BasalMelt: ice-shelf basal melt rates
Basal melt rates of ice shelves from observations, remapped onto the grids of the domains. BasalMelt is a thematic dataset made by remapping (see Gridded data): its products are defined in BasalMelt/remap.toml.
Products
| Product | Source | Fields | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|
BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020 |
Adusumilli et al. (2020): 500 m basal melt rates of the Antarctic ice shelves, mean 2010-2018, from CryoSat-2, doi:10.6075/J04Q7SHT | bmelt (gaps filled with the mean rate at the same ice draft), bmelt_cs2 (CryoSat-2 only), bmelt_err (uncertainty), m yr-1 ice equivalent, positive for melting |
Antarctica |
BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020-heights |
Adusumilli et al. (2020): quarterly height changes of the Antarctic ice shelves 1992-2018 from radar altimetry, 10 km (not melt rates; grids of 8 km and coarser), doi:10.6075/J04Q7SHT | dh_alt (surface height), dh_firn (firn air content), m, relative to 1994; smb_discharge (surface mass balance and discharge change, m yr-1 ice equivalent); on time (quarters); no uncertainties (inconsistent in the source file) |
Antarctica |
BasalMelt-Rignot2013 |
Rignot et al. (2013): 1 km basal melt rates of the Antarctic ice shelves in 2007-2008, doi:10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhg2 | bmelt (actual), bmelt_ss (steady state), m yr-1 ice equivalent, positive for melting; their means over the drainage basins (Zwally et al., 2012) bmelt_basin, bmelt_eq_basin, and bmelt_reese, bmelt_eq_reese over groups of them (as bm_ac_reese, bm_eq_reese of v1) |
Antarctica |
Each file also has f_valid, the fraction of each cell covered by the source (the ice shelves). Fields are remapped conservatively. The basin means of BasalMelt-Rignot2013 are one value per basin, taken on the source grid over the ice shelves of the basin (basin 25, without data, over those of basins 24 and 26), and set on every cell of the basin on each grid, the cells outside the basins (open ocean, outer cells) taking the nearest basin: they cover the whole grid (see Rignot2013_bmelt).
BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020-heights has the height changes from which Adusumilli et al. (2020) derive time series of melt rates (relative to the 2010-2018 mean, their Eq. S7), not melt rates: see Adusumilli2020_bmelt.
Precision
The float fields are rounded on output to a tolerance by kind (see Precision and file sizes): melt rates (bmelt*, smb_discharge) to 1%; the height changes dh_alt and dh_firn to 0.01 m; f_valid to 0.001.
Licences
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| Adusumilli et al. (2020) | CC BY 4.0 (UC San Diego Library) |
| Rignot et al. (2013) | CC0 1.0 (Dryad) |
Making the dataset
julia -t 8 fesmdata.jl remap BasalMeltDownloads
Download the files with fesmdata.jl into $FESMDATA_PRODUCTS/<Domain>/<GRID>/ (see Download), or one by one from the links below. All released datasets are listed under Products.
Antarctica
Version 2.3.1 (2026-10-16, packages). 15 files, 41.9 MB.
julia fesmdata.jl fetch BasalMelt Antarctica # all grids julia fesmdata.jl fetch BasalMelt ANT-32KM # one grid
ANT-1KM 2 files, 12.9 MB
| ANT-1KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020.nc | 6.5 MB |
| ANT-1KM_BasalMelt-Rignot2013.nc | 6.4 MB |
ANT-2KM 2 files, 4.3 MB
| ANT-2KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020.nc | 2.2 MB |
| ANT-2KM_BasalMelt-Rignot2013.nc | 2.2 MB |
ANT-4KM 2 files, 1.6 MB
| ANT-4KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020.nc | 782.1 kB |
| ANT-4KM_BasalMelt-Rignot2013.nc | 798.5 kB |
ANT-8KM 3 files, 16.1 MB
| ANT-8KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020-heights.nc | 15.4 MB |
| ANT-8KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020.nc | 299.6 kB |
| ANT-8KM_BasalMelt-Rignot2013.nc | 310.2 kB |
ANT-16KM 3 files, 5.1 MB
| ANT-16KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020-heights.nc | 4.8 MB |
| ANT-16KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020.nc | 135.0 kB |
| ANT-16KM_BasalMelt-Rignot2013.nc | 153.4 kB |
ANT-32KM 3 files, 2.0 MB
| ANT-32KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020-heights.nc | 1.8 MB |
| ANT-32KM_BasalMelt-Adusumilli2020.nc | 73.6 kB |
| ANT-32KM_BasalMelt-Rignot2013.nc | 88.6 kB |
Nests and crops
These nests and crops get products of BasalMelt by cropping those of the domain (or crop) that contains them: fetch downloads these and cuts them (see Nests and crops), e.g. julia fesmdata.jl fetch BasalMelt Amery.
| Nest or crop | Cut from | Products |
|---|---|---|
| Amery | Antarctica | 3 |
| Amundsen | Antarctica | 3 |
| FilchnerRonne | Antarctica | 3 |
| PineIsland | Antarctica | 3 |
| Ross | Antarctica | 3 |
| Thwaites | Antarctica | 3 |
| WilkesBasin | Antarctica | 3 |
Figures
Adusumilli2020
Adusumilli2020-heights
Rignot2013
