In:
Earth System Science Data, Copernicus GmbH, Vol. 14, No. 7 ( 2022-07-25), p. 3379-3410
Abstract:
Abstract. Over the past 50 years, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has been one of
the major acquirers of aerogeophysical data over Antarctica, providing
scientists with gravity, magnetic, and radar datasets that have been central
to many studies of the past, present, and future evolution of the Antarctic
Ice Sheet. Until recently, many of these datasets were not openly available,
restricting further usage of the data for different glaciological and
geophysical applications. Starting in 2020, scientists and data managers at
BAS have worked on standardizing and releasing large swaths of
aerogeophysical data acquired during the period 1994–2020, including a total of 64 datasets from 24 different surveys, amounting to ∼ 450 000 line-km (or 5.3 million km2) of data across West Antarctica, East Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Amongst these are the
extensive surveys over the fast-changing Pine Island (BBAS 2004–2005) and
Thwaites (ITGC 2018–2019 & 2019–2020) glacier catchments, and the first ever
surveys of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WISE-ISODYN 2005–2006) and Gamburtsev
Subglacial Mountains (AGAP 2007–2009). Considerable effort has been made to
standardize these datasets to comply with the FAIR (findable, accessible,
interoperable and re-usable) data principles, as well as to create the Polar Airborne Geophysics Data Portal (https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/nagdp/, last access: 18 July 2022), which serves as a user-friendly
interface to interact with and download the newly published data. This paper
reviews how these datasets were acquired and processed, presents the methods
used to standardize them, and introduces the new data portal and interactive
tutorials that were created to improve the accessibility of the data.
Lastly, we exemplify future potential uses of the aerogeophysical datasets
by extracting information on the continuity of englacial layering from the
fully published airborne radar data. We believe these newly released data will be a valuable asset to future glaciological and geophysical studies
over Antarctica and will significantly extend the life cycle of the data.
All datasets included in this data release are now fully accessible at https://data.bas.ac.uk (British Antarctic Survey, 2022).
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1866-3516
DOI:
10.5194/essd-14-3379-2022
DOI:
10.5194/essd-14-3379-2022-supplement
Language:
English
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbH
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2475469-9
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