Deployment and Performance of a Broadband Seismic Network near the New Korean Jang Bogo Research Station, Terra Nova Bay, East Antarctica

Abstract

The first Korean seismic network, KPSN@TNB, consisting of four broadband seismic stations, was installed during the Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation of Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica, in January 2011. Continuous data were retrieved from 2011 through 2013, although abnormally high sensor currents were observed in the data from stations KP02 in 2011 and KP03 between 2011 and 2013. This phenomenon had been experienced with the Taurus data acquisition system in 2010, when waveforms were contaminated by electronic pulse-like noise every 0.5 s with an amplitude of ~50 counts. The noise power spectral density (PSD) showed clear seasonal variation in the microseismic band (2-20 s) and long period (>20 s), and the amplitude peaks in the double frequency band shifted from 6~9 s in the Antarctic winter to a shorter 2~4-s period in the Antarctic summer. Despite the recurrent electric pulses in the data from KP02 and KP03, seismic signals were recorded. KPSN@TNB will be maintained at for least three more years, and the number of seismic stations will be increased. The data from this network will be used to study ice and geodynamics, such as local seismicity, the upper mantle and crustal tomography, Mt. Melbourne volcanic activity, and ice seismicity with temperature variation.