Abstract:
Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica. An animated time series plot of 64 profiles of ice base and surface elevation along a flowline based on the mean flow direction. The flowline passes through a region of large elevation change that took place between 2014 and 2017.
The work was funded by NERC projects NE/P011365/1 and NE/S006605/1
Keywords:
ITGC, Thwaites Glacier, ice base and surface elevation profiles
Bevan, S., Luckman, A., & Benn, D. (2021). Animation of Thwaites Glacier ice base and surface elevation profiles from June 2011 to November 2020 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c2dfc6b7-dd61-41f9-8624-a45f2cf978df
| 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: | 2021-06-09 |
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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 | Suzanne Bevan |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | Swansea University |
| Name | Adrian Luckman |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | Swansea University |
| Name | Douglas Benn |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of St Andrews |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Bevan, S. L., Luckman, A. J., Benn, D. I., Adusumilli, S., and Crawford, A.: Brief communication: Thwaites Glacier cavity evolution, The Cryosphere, 15, 3317-3328, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3317-2021, 2021. Liu, H., K. C. Jezek, B. Li, and Z. Zhao. 2015. Radarsat Antarctic Mapping Project Digital Elevation Model, Version 2. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/8JKNEW6BFRVD. Jordan, Tom A., David Porter, Kirsty Tinto, Romain Millan, Atsuhiro Muto, Kelly Hogan, Robert D. Larter, Alastair G. C. Graham, and John D. Paden. 'New Gravity-Derived Bathymetry for the Thwaites, Crosson, and Dotson Ice Shelves Revealing Two Ice Shelf Populations'. The Cryosphere 14, no. 9 (9 September 2020): 2869?82. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2869-2020. |
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| Quality: | Via comparison with ICESat-2 data and in consideration of orbit uncertainty, the original DEMs have an estimated vertical uncertainty of ±2 m. | |
| Lineage: | The profiles were extracted from digital elevation models (DEMs) based on an interferometric analysis of TanDEM-X satellite system synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Phase-scaling of the interferograms utilised the supplied orbit data. The DEMs were geocoded first using the RAMP DEM (Liu et al., 2015) and then, iteratively, using the DEMs themselves. The DEMs were calibrated in the vertical using an ICESat-2 point at (107.49°W, 75.47°S) acquired on 2018-11-05. Heights are plotted relative to the EGM2008 Geoid and corrected for mean dynamic topography and tides. The ice base is computed assuming that the ice is in hydrostatic equilibrium. The bedrock is from Jordan et al. (2020). Processing is described fully in the reference paper. | |
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2011-06-22 |
| End Date | 2020-11-02 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -75.48 |
| Northernmost | -75.48 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -107.09 |
| Easternmost | -107.09 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Data Resolution: | |
| Latitude Resolution | N/A |
| Longitude Resolution | N/A |
| Horizontal Resolution Range | 1 meter - < 30 meters |
| Vertical Resolution | N/A |
| Vertical Resolution Range | N/A |
| Temporal Resolution | Irregularly sampled |
| Temporal Resolution Range | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Along the western flank of the fast-flowing core of Thwaites Glacier. |
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| Source(s): |
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| Data Collection: | Interferometric analysis was carried out using Gamma Remote Sensing software 20190603. |
| Distribution: | |
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| Distribution Media | Online Internet (HTTP) |
| Distribution Size | 2.0 MB |
| Distribution Format | GIF |
| Fees | N/A |
| Data Storage: | The dataset comprises one animated GIF file of ice base and surface elevation profiles. The underlying DEMs have a spatial horizontal resolution of 8 m. The profiles plotted are 25 km in length, and are irregularly sampled in time. |