Sastrugi Observations Along the Wilkes Land Traverse Route, 1984

Observations of sastrugi, wind-formed snow ridges, were systematically recorded every 10 kilometers along a standard Antarctic traverse route. The Australian Antarctic Division archived these records, which note primary and secondary orientation, height, age, and snow type for each feature. Data collection concluded on November 28, 1984.

Use Cases

• Modeling wind patterns and snow transport based on sastrugi orientation data.
• Studying snow surface evolution and metamorphism based on recorded snow type (fine-grained, wind-packed, soft).
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of snow features along a traverse route based on 10km sampling intervals.
• Classifying sastrugi by age and form based on recorded 'type' (old or new) and height measurements.

Strengths

• Data collection followed a systematic protocol with observations spaced every 10km.
• Records include multiple attributes per observation: orientation, height, type, and snow condition.

Limitations

• Last updated 1984-11-28 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Division (AU_AADC)

Collection Method

Field observations made along the standard Wilkes Land traverse route.

Time Range

1984

Freshness

1984-11-28 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Wilkes Land, Antarctica, along a specific traverse route from A017.