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Citation
Toyota, T., Lecomte, O., Massom, R., Giles, B. and Commonwealth of Australia (2017) Ice and snow pit measurements observed during the SIPEX II voyage of the Aurora Australis, 2012, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.4225/15/59b0c7fd5c76f, Accessed: 2026-05-17
Title
Ice and snow pit measurements observed during the SIPEX II voyage of the Aurora Australis, 2012
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/59b0c7fd5c76f
Created Date
2013-03-07
Revision Date
2025-10-30
Expected Date of Data Release
2017-09-07
Data Version
1
Parent record
SIPEX_II

Description

This dataset contains routine measurements of snow and ice thickness, and snow-ice interface temperature, at 1m intervals along standard transects; snow property characterisation in snow pits measured at 0m, 50m and 100m along the transects; and sea ice cores acquired at various locations both along the transects and elsewhere on ice station floes during the 2012 SIPEX 2 marine science voyage.

Ice temperature information is acquired from the cores, which are taken on-board for further analysis. The latter includes thin-section analysis of sea-ice stratigraphy and crystallography at -20C within the freezer lab on-board the ship. The cores are then cut up into 5cm sections and melted for analysis of salinity and stable oxygen isotopes.

Observation items:
Snow:
- Thickness
- Temperature profile (every 3 cm)
- Snow-ice interface temperature at 1m intervals along the 100m transects
- Grain size
- Grain shape
- Density
- Hardness
- Salinity
- Stable oxygen isotope
Ice:
- Thickness
- Freeboard
- Draft
- Temperature
- Salinity
- Stable oxygen isotope
- Crystallography and texture
- Density

Instruments:

Snow:
Folding scales, Spatula, Thermometer, Snow sampler, Magnifying glass, Salinometer, Temperature and thickness probes, scales

Ice:
Drills, corers, ice-thickness tape measures, thermometer, salinometer, band-saw, cross-polarising filter, scales

The data are recorded in log books (scanned copies are included in this dataset) and have been transferred into the standard AAD sea-ice database templates (in excel format) for each station.

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Access

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

Temporal Coverages

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

Additional Keywords

  • SIPEX

Locations

  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Platforms

  • R/V Aurora Australis

Instruments

  • Thermometers
  • SALINOMETERS
  • SNOWPACK TEMPERATURE PROBE

Researchers

  • toyota, takenobu (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)
  • lecomte, olivier (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
  • massom, rob (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
  • giles, barry (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
  • commonwealth of australia (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)

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=SIPEX_II_Ice_Snowpits when using these data.

Project

    ISO Topic

    • CLIMATOLOGY/METEOROLOGY/ATMOSPHERE
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • OCEANS

    Dataset Language

    • English

    Orignating Centre

    • Australian Antarctic Division

    Dataset Progress

    • COMPLETE

    IDN Node

    • AMD/AU
    • CEOS
    • AMD
    • ACE/CRC

    Metadata Revision History

      2013-03-07 - record created by Dave Connell from a template completed by Takenobu Toyota. 2017-09-07 - record updated by Dave Connell to publicly release the data. 2025-10-30 - record citation updated.

    Creative Commons License