Map showing WAGN GPS sites (PDF)

ANTARCTICA occupies a key location in both the global system of tectonic plates and the global climate system. The future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and the corresponding effect on sea level is largely controlled by the behavior of the lithosphere underlying the ice sheet. The West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) Project  uses the Global Positioning System (GPS), a precise satellite-based navigation system, to measure crustal motions of the bedrock underlying and surrounding the WAIS.

WAGN is an National Science Foundation-sponsored project. Leica Geosystems, a company involved in the development and manufacture of global positioning systems, is providing eight GPS receivers for the project.