Abstract:
Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) profiles were collected in the grounding zone region of Thwaites Glacier Eastern Ice Shelf in January 2020 as part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration MELT project. Using a borehole deployable CTD system (SBE49), 15 profiles were collected over a period of 4 days between January 9th and January 12th to observe the hydrographic structure of the water column. The profiles extended from the ice base (520 dbar) to approximately 5 m above the seabed (575 dbar).
Funding was provided by NSFPLR-NERC: Melting at Thwaites grounding zone and its control on sea level (THWAITES-MELT) NE/S006761/1.
Keywords:
Antarctica, CTD, Conductivity, Depth, Hydrography, ITGC, Temperature, Thwaites Glacier
Davis, P., Nicholls, K., & Holland, D. (2025). Thwaites MELT: Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) profiles from the grounding zone region of Thwaites Glacier Eastern ice shelf (2020) (Version 2.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/06193dee-0df1-4171-bc1b-4f41409a208c
| Access Constraints: | No restrictions apply. |
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| Use Constraints: | Data supplied under Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. |
| Creation Date: | 2025-10-14 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK Polar Data Centre |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Peter Davis |
| Role(s) | Technical Contact, Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Keith Nicholls |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | David Holland |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | New York University |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Davis, P.E.D., Nicholls, K.W., Holland, D.M. et al. Suppressed basal melting in the eastern Thwaites Glacier grounding zone. Nature 614, 479-485 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05586-0 | |
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| Quality: | The temperature data has an accuracy of ±0.002 °C. The conductivity data has an accuracy of ±0.0003 S/m. The SBE49 was factory calibrated prior to deployment. Missing values are indicated with a value of -9999. | |
| Lineage/Methodology: | The Conductivity, Temperature and Depth profiles were collected using a Sea-Bird Scientific FastCat SBE49 with a Power and Data Interface Module (PDIM) to allow communications with a SBE36 deck unit. The data were processed using the standard Sea-Bird Scientific Data Processing routines (data conversion, filter, align CTD and cell thermal mass corrections), and were bin-averaged to 1 dbar. | |
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2020-01-09 |
| End Date | 2020-01-12 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -75.20718 |
| Northernmost | -75.20718 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -104.8254 |
| Easternmost | -104.8254 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | 520 dbar |
| Max Depth | 575 dbar |
| Data Resolution: | |
| Latitude Resolution | N/A |
| Longitude Resolution | N/A |
| Horizontal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Vertical Resolution | 1 dbar |
| Vertical Resolution Range | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Thwaites Glacier |
| Sensor(s): |
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| Data Collection: | Sea-Bird Scientific FastCat SBE49 Sea-Bird Scientific SBE Data Processing software (v7.26.7) |
| Distribution: | |
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| Distribution Media | Online Internet (HTTP) |
| Distribution Size | 30 kB |
| Distribution Format | ASCII |
| Fees | N/A |
| Data Storage: | 15 files as tab separated values (TSV). |