Antarctic Snow and Terrain Profiles for Gravity Station Monitoring

More than 35 km of terrain profiles were measured per season at a 1-meter sampling interval to model snow and ice around the Aboa gravity station. The data, collected by SCIOPS using RTK-GPS and laser scanning, supports studies of snow accumulation and glacier motion. Measurements were conducted during Antarctic field seasons in 2003/2004, 2005/2006, 2011/2012, and 2017.

Use Cases

• Model snow surface height changes over time using the repeated quasi-continuous GPS profiles.
• Analyze glacier motion patterns from the 29-point stake line measurement data.
• Compare terrain models generated from RTK-GPS sled data versus mobile laser scanning data from the 2017 season.
• Study the effect of local snow accumulation on absolute gravity measurements at the Aboa station.

Strengths

• More than 35 km of high-resolution terrain profiles collected per measurement season.
• Data spans four distinct Antarctic field seasons from 2003/2004 to 2017, enabling temporal analysis.
• Multiple collection methods including RTK-GPS, staking, and mobile laser scanning provide complementary data.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column details, and file formats are not provided.
• Geographic coverage is limited to the immediate vicinity of the single Aboa research station.
• The temporal resolution is limited to the specific field seasons with gaps of several years between some measurements.

Provenance

Source

SCIOPS via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Surface mapping using RTK-GPS on sledges and by foot, stake line measurements, and mobile laser scanning.

Time Range

2003/2004, 2005/2006, 2011/2012, 2017.

Freshness

Last updated data is from the 2017 field season.

Geography

Finnish Antarctic research station Aboa, Nordenskiold Base, Dronning Maud Land (73°02' S, 13°24' W).