The Global Lake and River Ice Phenology Database contains freeze and breakup dates and other ice cover descriptive data for 750 lakes and rivers. Of the 429 water bodies that have records longer than 19 years, 287 are in North America and 141 are in Eurasia; 170 have records longer than 50 years; and 28 longer than 100 years. A few have data prior to 1845. These data, from water bodies distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, allow analysis of broad spatial patterns as well as long-term temporal patterns.
The data set was prepared by the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research program at the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from data submitted by participants in the Lake Ice Analysis Group (LIAG). LIAG is an international ad hoc group of scientists who participated in a 1996 workshop sponsored by the Center of Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (Long-Term Studies Program). The group would be happy to receive additional data on these lakes or rivers or others around the world for inclusion in the database.
NSIDC has developed a Web-based user interface to the database that allows users to search the database and retrieve data by the available parameters. The interface also includes a link to more general information about the lakes and rivers in the database. The output can be directed to a Web browser, a gzipped file, or a tab-separated ASCII text file.
Note: The term "phenology" in the data set title refers to the seasonal phenomenon of the freezing and thawing of lake and river ice.
Access to the "Global lake and river ice phenology database" data set is unrestricted, but users are encouraged to register for the data. Registered users will automatically receive e-mail notification about any product changes.
Benson, B., and J. Magnuson. 2000, updated 2007. Global lake and river ice phenology database. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Digital media.
This data set provides a long term record of freeze and breakup dates of ice on rivers and lakes across the Northern Hemisphere that will allow analysis of broad spatial patterns and long-term temporal patterns.
John J. Magnuson, Barbara J. Benson
Center for Limnology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
Dale M. Robertson
U.S. Geological Survey,
Water Resources Division,
8505 Research Way
Middleton, WI 53562
Randolph H. Wynne
Department of Forestry,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
319 Cheatham Hall,
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Please direct all inquiries about the data set to NSIDC User Services:
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
The freeze date (ice on) is defined as the first date on which the water body was observed to be completely ice covered, and the breakup date (ice off) is the date of the last breakup observed before the summer open water phase. Note, though, that individual sites (such as lakes) have adopted different definitions for "completely ice covered" that differ from site to site, but that are consistent within each site in recent years. Also note that for Russian river data, the ice-off date is the date of the start of ice drift on the river (this could be before, concurrent with, or after the date when complete ice coverage is over). Ice duration is the number of days that a water body is completely covered with ice. For example, a lake that thawed for several days in mid-winter and then froze again would have the duration calculated as the number of days from ice-on to ice-off minus those days when it thawed. For Russian rivers, duration is measured from the ice-on date to the date the river is no longer completely covered; the reported ice-off date (start of ice drift) is not used in the calculation of duration for these rivers.
Historical observations were made for such reasons as: religious; cultural; practical (including the need for transportation over ice or open water); and even just for the sake of curiosity. Most of the records show ice-off and ice-on dates, but some show only that the water body froze completely in a given year (Magnuson et al., 2000).
The data are stored in a standard format in a database. The interface allows the user to customize each query to the database by specifying geographical coverage, a date range, and a combination of available parameters and text such as lake or river name. Searches use simple text and are not case sensitive. Refer to the section on "Search Tips" for some pointers on finding all the available information in the database for a particular lake or river.
For each query the user may include choices from several categories. If the user does not select anything from a given group of choices, the search does not use that group to filter the data. For instance, if no country is specified, the search includes all the countries by default; if no latitude or longitude is specified, the search defaults to the full geographical range; if no lake name or code is specified, the search includes all lake names and codes, and so on.
The possible input parameters are:
The possible output parameters are:
The possible output sorting options are:
Users may choose from three output formats: output to a Web browser, output to a gzipped ASCII file, or output to a TSV (Tab-Separated) ASCII file. For the browser output and the gzipped file, the user may save the output to disk by choosing "Save As" from the browser. In the case of the gzipped file, the output will look like unreadable text in the browser. Use "Save As" and add .gz to the filename suggested in the "Save As" dialog box. For the TSV ASCII file, the user will be automatically prompted to save the file to the local disk and the output will not be displayed in the browser.
