POLARIS: Current knowledge and future plans

Alan G. Jones, David Snyder, and the POLARIS group

POLARIS (Portable Observatories for Lithospheric Analysis and Research
Investigating Seismicity) is a multi-institutional program for the creation of a
network of portable, satellite-linked geophysical observatories in Canada.
The infrastructure was recently funded by the Canadian Foundation
for Innovation, with matching funds from Ontario and B.C., plus other
contributions. This program brings together scientists in universities,
governments, and the private sector in an innovative research project
dedicated to interdisciplinary studies of subcontinental mantle architecture and
earthquake ground motions (and related hazards). The major components of
POLARIS are a network of 90 three-component broadband seismometers,
30 magnetotelluric (MT) systems, complementary data acquisition and satellite
communications equipment, and three satellite downlink facilities. Over the
initial four-year start-up phase the network will be deployed as
three arrays of 30 instruments.

This new geophysical infrastructure will enable ground-breaking research in
combined applications of collocated teleseismic and magnetotelluric arrays for
lithospheric analysis. Data collected by this system will be available in real-time
over the Internet, and will be permanently archived by the Geological Survey of
Canada.

One of the three initial arrays will be deployed on the Slave craton, and will
extend significantly previous deep-probing geophysical studies of the craton
using seismic and electromagnetic techniques. This paper will review existing
information and present POLARIS array designs and deployment plans.