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Scientific studies concentrated in Antarctica hold great value and importance for humanity. Research projects are conducted in various disciplines on the continent, where nearly 100 research stations from 30 countries are established. Despite the challenges posed by Antarctica's natural structure, unique environment, difficult working conditions, and limited logistics opportunities, scientific research conducted there is indispensable due to the valuable information it offers. In pursuit of accessing this information, Turkish Antarctic expeditions have been organized since 2017. In this study, a polar data center was established through a web-based geographic information system (WebGIS), a significant infrastructure for the continuity of scientific studies. The implemented projects and raw/processed data from previous expeditions in diverse subjects and disciplines, including geology, geophysics, geography, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, glaciology, atmospheric physics, chemistry, microbiology, and remote sensing, were incorporated into this information system. Studies in Antarctica have primarily focused on observing the effects of global warming, necessitating the monitoring of past and current data related to sea ice, sea level, and coastal changes. The data also encompasses seismic, volcanic, tectonic, and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) monitoring. As suggested by the Antarctic Treaty, a user-friendly website was designed and made accessible for research projects, data, and publications. An entity relationship diagram was created for the fields to be included in the database. These fields were structured as tables using structured query language (SQL) queries in PgAdmin. A workspace and storage area were created in GeoServer, and a connection was established with PostGIS. Layers of spatial and nonspatial data from the PgAdmin application were added to the GeoServer workspace. The data transferred to GeoServer were presented in an OpenLayers web map with Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) according to Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Additionally, a mini web map was designed using the desktop Quantum GIS (QGIS) application and GIS Cloud collaboration, displaying GNSS and meteorological (weather) observation stations on the continent. A dynamic web project was employed for coding in Eclipse software, where backend coding was done with JavaScript. SQL was used as a part of the backend to integrate data from the database per request. Frontend coding for the website's visual side was completed with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. As a result, a WebGIS platform was developed where researchers can register, add projects, and publications, and view data on a map. Users can download, analyze, and utilize the available data. The data center's existence underscores the importance of polar science and serves as an incentive for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) uses low-resolution, portable EM27/SUN Fourier transform spectrometers (FTSs) to make retrievals of column-averaged dry-air mole fractions (DMFs, represented as Xgas) of CO 2 , CH 4 , CO and H 2 O from near-infrared solar absorption spectra. The COCCON has developed rapidly over recent years and complements the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). In this work, we provide details of the first seasonal time series of near-infrared XCO2 , XCH4 and XCO retrievals from measurements made in Antarctica during the deployment of an EM27/SUN to the Arrival Heights laboratory on Ross Island over the austral summer of 2019–2020 under the auspices of the COCCON. The DMFs of all three species were lower in Antarctica than at mid-latitude, and for XCO2 and XCO , the retrieved values were less variable. For XCH4 however, the variability was significantly greater and it was found that this was strongly correlated to the proximity of the polar vortex. In order to ensure the stability of the instrument and the traceability of the retrievals, side-by-side comparisons to the TCCON station at Lauder, New Zealand and retrievals of the instrument line shape (ILS) were made before and after the measurements in Antarctica. These indicate that, over the course of the deployment, the instrument stability was such that the change in retrieved XCO2 was well below 0.1 %. The value of these data for satellite validation is demonstrated by making comparisons with the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5 precursor (S5P) satellite. The dataset is available from the COCCON central facility hosted by the ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Centre (EVDC) 10.48477/coccon.pf10.arrivalheights.R02. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continental-scale land cover information is essential to furthering our understanding of the terrestrial environment, atmosphere and climate change. Several global land cover products have been released in recent years but they typically do not include Antarctica. The lack of land cover data in Antarctica is concerning because mountain glaciers and icecaps there have been losing mass at a rate well above the global average, leading to expansion of proglacial regions. Proglacial regions comprise transient land cover types with high rates of geomorphological activity that delivers sediment into the Southern Ocean and supports its rich biodiversity. With Antarctic mountain glaciers and icecaps projected to lose more mass in the coming decades, and active layer soils expected to increase in thickness, it is