The New Norwegian Infrastructure - Troll Observing Network - under Establishment in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are important parts of the Earth system. The physical and biological properties here to a large degree control and shape other parts of the Earth through atmospheric, cryospheric and oceanic connections. The Troll Observing Network – TONe - is a new comprehensive infrastructure centered around the Norwegian Troll Research Station in Dronning Maud Land. It will be an important contribution to global research efforts in this part of Antarctica, closing data gaps in Antarctic environmental observations and providing key data required to respond to the fundamental societal challenges and uncertainties facing the world today. The Norwegian and international partner consortium in TONe is in the process to develop the state-of-the-art, multi-platform, multi-disciplinary observatory network for environmental observations, and a remotely piloted aerial system (RPAS) services to collect data for studying and monitoring the atmosphere, terrestrial and marine environment. The observatory network consists of 8 observatories: an integrated cloud observatory, an atmosphere composition observatory, an infrasound array, an ionospheric observatory, a seismic array, an ice-shelf observatory, a multidisciplinary open ocean moored observatory and a sea-bird observatory. The key aspect of TONe is to ensure wide and free access to the data from the observatories and the RPAS services to the entire national and international research community. TONe as a whole will be implemented and fully operational from 2027, while single parts of the infrastructure will be available before that.