Dear Sea Ice Researchers,
This is a call to contribute your data on Antarctic sea ice cores. We are compiling a data base with physical and biological properties of Antarctic sea ice cores.
A database has been constructed to enter sea ice core data collected around Antarctica. My estimates are that at present there are a maximum of a 1000 cores that will go into this data base, and 10's of people or organizations that will contribute. Because of these limited numbers a large effort has not gone into making the data base completely foolproof. Rather, it has been designed to be flexible and allow fields to be added or modified later if necessary. Because of the wide variety of data that is collected with most cores, almost all the fields are optional.
The database has been constructed using ACCESS, which I believe only runs on PCs. For larger data sets, the easiest method seems to be to put the data into an excel spreadsheet, and then import the data into ACCESS. For those of you who use Mac's excel may be the only option.
My plan is to:
1. Compile the sea ice core data available, and obtain some statistics
on physical properties such as crystal structure, salinity and
oxygen isotope values. Using this data write a summary paper
of Antarctic sea ice core properties (with the appropriate cast
of authors). I realize much of this data has been published,
but a consistent circum-Antarctic compilation has not been attempted.
2. Make the data available to anyone else who wants to use it.
If you can contribute to the data base,
Contact me and I will send you either a blank excel spreadsheet,
or the access data base to enter your data (preferred option)
OR
Send me the data in whatever format you have and we will try to
convert the data. (as funding allows)
Timing:
I would like to have most of the data in a consistent format
by January, 2002. We have a lot of data that is in all different
formats and there will be a considerable effort at 'data recovery',
so this timing is only an estimate.
Note: The database also has a form to add data as it is being collected (at sea). If you are heading out on a voyage I am looking for people to test it out.
Comments and suggestions welcome!
Thanks,
Vicky Lytle
v.lytle@utas.edu.au