Geoscience Australia has increased its capability on the Antarctic continent with the installation of Continuous Global Positioning System (CGPS) sites in the Prince Charles Mountains and Grove Mountains. Over the course of the 2006-07 Antarctic summer, Geoscience Australia and the Australian National University (ANU) installed new CGPS sites at the Bunger Hills and Richardson Lake and performed maintenance of the CGPS sites at the Grove Mountains, Wilson Bluff, Daltons Corner and Beaver Lake. The primary aim of the CGPS sites is to provide a reference frame for Antarctica, which is used to determine the long-term movement of the Antarctic plate. Data from Casey, Mawson and Davis is supplied to the International GPS Service (IGS) and in turn used in the derivation of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The sites also open up opportunities for research into post-glacial rebound and plate tectonics.
In addition, in the 2006-07 Antarctic summer a reconnaissance survey was undertaken at Syowa Station to determine whether a local tie survey could be performed on the Syowa VLBI antenna in the future. Upgrades were made to the Davis and Mawson CGPS stations and geodetic survey tasks such as reference mark surveys, tide gauge benchmark levelling and GPS surveys were performed at both Davis and Mawson stations. In addition, work requested by Geoscience Australia's Nuclear Monitoring Project, the Australian Government Antarctic Division (AGAD) and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) were completed.
