Sea Ice Bio-Optical Measurements from 44 Antarctic Sites, 2015

44 sea ice sites were sampled for bio-optical measurements along four transects on land-fast sea ice off Davis Station, Antarctica, during November–December 2015. The dataset includes hyperspectral irradiance and radiance measurements, ice core physical properties, and analyses of ice algal pigment content and particulate absorption. It was collected as part of Australian Antarctic Science project #4298 and published by the AU_AADC organization.

Use Cases

• Modeling light transmission through sea ice based on hyperspectral irradiance and radiance measurements.
• Analyzing relationships between ice algal chlorophyll a concentration and physical ice properties like thickness and snow cover.
• Studying spatial variability of bio-optical properties along transects from the sampling grid.
• Calibrating satellite ocean color algorithms with in-situ particulate absorption spectra from ice algae.

Strengths

• Includes 44 distinct sampling sites with triplicate measurements for key optical variables.
• Provides vertically resolved data from ice core sections and specific measurements for the lowermost 0.1 m.
• Covers a broad spectral range (320–900 nm for radiometry, 350–750 nm for absorption) with fine resolution.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Last updated 2017-12 03 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

nasa_earthdata, AU_AADC

Collection Method

Field-based sampling of ice cores and in-situ radiometer measurements.

Time Range

November–December 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2017-12-03 23:59:59.999000.

Geography

Land-fast sea ice off Davis Station, Antarctica (origin at -68.568904, 77.945439).