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4. AAS_4297_Future_Ice-free_Layers

Description

Here we provide projections of Antarctic ice-free areas at the end of the 21st century under two RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) carbon forcing scenarios (RCP4.5, RCP8.5). Each RCP has a 'mean' projection and a 'lower' and 'upper' bound, generated using mean, lower and upper melt coefficients during the melt modelling. Methods used to derive the ice-free projections are detailed in Lee et al. 2017.

Distribution models of ice-free area expansion under various climate change scenarios will be generated using rock layers from the ADD (v6), the BAS bedmap ice-thickness model and various climate layers and projections. The data product will comprise ice-free area distribution and/or melt patterns in the form of pdf maps and/or ESRI shapefiles and GeoTiffs.

Projections of Antarctic ice-free areas under two RCP climate change scenarios

Purpose

These spatial layers were the output of Lee et al. 2017, where the primary purpose of the study was to determine how terrestrial Antarctic biodiversity habitat (ice-free areas) would be impacted by climate change.

Quality

The current ice-free layer, that was used to project the future ice-free layers, is the 'medium resolution' rock outcrop layer from the Antarctic Digital Database (ADD) version 7 (add.scar.org).

The projected melt was applied to the Bedmap2 'ice thickness' layer from the British Antarctic Survey (bas.ac.uk/project/bedmap-2/), in order to derive the future ice-free layers.

Access

These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Temporal Coverages

• Start date: 2016-03-01 - Stop date: 2016-09-30

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

• EARTH SCIENCE > MODELS > CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS
• EARTH SCIENCE > CLIMATE INDICATORS > CRYOSPHERIC INDICATORS > CLIMATE WARMING
• EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SNOW/ICE > ICE EXTENT

Use Constraints

This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4297_Future_Ice-free_Layers when using these data.

These data have been used in the following publication: Lee, J.R., Raymond, B., Bracegirdle, T.J., Chades, I., Fuller, R.A., Shaw, J.D. and Terauds, A. 2017. Climate change drives expansion of Antarctic ice-free habitat. Nature