Ice Thickness and Surface Elevation, Southeastern Ross Embayment, West Antarctica

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Entry ID

NSIDC-0099

Summary

Ice surface elevation and ice thickness data are available for a portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The investigators utilized a laser altimeter and ice-penetrating radar mounted to a Twin Otter aircraft to survey the ice sheet. Ice surface elevations and ice thickness data, derived from laser altimetry and radar sounding results, are available in ASCII format via ftp.

These data are a result of the Corridor Aerogeophysics of the Southeastern Ross Transect Zone (CASERTZ) experiments of the 1990s. The CASERTZ geophysical surveys were aimed at understanding geological controls on ice streams of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, ultimately to help assess the potential for ice sheet collapse. Blankenship et al. (2001) used ice surface elevations and ice thicknesses (reported here) to calculate driving stresses across the ice sheet and thus to identify regions of rapid basal movement by ice streams.

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Donald D. Blankenship
Dataset Title: Ice Thickness and Surface Elevation, Southeastern Ross Embayment, West Antarctica
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO U.S.A.
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Data Presentation Form: Table
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0099.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1991-12-27
Stop Date: 1996-01-02

Location Keywords

• Continent Antarctica West Antarctica

Science Keywords

• Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
• Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Thickness/Ice Sheet Thickness
• Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Ice Sheets
• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Ice Depth/Thickness
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Thickness/Ice Sheet Thickness
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Ice Sheets
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Ice Depth/Thickness

Ancillary Keywords

• Aerogeophysics
• AGDC
• Airborne Laser Altimeters
• Airborne Laser Altimetry
• Airborne Radar Sounding
• Casertz
• Ice Sheet Thickness
• ICE STREAMS
• Ice Surface Elevation
• Ice Thickness
• NSIDC
• NSIDC-0099
• Ross Embayment
• SOAR > Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research
• Subglacial Topography
• Surface Morphology
• WAIS
• West Antarctic Ice Sheet
• West Antarctica

Platform

• AIRCRAFT

Instrument

• ALTIMETERS
• RADAR Radio Detection and Ranging
• RADAR ECHO SOUNDERS

Project

• CASERTZ Corridor Aerogeophysics of the SouthEastern Ross Transect Zone

Data Set Progress

COMPLETE

Originating Center

SOAR

Data Center

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0099

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

NSIDC Antarctic Glaciological Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/agdc/
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0099

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC AGDC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

NSIDC U.S. Antarctic Data Coordination Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/usadcc/
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0099

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC USADCC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: ftp
Distribution Size: 4000 KB
Distribution Format: ASCII text files
Fees: None

Personnel

Donald D. Blankenship
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Email: blank@ig.utexas.edu
Contact Address:
4412 Spicewood Springs Rd. #600
City: Austin
Province or State: TX
Postal Code: 78759-8500
Country: USA

David L. Morse
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
City: Austin
Province or State: TX

C. A. FINN
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
U.S. Geological Survey,
Denver, Colorado

R. E. BELL
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University

M. E. PETERS
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Institute for Geophysics,
University of Texas at Austin

S. D. KEMPF
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Institute for Geophysics,
University of Texas at Austin

S. M. HODGE
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
U.S. Geological Survey,
Tacoma, Washington

M. STUDINGER
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University

J. C. BEHRENDT
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
U.S. Geological Survey,
Denver, Colorado
and
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research,
University of Colorado at Boulder

J. M. BROZENA
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Naval Research Laboratory,
Washington, D.C.

NSIDC USER SERVICES
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Related URL

GET DATA
FTP site for obtaining these data.

GET SERVICE > ACCESS MAP VIEWER
View surface elevation for this data set in NSIDC's Antarctic Cryosphere Access Portal (A-CAP) online map viewer.

GET SERVICE > ACCESS MAP VIEWER
View ice thickness for this data set in NSIDC's Antarctic Cryosphere Access Portal (A-CAP) online map viewer.

GET SERVICE > GET WEB FEATURE SERVICE (WFS)
Access these data in Geography Markup Language (GML) using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS).

GET SERVICE > GET WEB MAP SERVICE (WMS)
Access these data as map images using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS).

VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
Home page of the Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR).

Reference

Blankenship, D.D., S.D. Kempf, D.L. Morse, M.E. Peters, R.E. Bell, and R.B. Arko, in press. Airborne laser altimetry over the central West Antarctic Ice Sheet. International Archives of ISPRS, Comm 3 (extended abstract). Blankenship, D.D., D.L. Morse, C.A. Finn, R.E. Bell, M.E. Peters, S.D. Kempf, S.M. Hodge, M. Studinger, J.C. Behrendt, and J.M. Brozena, 2001. Geologic controls on the initiation of rapid basal motion for west Antarctic ice streams: A geophysical perspective including new airborne radar sounding and laser altimetry results. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet: Behavior and Environment. Antarctic Research Series 77, 105-121.

Blankenship, D. and R. Bell, 1993. Delving into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Geotimes 38 (8), 12-15.

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2001-08-20
Last DIF Revision Date: 2009-05-20

DIF Text-Only

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in plain text

DIF XML

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FGDC HTML

U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)