East Antarctic Pack Ice Skin Temperature Data from SIPEX Voyage 2007

Skin temperature data over the East Antarctic pack ice zone were recorded by an airborne KT-19II infrared pyrometer during the SIPEX voyage in 2007. The data were collected by the Australian Antarctic Division's Aurora Australis vessel and processed by the AAD sea ice science group. Data are presented as CSV files with time, location, and temperature, and as KMZ files for visualization.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial patterns of skin temperature over Antarctic pack ice based on geolocated temperature measurements.
• Validating or calibrating satellite-derived sea ice surface temperature models based on airborne infrared data.
• Studying temporal changes in ice surface conditions during the Antarctic spring based on flight dates from September to October 2007.
• Creating visualizations of temperature distributions for geographic analysis based on provided KMZ files.

Strengths

• Data includes temperature measurements converted to both Kelvin and Celsius degrees.
• Provides geolocated data points for each flight, enabling spatial analysis.
• Includes visualizations via KMZ files compatible with Google Earth and NASA WorldWind.

Limitations

• Data collection was incomplete; skin temperature was not collected on flights Alpha (12 September 2007) and Foxtrot (14 September 2007).
• Data for flights Tango (30 September 2007) and Uniform (1 October 2007) could not be confidently geolocated due to corrupted log files.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

AU_AADC (Australian Antarctic Division)

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing using a KT-19II infrared pyrometer on the Aurora Australis vessel.

Time Range

September to October 2007

Freshness

Last updated 2007-10-17 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.

Geography

East Antarctic pack ice zone