NSF COLDEX CXA1: Airborne Geophysical Measurements Over Antarctica, 2022-2023

Antarctic airborne survey data from the 2022-2023 NSF COLDEX expedition provides georeferenced, time-registered instrument measurements in SI units. The collection includes laser ranging, magnetic field strength and orientation, and GPS positioning data, formatted as space-delimited ASCII files. This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Oldest Ice Exploration.

Use Cases

• Reprocessing raw laser altimetry data for custom surface elevation models based on the ILUTP1B laser range data.
• Analyzing crustal temperature and tectonic structures based on the IMGEO1B total magnetic field and IMFGM1B magnetic vector data.
• Validating aircraft positioning and timing for other data streams using the IPUTG1B GPS data.
• Studying planned flight transect patterns (radials, corridors) over specific Antarctic regions like the Saddle near the South Pole.

Strengths

• Data is georeferenced and time-registered, converted to standardized SI units.
• Includes multiple synchronized instrument streams: GPS at 1 Hz, magnetics at 10 Hz, and laser altimetry at 3.5 Hz.
• Flight transects were systematically planned with specific geometric parameters and separations (e.g., 0.25 degrees, 2.5 km).
• Supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (NSF 2019719).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from detailed headers after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale processing.
• Data is Level 1B (raw instrument measurements); users needing derived geophysical observables must use separate Level 2 datasets.

Provenance

Source

Texas Data Repository Harvested Dataverse, author Duncan Young.

Collection Method

Airborne survey using laser ranging, magnetometers, and GPS during the NSF COLDEX CXA1 expedition.

Time Range

2022-2023 airborne season.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-10-15 03:43:38; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Antarctica, including specific transects radiating from Dome A and the Saddle region near the South Pole.