The Lake Ice Analysis Group (LIAG) at the University of Wisconsin compiled the data from several individual collections. The oldest records are from Japan, and date back to 1444. The contributing countries that users may choose from are:
If no country is selected, the default is to search for all countries.
Stations are located in the Northern Hemisphere between 36.15°N and 82.50°N latitude, and between 140.40°W and 149.30°E longitude. Degrees west longitude are indicated by a minus sign (-).
Users may search for a particular lake or river name, or a range of latitude and longitude. The interface ignores the word "lake" in a request for a particular lake name. For example, a search for the name "Great Slave Lake" will return several matches for "Great Slave" as shown on the following list of uniquely identifying lake codes:
The following items matched the word(s) %GREAT%SLAVE%%.
Find the lake you want in the list below, and using the corresponding lake
code, use your browser's "Back" button to place this code in the "lakecode" field
on the previous page:
(Fields are: lake or river name, lake code, country, latitude, longitude) GREAT
SLAVE LAKE, WRS258, CANADA, 60.8300, -115.7800 GREAT SLAVE LAKE (CHRISTIE BAY),
WRS254, CANADA, 62.4000, -110.7300 GREAT SLAVE LAKE - CHARLTON BAY, WRS255,
CANADA, 62.7200, -111.1700 GREAT SLAVE LAKE - MCLEOD BAY, WRS256, CANADA, 62.7200,
-110.1700 GREAT SLAVE LAKE - POLICE BAY, WRS257, CANADA, 62.7200, -109.1700
RESOLUTION BAY GREAT SLAVE LAKE, WRS369, CANADA, 61.1800, -113.6800
The following example is one possible output from a query using the lake code "WRS258" from the above list, in addition to several other possible parameters and sort codes:
You asked for:
iceon_year, iceon_month, iceon_day , iceoff_year, iceoff_month,
iceoff_day , duration, season, latitude, longitude, lakename,
lakecode
Where:
country = 'CANADA' AND lakename LIKE '%GREAT%SLAVE%%' AND
lakecode LIKE 'WRS258' AND iceon_year >=
1900 AND iceoff_year <= 2000
Sorted by:
duration
1957, 12, 14, -999, -999, -999, -999, 1957-58, 60.8300, -115.7800, GREAT SLAVE
LAKE, WRS258
1959, 12, 9, -999, -999, -999, -999, 1959-60, 60.8300, -115.7800, GREAT SLAVE
LAKE, WRS258
1960, 12, 7, -999, -999, -999, -999, 1960-61, 60.8300, -115.7800, GREAT SLAVE
LAKE, WRS258
1961, 12, 15, -999, -999, -999, -999, 1961-62, 60.8300, -115.7800, GREAT SLAVE
LAKE, WRS258
1956, 12, 15, 1957, 7, 1, 198, 1956-57, 60.8300, -115.7800, GREAT SLAVE LAKE,
WRS258
1958, 12, 18, 1959, 7, 4, 198, 1958-59, 60.8300, -115.7800, GREAT SLAVE LAKE,
WRS258
Users can also choose to view descriptive information about each site. The possible output parameters are listed below. The Lake Information Interface allows users to choose lakes by country, latitude and longitude, lake or river name, lake code, or by whether the site is a lake or a river. Information is only available for approximately 16 percent of the lakes and rivers in the database. The value -999 indicates that information is not available for a particular field.
The available output parameters are:
|
|
The output sort options are:
The output format options are the same as for the phenology database retrieval form.
For searches that may generate a large amount of data, it is best to save the data as a gzip file instead of sending the output to the browser.
Searches ignore the word "lake" in a lake name.
The Lake_name field includes actual lake names as well as station names, while the Lake_code field uniquely identifies each sampling site. Since there might be more than one sampling site on a lake, it may be necessary to search for the lake name, and then for the particular site.
To make sure that you find all the data for a particular lake or river, do a larger, more general search first, and then refine your query based on the data retrieved by the first query.
If you search by lake name, you may find that there is more than one spelling used for the lake or that there is more than one site that contains the name you requested.
The spelling for some lake and river names may vary because of the way they were transliterated from the original language, for instance, Lake Baikal and Lake Baykal refer to the same lake, but were translated to the latin alphabet from the cyrillic alphabet in different ways.
