From November 2004 to March 2005, on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, an automated "web cam" was operated on the southward facing lip of a large ice-shelf rift to produce a photographic record of processes active in ice-shelf rift systems. Four times each day, the camera took a photograph in four repeating directions. Data are available in JPEG format. Data are available via FTP.
The following example shows how to cite the use of this data set in a publication. For more information, see our Use and Copyright Web page.
MacAyeal, Douglas and Brunt, Kelly. 2008. Ice shelf rift time-lapse photography, Antarctica. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. http://dx.doi.org/10.7265/N5QV3JGV.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Data format | Digital images are in JPEG format. |
| Spatial coverage and resolution |
Southernmost Latitude:78 South Northernmost Latitude: 78 South Westernmost Longitude: 178 West Easternmost Longitude: 178 West |
| Temporal coverage and resolution | 11 November 2004 to 19 March 2005 |
| File naming convention | .JPEG - Data are organized in folders named for specific camera orientation |
| File size | Approximately 163 Megabytes (MB) |
| Parameter(s) | Antarctica, glaciers and ice sheets |
| Procedures for obtaining data | Available via FTP |
Douglas MacAyeal
Department of Geophysical Sciences
University of Chicago
5734 S. Ellis Ave.
HGS 413
Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA
Kelly Brunt
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093 USA
NSIDC User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449 USA
phone: +1 303.492.6199
fax: +1 303.492.2468
form: Contact NSIDC User Services
e-mail: nsidc@nsidc.org
This research was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) grant 0229546 awarded to D. MacAyeal.
Digital images are in JPEG format.
Files are named according to the following convention:
Data are organized in folders named for specific camera orientation.
File names indicate date and time of day.
where:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| east green | camera orientation to east |
| west red | camera orientation to west |
| south | camera orientation to south |
| battery | camera orientation to battery box |
Approximately 163 Megabytes
Southernmost Latitude: 78 South
Northernmost Latitude: 78 South
Westernmost Longitude: 178 West
Easternmost Longitude:
178 West
11 November 2004 to 19 March 2005
4 times per day
Parameters include: Antarctica, glaciers and ice sheets
Each photograph in the collection is a 640 by 480 pixel image
Available via FTP
Approximately 163 Megabytes (MB)
The system contained two cameras, a Sony SNC RZ30 (giving a 640 by 480 pixel image using a 1/3-inch CCD) and a StarDot NetCam MP (also giving a 640 by 480 pixel image). The system was controlled by a Rabbit microprocessor located on a custom made circuit board.
The controller board switched on both cameras and initiated a program running on the Linux operating system of the NetCam MP to perform image acquisition, storage and ftp transmission to ftp.thistle.org via an Iridium satellite telephone modem made by NAL. The images used in this study were also stored locally, on a 1 gigabyte flash memory card associated with the Sony camera. Power was supplied by three 100 amp hour 12 V batteries maintained by two 20 W solar panels and a Flexcharge PV7D charge controller.
The camera was operated continuously for 136 days (from 03 November, 2004, until 19 March, 2005) to collect images from 3 standard views: (a) east, along the rift toward its wide, open end, (b) south, directly across the rift, and (c) west, along the rift toward the closed, propagating tip. Pictures of these three views were obtained 4 times a day to allow different sun angles to illuminate the features of the rift walls and snowscape covering the rift floor. The camera system shut down in late March, 2005, because photovoltaic power generation could not maintain the 12 v battery system. The system failed to wake up the following austral spring, and was removed from the field (thus recovering data stored on the Sony flash card) in November, 2005.
MacAyeal, D. R., K. C. Leonard, L. B. Tremblay, R. Ross and J. E. Thom, unpublished manuscript. Blowing Snow as a Source of Ice-Shelf Rift Filling Melange: Results of a 4-Month Study Using an Automated Camera System.
The following acronyms are used in this document.
| Acronym | Description |
|---|---|
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol |
| NSIDC | National Snow and Ice Data Center |
| JPEG | a commonly used method of compression for photographic images |
| MB | megabytes |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
November 2008
http://nsidc.org/data/docs/agdc/nsidc0351_macayeal/index.html