timely to establish a baseline land cover dataset for Antarctica with which future classifications can be compared. Here, we use Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images to classify six proglacial regions of Antarctica at 30 m resolution, with an overall accuracy of 77.0 % for proglacial land classes. We conducted this classification using an unsupervised K-means clustering approach, which circumvented the need for training data and was highly effective at picking up key land classes, such as vegetation, water, and different sedimentary surfaces. We have highlighted the spatial pattern in land cover and emphasise a need for more and higher quality field data. The land cover maps produced from this paper are available at: Stringer, C. (2022). Contemporary (2016 - 2020) land cover classification across West Antarctica and the McMurdo Dry Valleys (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Collaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON), uses low-resolution, portable EM27/SUN Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTSs) to make retrievals of dry air mole fractions (DMFs, represented as Xgas) of CO2, CH4, CO and H2O from near infrared solar absorption spectra. The COCCON has developed rapidly over recent years and complements the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). In this work we provide details of the first seasonal timeseries of near infrared ..., ... and XCO retrievals from measurements made in Antarctica during the deployment of an EM27/SUN to the Arrival Heights laboratory on Ross Island (77.83° S, 166.66° E, 205m AMSL) over the austral summer of 2019/20 under the auspices of the COCCON. The DMFs of all three species were lower in Antarctica than at mid-latitude and for ... and XCO the retrieved values were less variable. For ... however, the variability was significantly greater and it was found that this was strongly correlated to the proximity of the polar vortex. In order to ensure the stability of the instrument and the traceability of the retrievals, side-by-side comparisons to the TCCON station at Lauder, New Zealand (45.04° S, 169.68° E, 370m AMSL) and retrievals of the Instrument Line Shape (ILS) were made before and after the measurements in Antarctica. These indicate that over the course of the deployment the instrument stability was such that the change in retrieved ... was well below 0.1%. The value of this data for satellite validation is demonstrated by making comparisons with the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite. The data set is available from the COCCON Central Facility hosted by the ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Centre (EVDC) https://doi.org/10.48477/coccon.pf10.arrivalheights.R02 (Pollard, 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice core records from Law Dome in East Antarctica collected over the last four decades provide high-resolution data for studies of the climate of Antarctica, Australia, and the Southern and Indo-Pacific oceans. Here, we present a set of annually dated records of trace chemistry, stable water isotopes and snow accumulation from Law Dome covering the period from -11 to 2017 CE (1961 to -66 BP 1950) and the level-1 chemistry data from which the annual chemistry records are derived. Law Dome ice core records have been used extensively in studies of the past climate of the Southern Hemisphere and in large-scale data syntheses and reconstructions in a region where few records exist, especially at high temporal resolution. This dataset provides an update and extensions both forward and back in time of previously published subsets of the data, bringing them together into a coherent set with improved dating to enable continued use of this record. The data are available for download from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre at 10.26179/5zm0-v192. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on tracking a deadly bird flu virus, H5N1, in Antarctica, particularly among Adélie penguins and other seabirds. Topics discussed include the virus's global spread, its impact on wildlife populations, and the urgency in studying and containing its transmission, especially with impending breeding seasons and potential risks to human visitors.

In this study, we used daily sea-ice concentration data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center from 1988 to 2017 to investigate the spatial distribution of Antarctic sea ice by calculating the annual mean sea-ice concentration and multi-year sea ice in five sub-regions of Antarctica. Variations in these parameters were analyzed for three individual 10-year increments (1988 - 1997, 1998 - 2007, and 2008 - 2017) as well as for the entire 30-year period, and spatial comparisons of both were made for the sub-regions. Results showed that the mean sea-ice concentration for the entire Antarctic region over the 30-year period was 0.506. From 2008 to 2017, the sea-ice concentration decreased at a rate of -0.28% yr-1. The Weddell Sea was found to have the largest area of multi-year sea ice, whereas the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean had the least. Spatially, the multi-year sea ice area increased mainly in the Weddell Sea, whereas the Bellingshausen Sea, Amundsen Sea, and Ross Sea experienced decreasing sea ice areas. In conclusion, regional differences in the spatial distribution of the Antarctic sea ice were observed. The temporal trend and range of the sea-ice concentration differed between the five sub-regions, as did the spatial distribution and temporal trend of multi-year sea ice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]