.A. and C.S. Watson (2014): Geodetic vertical velocities affected by recent rapid changes in polar motion. Geophysical Journal International, 199(2): 1161-1165, doi:10.1093/gji/ggu325.
King, M.A., P.L. Whitehouse and W. van der Wal (2016): Incomplete separability of Antarctic plate rotation from glacial isostatic adjustment deformation within geodetic observations. Geophysical Journal International, 204(1): 324-330, doi:10.1093/gji/ggv461.
Martín-Español, A., A. Zammit-Mangion, P.J. Clarke, T. Flament, V. Helm, M.A. King, S.B. Luthcke, E. Petrie, F. Rémy, N. Schön, B. Wouters and J.L. Bamber (2016): Spatial and temporal Antarctic Ice Sheet mass trends, glacio-isostatic adjustment and surface pro-cesses from a joint inversion of satellite altimeter, gravity and GPS data. Journal of Geo- physical Research: Earth Surface, doi:10.1002/2015jf003550.
Negusini, M., B. H. Petkov, P. Sarti and C. Tomasi (2016): Ground-Based Water Vapor Re- trieval in Antarctica: An Assessment, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sens- ing, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 2935-2948, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2015.250905
Nield, G.A., V.R. Barletta, A. Bordoni, M.A. King, P.L. Whitehouse, P.J. Clarke, E. Domack, T.A. Scambos and E. Berthier (2014): Rapid bedrock uplift in the Antarctic Peninsula ex- plained by viscoelastic response to recent ice unloading. Earth and Planetary Science Let- ters, 397: 32–41, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.04.019.
Nield, G.A., P.L. Whitehouse, M.A. King and P.J. Clarke (2016): Glacial isostatic adjustment in response to changing Late Holocene behaviour of ice streams on the Siple Coast, West Antarctica. Geophysical Journal International, 205(1): 1-21, doi:10.1093/gji/ggv532.
Richter, A., S.V. Popov, L. Schröder, J. Schwabe, H. Ewert, M. Scheinert, M. Horwath, R. Dietrich (2014): Subglacial Lake Vostok not expected to discharge water. Geophysical Re- search Letter, 41, doi:10.1002/2014GL061433.
Richter, A.; Popov, S.V.; Fritsche, M.; Lukin, V.B.; Matveev, A.Yu.; Ekaykin, A.A.; Lipenkov, V.Ya.; Fedorov, D.V.; Eberlein, L.; Schröder, L.; Ewert, H.; Horwath, M.; Dietrich, R. (2014): Height changes over subglacial Lake Vostok, East Antarctica: Insights from GNSS obser- vations. Journal of Geophysical Research, doi: 10.1002/2014JF003228
Richter, A.; Popov, S. V.; Schröder, L.; Schwabe, J.; Ewert, H.; Scheinert, M.; Horwath, M.; Dietrich, R. (2014): Subglacial Lake Vostok not expected to discharge water. Geophysical Research Letters Volume 41 (19), pages 6772-6778, doi: 10.1002/2014GL061433
Rülke, A., R. Dietrich, A. Capra, E. Dong Chen, J. Cisak, T. Eiken, A. Fox, L. D. Hothem, G. Johnston, E. C. Malaimani, A. J. Matveev, G. Milinevsky, H.-W. Schenke, K. Shibuya, L. E. Sjöberg, A. Zakrajsek, M. Fritsche, A. Groh, C. Knöfel, M. Scheinert (2015): The Antarctic regional GPS network densification – status and results, IAG Symposia series, 7 pp., doi: 10.1007/1345_2015_79
Scheinert, M., Horwath, M., Dietrich, R., Rosenau, R., Knöfel, C. (2015): Geodesy in Polar Regions. In Grafarend, E. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Geodesy, 11 pp., Springer Int. Publishing, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_41-1.
Scheinert, M.; Ferraccioli, F.; Schwabe, J.; Bell, R.; Studinger, M.; Damaske, D.; Jokat, W.; Aleshkova, N.; Jordan, T.; Leitchenkov, G.; Blankenship, D. D.; Damiani, T. M.; Young, D.; Cochran, J. R.; Richter, T. D. (2016): New Antarctic Gravity Anomaly Grid for Enhanced Geodetic and Geophysical Studies in Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 1944- 8007, doi: 10.1002/2015GL067439 –
Stanley, S. (2016), Antarctica gets a new gravity map, Eos, 97, doi: 10.1029/2016EO047755. Published on 18 March 2016.
Williams, S.D.P., P. Moore, M.A. King and P.L. Whitehouse (2014): Revisiting GRACE Ant- arctic ice mass trends and accelerations considering autocorrelation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 385: 12-21, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.10.016.
Wolstencroft, M., M.A. King, P.L. Whitehouse, M.J. Bentley, G.A. Nield, E.C. King, M. McMil- lan, A. Shepherd, V. Barletta, A. Bordoni, R.E.M. Riva, O. Didova and B.C. Gunter (2015): Uplift rates from a new high-density GPS network in Palmer Land indicate significant late Holocene ice loss in the southwestern Weddell Sea. Geophysical Journal International, 203(1): 737-754, doi:10.1093/gji/ggv327.

Data

Links