New Small Aperture Broadband Arrays in the European Arctic

Abstract

As part of the EPOS-Norway infrastructure project, NORSAR received funding from the Research Council of Norway for a new regional seismic array on Bjørnøya (Bear Island) in the European Arctic. After along planning phase, a six-element broadband array was installed by NORSAR staff in August 2019 and has been providing data to NORSAR in near real-time since then. Due to several logistical and administrative constraints the 6-element array has an aperture of only 300 m. All sites are equipped with Kinemetrics MBB-2 sensors and Earth Data EDR-209 digitizers that are installed in near-surface vaults. Data are automatically copied to the Norwegian node of the European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA) and are openly available. Due to environmental restrictions less than the planned 9 array sites could be installed on Bjørnøya and the non-used instruments are now available to extend the broadband station Hornsund (HSPB), Southern Spitsbergen, to another small aperture broadband array, also with 6 sites. The array installation had to be postponed because of the ongoing pandemic and is now planned for the Arctic summer 2021.