Coastal Antarctic Fast-Ice and Snow Thickness Time Series from Mawson and Davis Stations

Mawson and Davis stations in Antarctica provide weekly fast-ice and snow thickness measurements alongside meteorological data for analyzing ice-atmosphere interactions. The dataset includes a historic record with 27 seasons for Mawson and 20 seasons for Davis, though with significant gaps, and is part of an ongoing long-term series. Data from this Australian Antarctic Division project has been used in scientific research to model thermodynamic processes and oceanic heat flux variability.

Use Cases

• Modeling thermodynamic sea-ice growth and decay based on energy and moisture exchange data.
• Analyzing interannual climate variability based on long-term fast-ice thickness records.
• Quantifying local-scale atmosphere-fast ice interactions based on combined ice and meteorological observations.
• Deriving oceanic heat flux variability based on inverse modeling using historic ice thickness data.

Strengths

• Includes a long-term time-series with historic data spanning 27 seasons at Mawson and 20 seasons at Davis.
• Data is accepted into the Australian Antarctic Division's State of the Environment (SOE) reporting scheme as a recognized climatic indicator.
• Combines physical ice and snow measurements with meteorological data for integrated analysis.

Limitations

• Significant gaps exist in the historic records for both stations.
• 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 Data Centre (AU_AADC) via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Weekly field measurements of fast-ice and snow thicknesses, likely combined with station meteorological observations.

Time Range

Historic records from the mid-1950s, with an ongoing time-series.

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Coastal Antarctic sites at Mawson and Davis Australian Antarctic stations.