NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL The BEDMAP Project An example of re-using shared data to make...

NATURALENVIRONMENTRESEARCH COUNCIL

The BEDMAP Project

An example of re-using shared data to make globally relevant

predictions


• Antarctica.

• The questions addressed.

• The process undertaken.

• The products.

• Why the project succeeded.– And thus what lessons can be learnt.


Antarctica

• 13M km2. Over 58 times the size of the UK, the highest, coldest and windiest continent.

• Icecap contains almost 70% of the world's freshwater and 90% of the world's ice.

• British Antarctic Survey. A wholly owned NERC Research Centre.– Undertakes the majority of Britain's scientific

research on and around the Antarctic continent.


Questions

• What is the shape of the land beneath the ice sheet?

• How much ice is there in the ice sheet? – And thus its potential contribution to sea

level rise.


Process

• BEDMAP consortium: 12 countries under the auspices of SCAR.

• Protocol: data remain under ‘control’ of contributors so some access restrictions.

• Production of database of ice thickness measurements.– 2.5M direct measurements;– Estimate 90% of all data existing (2000);– 10% not included: old data now lost & recent

surveys not released by PIs.


Process


Product

• Ice thickness model(5km grid)


Product

• Sub-ice topography


Product

• Coordinated database and gridded data sets


Product

• New estimate for volume of Antarctic ice sheet: 25.4 x 106 km3.– Close to early estimates, but 15% less than

widely quoted 30.1 x 106 km3 from 1983.

• New estimate for amount of sea level equivalent of the ice volume: 57m.– Lower than other estimates: 73m (1986)

and 61m (2000).


Success

• Antarctic Treaty, Article III-1-c.– scientific observations and results from

Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available.

• Antarctic science is international – expectation of cooperation.

• A project of the scientific community.


Success

• Data were known: information available on what data exists and the specifics of the data.– Metadata not always formally documented, PIs

had their own detailed knowledge.

• Funds available to do the work.• Defined goal to the project.• Good staff: Understood the science and the

data issues.


Further information

• NERC: www.nerc.ac.uk• BAS: www.antarctica.ac.uk• BEDMAP:

www.antarctica.ac.uk/aedc/bedmap• SCAR: www.scar.org• Reference: Lythe, M.B. & Vaughan, D.G.

BEDMAP: A new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica. J. Geophys. Res., 106 B6, 11,335 – 11,351, 2001.

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