Introduction

The FG5/102 system was deployed to Antarctica in the fall of 1995 in order to establish new high accuracy absolute gravity measurements in the Antarctic continent. Primary goals included the determination of the local geoid and ellipsoid separation, as well as providing absolute values for gravity base stations; future studies of tectonic motion and other high precision geodetic studies will also benefit from the experiences of this experiment. The program is a cooperative research venture between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Ocean Service/Geosciences Laboratory and the United States Geological Survey/National Mapping Discipline. USGS acted as the principal investigator during this experiment; funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under the United States Antarctic Program.