To avoid missing data for a particular lake with slightly different spelling entries, do a search using latitude and longitude information instead.
The most accurate method of finding all the lake or river data in a specific region is to do a latitude and longitude search.
The Lake Ice Analysis Group is not liable for ensuring the accuracy of the original data; this is the responsibility of individual data contributors. Some basic quality control checks were performed on contributed data and, in some cases, corrections were made; however, we recommend that users of the database screen the data for inconsistencies that might indicate errors.
NSIDC has received inquiries from users asking about the location of Bigwood Lake (WRS214). Users should note that Bigwood Lake (WRS214) in the NSIDC database refers to the small lake near Sioux Lookout, Ontario and not the Bigwood Lake near Sudbury.
In July 2006, NSIDC received corrections from David Balsiger (University of Wisconsin-Madison). The corrections have been fixed in the NSIDC database and include the following:
| Erroneous "ice off" dates for Detroit Lake, MN (MINN2) | Correct "ice off" dates for Detroit Lake, MN (MINN2) | ||
| 6/11/1893 | 5/12/1893 | ||
| 5/27/1894 | 4/27/1894 | ||
| 5/9/1895 | 4/9/1895 | ||
| 5/26/1896 | 4/26/1896 | ||
| 5/18/1897 | 4/18/1897 | ||
| 5/5/1898 | 4/5/1898 | ||
| 5/28/1899 | 4/28/1899 | ||
| 5/18/1900 | 4/17/1900 | ||
| 4/17/1991 | 4/11/1991 | ||
In February 2007, these changes were made to the NSIDC database for Detroit Lake, MN (MINN2):
New data:
Changed data:
Note that discrepancies between the NSIDC database and other sources may exist.
In February 2007, a user noted discrepancies between the Detroit Lake, MN data in our NSIDC database and the Becker County Record (Detroit Lakes Newspaper) from April of 2002. David Balsiger looked into this and noted that some discrepancies range from one to five days and some are of even greater magnitude. Pete Boulay (Assistant State Climatologist for the Minnesota State Climatology Office, Department of Natural Resources - Division of Waters) responded with the following:
"Determining ice-out is far from an exact science. Depending on what definition of "ice-out" is used, the dates can vary considerably. Some people choose being able to get from Point "A" to Point "B" and some wait until every last ice crystal is melted.
Every effort is made to use the same source for ice out from year to year. Individuals that live on the lake have tended to be very good sources. Their view of the lake will not be flawless: (they may have limited view.) I have noted that lake residents will often call friends across the lake to verify their date. Newspapers can vary with accounts. Small newspapers may have staff that changes fairly often. One editor may have a different idea what "ice out" means from another so this can be difficult."
National Snow and Ice Data Center. 1998. Nenana Ice Classic: Tanana River ice annual breakup dates. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media.
Magnuson, J., D. Robertson, B. Benson, R. Wynne, D. Livingstone, T. Arai, R. Assel, R. Barry, V. Card, E. Kuusisto, N. Granin, T. Prowse, K. Steward, V. Vuglinski. 2000. Historical Trends in Lake and River Ice Cover in the Northern Hemisphere Science 289 (8 September):1743-1746.
Also see the papers published in the Proceedings of the Societas Internationalis Limnologiae (SIL) XXVII Congress, 9-14 August, Dublin, Ireland, 1998.
This data set is maintained at NSIDC with support from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center.
The document was originally written by NSIDC Writers in 2001 and reviewed by both Barbara J. Benson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Florence Fetterer (NSIDC). Lisa Ballagh made updates to the documentation in July of 2006 and February of 2007.
January 2001
July 2006 - Lisa Ballagh updated the Data Quality Control section to include text on the data corrections sent to NSIDC by David Balsiger (University of Wisconsin-Madison). The data corrections were made by Barbara J. Benson and John J. Magnuson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I-Pin Wang updated the NSIDC database.
Feb 2007 - Lisa Ballagh updated the Data Quality Control section to include text on the updates to the Detroit Lake, MN data sent to NSIDC by David Balsiger (University of Wisconsin-Madison).
Document URL
http://nsidc.org/data/docs/noaa/g01377_lake_river_ice/
