Greenland Ice Slab Radar and Surface Hydrology Data

Data from 2000 to 2016 supports a study of shallow fractures buffering high-elevation runoff in Northwest Greenland. It includes ice-penetrating radar mappings of transient firn aquifers and buried ice complexes, surface water feature locations, and derived metrics like crevasse density and fracture toughness. The dataset integrates radar, optical satellite imagery, and derived indices for a multi-faceted analysis of ice slab hydrology.

Use Cases

• Mapping subsurface water storage (firn aquifers, ice blobs) based on ice-penetrating radar reflectivity inversions.
• Analyzing temporal surface water presence using NDWI time series within specific catchment areas.
• Correlating surface fracture patterns with subsurface resistive stress and fracture toughness data.
• Inventorying surface hydrological features (moulins, supraglacial lakes) from high-resolution optical imagery.

Strengths

• Integrates multiple data modalities: radar-derived subsurface mappings, optical imagery feature extractions, and satellite-derived NDWI indices.
• Covers a multi-year time series from 2000 to 2016 for NDWI analysis, providing a decadal perspective.
• Includes full-resolution WorldView image files supporting detailed visual analysis for a key region.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unknown across all sources.
• The dataset's structure and specific file formats are not described, which may hinder immediate usability.
• The last update date is unknown, making it difficult to assess data currency.

Provenance

Source

Princeton University, NASA Operation IceBridge (OIB)

Collection Method

Ice-penetrating radar (Ultrawideband MCoRDS), optical satellite imagery (Landsat, WorldView), and subsequent geophysical inversion and feature extraction.

Time Range

2000 to 2016

Geography

Northwest Greenland, specifically the ice slab region and the 20150510_01 Ultrawideband MCoRDS transect flow.