The Norwegian Polar Institute is pleased to announce the version 2 of “Quantarctica”, public-domain GIS package for Antarctica. Both the full package and the update-only package from version 1 are downloadable at:
http://www.quantarctica.org/downloads/
if you want to learn Quantarctica in one minute, here is a YouTube video for the version 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HV_VbxKKDM
Since its first release one year ago, there is a growing community of Quantarctica users. Quantarctica is a package of Antarctic continent-wide datasets optimized for the use on free GIS software QGIS. It currently includes ADD-based maps, continent-wide mosaics and high-resolution satellite imagery, and glaciology/geophysics data; here is a list of data included in the package:
http://www.quantarctica.org/downloads/
We use universal color to help people who have color vision deficiency. End users can modify the package freely; many people use it as the base of their own project GIS package.
The Quantarctica package includes QGIS software for Windows, but QGIS also supports MacOS X, Linux, and Android, and the distributed data package and project file are supposed to work on these platforms as well. We tested only on Windows, but heard from users that it works fine on MacOS X and Linux.
We appreciate all data contributors to Quantarctica. When you use Quantarctica, please look the meta data page (double click the layer, and go to the meta data tab), and appropriately cite the original reference of a specific dataset that you refer. And we are really happy if you mention Quantarctica in your publications/presentations.
For more information, please contact Kenichi Matsuoka.
- a request from our sponsor, WCRP, and their Working Group on Regional Climate
The WCRP Working Group on Regional Climate is soliciting input for a survey that examines past and potential future use of climate model outputs from the CMIP5 archive and related sources. The information collected will be made freely available and can be used to inform next steps in facilitating use of the CMIP5 archive and planning CMIP6 and other activities.
CMIP5 has provided an important source of information underlying both the WGI and WGII reports of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, as well as a much wider range of studies on physical climate science and vulnerability, impacts and adaptation (VIA) studies. While the physical climate science (WGI) community has been surveyed about CMIP5 as part of the preparations for CMIP6 (see http://www.wcrp-climate.org/index.php/wgcm-cmip/wgcm-cmip6), the VIA community has not yet had an opportunity to provide input. Thus we have designed this survey from the perspective of the VIA community in order to ensure that your voice is heard. It is being co-ordinated as part of the activities of the WCRP Working Group on Regional Climate (WGRC http://www.wcrp-climate.org/index.php/regional-climate).
We will produce a summary report of responses and will use our linkages into various working groups, workshops and other fora (including CMIP Panel and WCRP Working Group on Climate Modelling activities, and even some national activities), so that your views can be considered and discussed alongside those of other users. Your responses will also be very valuable for WGRC activities.
In order to feed into a number of activities happening in the autumn, we would like to receive your response by 30 September at the latest. If provided, your contact details will be kept confidential, and no individuals will be identifiable in the summary report.
This is the link to the survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1nEzlrhJRO61zdodYU6SFl15IAhe1sTeGUWX-bCTy5tU/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link
We would like as many people as possible to undertake the survey, so please circulate it widely around your networks.
With many thanks for your help in what we consider to be an important endeavour, and best wishes from Clare Goodess, Linda Mearns, Richard Moss, Tim Carter, Bruce Hewitson, Kendra Gotangco and Roberta Boscolo
A six-year, $21 million NSF-sponsored program to study the Southern Ocean and surrounding region was just launched. The SOCCOM (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling) project is housed at Princeton University and brings together investigators from 11 institutions to study the role of the Southern Ocean in climate change and biogeochemistry through observations and modeling. Another goal for the program is to cultivate new scientists and conduct outreach to disseminate the results and broader impact. Furthermore, SOCCOM is deploying Argo floats with biogeochemical sensors that will increase monthly measurements by 10-30 times in the region. Visit their website for more information: http://soccom.princeton.edu/.
