Kolar, Jonathan; Neckel, Niklas; Rückert, Janna Elisabeth; Bühler, Linnea; Bahlmann, Jonathan; Risse, Nils; Hendricks, Stefan; Neudert, Mara (2025): Ice and snow thickness measurements from the ArcWatch-2 Expedition [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.984304
Always quote citation above when using data! You can download the citation in several formats below.
Published: 2025-09-24 • DOI registered: 2025-10-23
Abstract:
Here we present data from sled based multi-frequency electro magnetic induction measurements (GEM-2, Geophex Ltd.) for all ice stations visited during the ArcWatch-2 (PS144) Polarstern Expedition to the central Arctic Ocean. Between 2024-08-16 and 2024-09-26 Polarstern was moored to 10 larger ice floes on which the GEM-2 surveys were conducted. Prior to each survey the device was calibrated using a standardized procedure (e.g. Itken et al., 2023). The GEM-2 measures the distance from the snow surface to the ice–ocean interface resulting in a total ice+snow thickness estimate. We therefore included additional snow thickness measurements from a Magnaprobe device carried out along the same transects as the GEM-2 measurements. Both datasets were drift corrected and referenced to local GNSS stations employed at each ice station (Neckel et al., 2025).
References:
Itkin, Polona; Hendricks, Stefan; Webster, Melinda; von Albedyll, Luisa; Arndt, Stefanie; Divine, Dmitry V; Jaggi, Matthias; Oggier, Marc; Raphael, Ian; Ricker, Robert; Rohde, Jan; Schneebeli, Martin; Liston, Glen E (2023): Sea ice and snow characteristics from year-long transects at the MOSAiC Central Observatory. Elementa - Science of the Anthropocene, 11(1), 00048, https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2022.00048
Neckel, Niklas; Kolar, Jonathan; Bühler, Linnea; Bahlmann, Jonathan; Rückert, Janna Elisabeth; Trace-Kleeberg, Sunke; Risse, Nils (2025): GNSS measurements of PS144 ice stations [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.983769
Funding:
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (AWI), grant/award no. AWI_PS144_06: SeaIcePhys. (ArcWatch1/TransArc3)
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 86.186432 * Median Longitude: 128.203995 * South-bound Latitude: 84.500360 * West-bound Longitude: 42.934930 * North-bound Latitude: 89.951540 * East-bound Longitude: -142.696160
Date/Time Start: 2024-08-16T17:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2024-09-26T06:00:00
Event(s):
PS144_007_GEM (gem2-512) * Latitude: 85.058000 * Longitude: 42.935000 * Date/Time: 2024-08-16T15:57:43 * O2A Registry URI: https://registry.o2a-data.de/items/3715 * Campaign: PS144 (ArcWatch 2; TransArc3) * Basis: Polarstern * Method/Device: Ground-based Electromagnetic Induction Sounding Device (GEM-2) * Comment: Ice station survey
PS144_023_GEM (gem2-512) * Latitude: 84.500000 * Longitude: 115.720000 * Date/Time: 2024-08-29T18:58:50 * O2A Registry URI: https://registry.o2a-data.de/items/3715 * Campaign: PS144 (ArcWatch 2; TransArc3) * Basis: Polarstern * Method/Device: Ground-based Electromagnetic Induction Sounding Device (GEM-2) * Comment: Ice station survey, GEM towed by snowmobile
PS144_042_GEM (gem2-512) * Latitude: 84.831000 * Longitude: 128.877000 * Date/Time: 2024-09-02T22:38:52 * O2A Registry URI: https://registry.o2a-data.de/items/3715 * Campaign: PS144 (ArcWatch 2; TransArc3) * Basis: Polarstern * Method/Device: Ground-based Electromagnetic Induction Sounding Device (GEM-2) * Comment: Ice station survey
Comment:
The csv files contain ice thickness data averaged in 1 m-intervals along track and the closest snow thickness measurements.
Columns include:
time,latitude, latitude, x, y: coordinates of actual measurement in EPSG:4326 and EPSG:3413,lat_corr, lon_corr, x_corr, y_corr: coordinates corrected for floe drift with respect to a reference time,f1525Hz_hcp_i - f93075Hz_hcp_q (m): ice thickness estimates based on inphase or quadrature of different frequencies, snow_depth (m): closest measurement from separate the Magnaprobe, distance_to_snow_meas (m): distance to snow thickness measurement.
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Event label | Event | Neckel, Niklas | GEM | ||
| 2 | Other event | Other event | Neckel, Niklas | Magna | ||
| 3 | DATE/TIME | Date/Time | Neckel, Niklas | Geocode – RefDateTime | ||
| 4 | LATITUDE | Latitude | Neckel, Niklas | Geocode | ||
| 5 | LONGITUDE | Longitude | Neckel, Niklas | Geocode | ||
| 6 | CSV text file (File Size) | CSV (Size) | Bytes | Neckel, Niklas | ||
| 7 | CSV text file | CSV | Neckel, Niklas |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)
Status:
Curation Level: Enhanced curation (CurationLevelC)
Size:
20 data points
Data
All files referred to in data matrix can be downloaded in one go as ZIP or TAR. Be careful: This download can be very large! To protect our systems from misuse, we require to sign up for an user account before downloading.
| 1 Event | 2 Other event | 3 Date/Time | 4 Latitude | 5 Longitude | 6 CSV (Size) [Bytes] | 7 CSV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS144_007_GEM | NO_SNOW | 2024-08-16T17:00:00 | 85.05805 | 42.93493 | 343 kBytes | PS144-20240816-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_023_GEM | NO_SNOW | 2024-08-29T22:00:00 | 84.50036 | 115.72034 | 540.7 kBytes | PS144-20240829-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_042_GEM | NO_SNOW | 2024-09-02T23:00:00 | 84.83094 | 128.87743 | 431.1 kBytes | PS144-20240902-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_050_GEM | PS144_050_MAGNA | 2024-09-05T09:09:21 | 85.02579 | 139.94363 | 575.9 kBytes | PS144-20240905-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_067_GEM | PS144_067_MAGNA | 2024-09-08T15:00:00 | 84.94667 | 162.09426 | 761.7 kBytes | PS144-20240908-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_080_GEM | PS144_080_MAGNA | 2024-09-11T01:00:00 | 84.93331 | 179.41320 | 451.5 kBytes | PS144-20240911-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_085_GEM | PS144_085_MAGNA | 2024-09-13T09:00:00 | 87.50035 | 178.72568 | 461 kBytes | PS144-20240913-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_109_GEM | PS144_109_MAGNA | 2024-09-19T09:20:15 | 89.95154 | -142.69616 | 398.7 kBytes | PS144-20240919-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_123_GEM | PS144_123_MAGNA | 2024-09-23T10:00:00 | 88.07016 | 59.95280 | 357.4 kBytes | PS144-20240923-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |
| PS144_134_GEM | PS144_134_MAGNA | 2024-09-26T06:00:00 | 87.04715 | 57.07384 | 452.8 kBytes | PS144-20240926-gem2-512-channel-thickness_drift-corr_equidist.csv |