Western Ross Sea AEM pack-ice thickness survey 2017

• Main Authors: Rack, Wolfgang, Price, Daniel, Haas, Christian, Langhorne, Patricia J, Leonard, Greg H
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2020
• Subjects: AC; airborne electromagnetic induction measurement; Aircraft; Cape Adare; C-GJKB; DATE/TIME; Event label; Identification; K066-1718-A; K066-1718-A_1109; K066-1718-A_1111; LATITUDE; LONGITUDE; McMurdo Sound; ORDINAL NUMBER; pack ice; Sea ice; Sea ice thickness; Time in hours; Time in seconds; Antarctic; Ross Sea; Victoria Land; Terra Nova Bay; New Zealand; Adare; Adare Peninsula; Cape Washington; Antarc*; Antarctica; Antarctica New Zealand
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.925092; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.925092

The data set contains sea ice thickness (consolidated ice plus snow) of pack ice in the Western Ross Sea acquired by fixed wing aircraft (BT-67 C-GJKB) between McMurdo Sound (77.68 S / 165.52E) and near Cape Adare (72.01 S / 171.53 E). Two survey profiles are oriented South - North near parallel and about 100km off the Victoria Land coast, and two survey profiles are leading into Terra Nova Bay oriented in East –West direction at around 74.5 S and 75 S. The total length of the survey profiles is about 800 km. The Southern survey was flown from 9 November 2017 22:19 UTC to 10 November 2017 00:25 UTC beginning in McMurdo Sound and went for 300 km to the north, before turning west into Terra Nova Bay for another 100 km. The Northern survey was flown on 11 November 2017 from 1:21 UTC to 3:04 UTC from near the Adare Peninsula in a southerly direction for 215 km before turning southwest towards Cape Washington for another 140 km. The airborne electromagnetic induction (AEM) ice thickness sensor was towed by a Basler BT-67 aircraft sampling thickness every 6m along the flight track. The accuracy of the measured ice thickness is +/-0.1m over level ice. Ice thicknesses are biased up to 50% low for pressure ridges smaller than the signal footprint of about 45 m. Data was collected with the support of Antarctica New Zealand (event K066-1718-A; 25/10/2017-28/11/2017) for the New Zealand National Science Challenge Deep South (Targeted observation and process informed modelling of Antarctic sea ice, PI P. Langhorne). The purpose of data collection was to gain a basic understanding of sea ice thickness close to the areas of the Ross Sea, McMurdo, and Terra Nova Bay Polynyas.