Pacific Array: international collaboration for large-scale array experiment in the Pacific basin

             Constructing a seismic network in the oceans has been one of the most difficult challenges in seismology. Almost 70 % of the Earth's surface is covered by the ocean, so such a network is necessary for investigating the Earth's interior. Because the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean basin, it was considered impractical to establish a large-scale dense seismic array.

              However, in 2014, Kawakatsu and colleagues proposed a new array concept (Kawakatsu et al., 2014). Deploying ~15+ BBOBS as an array unit for 1-2-year observation period, and repeating such observations in a leap-frog fashion for a decade or so, would enable us to cover a large portion of the Pacific Ocean. International collaboration was essential to successfully implement this strategy, and since 2015, the concept has been realized as "Pacific Array" via international collaboration between partners in Japan, U.S.A, EU, South Korea, Taiwan, and China.

              Since then, many array units have been funded, providing broadband data from across the Pacific. Oldest-1 (Japan-S. Korea), Oldest-2 (Japan-Taiwan), Young- and Old-ORCA, and OHANA (U.S.A) have all been completed; Galapagos and SaLOON (U.S. A.) are currently deployed; and HEB (Japan-Germany), GTJ, and EPIC (U. S. A.) will be deployed in the near future. Although each of these observations have their own scientific goals, they contribute to the larger international Pacific Array structure. We summarize recent progress of the Pacific Array and some of scientific result in each array.