“A consistent data set of Antarctic ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and global bathymetry,” co-authored by Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences, was published on Dec. 22, in Earth System Science Data - The Data Publishing Journal.
Sub-ice shelf circulation and freezing/melting rates in ocean general circulation models depend critically on an accurate and consistent representation of cavity geometry. Existing global or pan-Antarctic topography data sets have turned out to contain various inconsistencies and inaccuracies. The paper includes a compilation of independent regional surveys and maps into a global data set for an area that roughly coincides with the Antarctic continental shelf.
Domack’s co-authors included researchers from Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany; University of Exeter, Exter, U.K.; British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, U.K.; University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania; KlimaCampus, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; Swansea University, Swansea, U.K.; University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria; Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University; Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway; Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway; Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, NOAA NESDIS, Silver Spring, Md.