IceHistory: paleo ice sheets and topography
Reconstructions of past ice sheets and topography (glacial cycles, Pliocene), remapped onto the grids of the domains and onto global lon-lat grids. IceHistory is a thematic dataset made by remapping (see Gridded data): its products are defined in IceHistory/remap.toml.
Products
| Product | Source | Fields | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|
IceHistory-ICE5G |
Peltier (2004): ICE-5G v1.2, 1°, 21-0 ka, doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.32.082503.144359 | z_topo (topography incl. bathymetry), H_ice, f_ice, on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia, Global |
IceHistory-ICE6G_C |
Peltier et al. (2015), Argus et al. (2014): ICE-6G_C (VM5a), 1°, 26-0 ka, doi:10.1002/2014JB011176 | z_topo, z_srf, dz_topo, H_ice, f_ice, f_land, on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia, Global |
IceHistory-ICE6G_D |
Peltier et al. (2018): ICE-6G_D (VM5a), Antarctica south of 60°S, Gaussian grid about 0.35°, 122.5 ka to 0.25 ka after present, doi:10.1002/2016JB013844 | H_ice, H_ice_grounded, z_topo, on time (years ago) |
Antarctica |
IceHistory-PRISM4 |
Dowsett et al. (2016): PRISM4 (PlioMIP2) boundary conditions, 1°, doi:10.5194/cp-12-1519-2016 | z_topo_enh, z_topo_std, z_topo_mod (enhanced, standard Pliocene, modern), mask_enh, mask_std (0 ocean, 1 land, 2 ice) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia, Global |
IceHistory-Batchelor2019 |
Batchelor et al. (2019): Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet extents, 18 time slices from 3.1 Ma to the LGM, rasterized at 2 km, doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11601-2 | f_ice_best, f_ice_min, f_ice_max (best-estimate, minimum and maximum extents), on time (years ago) |
GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia (grids of 2 km and coarser) |
IceHistory-PaleoMIST |
Gowan et al. (2021): PaleoMIST 1.0, minimal MIS 3 scenario for North America (ice-free Hudson Bay at times), 0.25°, 80-0 ka every 2.5 kyr, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.905800 | z_topo, z_bed, H_ice, dz_sl (sea-level change), f_ice (from the 5 km regional reconstructions), on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia, Global |
IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max |
Gowan et al. (2021): PaleoMIST 1.0, maximal MIS 3 scenario for North America (ice over Hudson Bay throughout MIS 3), 0.25°, 80-0 ka every 2.5 kyr, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.905800 | z_topo, z_bed, H_ice, dz_sl (sea-level change), f_ice (from the 5 km regional reconstructions), on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia, Global |
IceHistory-GLAC1D |
Tarasov et al. (2012), Briggs et al. (2014), Tarasov & Peltier (2002): GLAC-1D for PMIP4, global, 1° x 0.5° (H_ice 0.5° x 0.25°), 26-0 ka every 100 years, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.010 |
z_topo (base of floating ice under ice shelves), z_srf, H_ice, f_ice, on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Eurasia, Global |
IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9927 |
GLAC-1D, North America nn9927 (better fit to the constraints) with Greenland, and Antarctica nn4041, 1° x 0.5°, 120-0 ka (every 1 kyr to 30 ka, then 100 years); no Eurasia | H_ice, H_lake (lake water thickness, North America), on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Global |
IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9894 |
GLAC-1D, North America nn9894 (more ice at the LGM) with Greenland, and Antarctica nn4041, 1° x 0.5°, 120-0 ka; no Eurasia | H_ice, on time (years ago) |
Antarctica, GreenlandPaleo, Greenland, North, Laurentide, Global |
IceHistory-PaleoGrIS |
Leger et al. (2024): PaleoGrIS 1.0 isochrone buffers, 1 km, doi:10.17632/nh57cz4gys.1 | age_deglac (time of deglaciation, years ago, 13-7 ka), age_deglac_err |
GreenlandPaleo, Greenland (grids of 1 km and coarser) |
IceHistory-Margold2015 |
Margold et al. (2015): Laurentide ice streams, rasterized at 1 km, doi:10.1080/17445647.2014.912036, with their activity from Stokes et al. (2016), doi:10.1038/nature16947 | f_stream, f_stream_lgm (streams active at 21.8 ka), age_stream_start, age_stream_end (years ago) |
North, Laurentide |
IceHistory-Batchelor2019_PaleoMIST_LGC |
Batchelor et al. (2019) in the Northern Hemisphere and PaleoMIST 1.0 (Gowan et al., 2021) in the Southern Hemisphere, 0.1°, 80-21 ka (replaces Batchelor2019_ice_masks_lgc.nc of v1, used by CLIMBER-X) |
f_ice_best, f_ice_min, f_ice_max, on time (years ago: 80000, 65000, 45000, 40000, 35000, 30000, 26500, 21000) |
Global |
Each file <GRID>_IceHistory-<Source>.nc also has f_valid, the fraction of each cell covered by the source. Fields are remapped conservatively and, on grids finer than the source, smoothed with a Gaussian of half the source spacing; the masks are remapped as classes (the class covering most of each cell). Ice extents from outlines (Batchelor, Margold) are rasterized as area fractions at 2 km and 1 km, so that remapping gives the fraction of each cell. The global attribute remap_method records what was done on each grid.
Precision
The float fields are rounded on output to a tolerance by kind (see Precision and file sizes): elevations and thicknesses (z_*, dz_*, H_ice*) to 0.01 m; fractions (f_*) to 0.001; ages (age_*) to 3 significant digits. The masks of PRISM4 are exact.
Licences
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| Peltier (2004), ICE-5G | None stated; cite Peltier (2004) |
| Peltier et al. (2015), ICE-6G_C | None stated; cite Peltier et al. (2015) and Argus et al. (2014) |
| Peltier et al. (2018), ICE-6G_D | Supporting information of the article (Wiley terms), assumed to be redistributable; obtained through the isostasy_data archive (Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.11175418); cite also Argus et al. (2014), Peltier et al. (2015) |
| Dowsett et al. (2016), PRISM4 | Public domain (USGS); no licence in the files |
| Batchelor et al. (2019) | No licence stated for the shapefiles (OSF); article CC BY 4.0; cite the article |
| Gowan et al. (2021), PaleoMIST 1.0 | CC BY 4.0 (PANGAEA) |
| Tarasov et al. (2012), GLAC-1D | None stated; cite Tarasov et al. (2012), Briggs et al. (2014), Tarasov & Peltier (2002) and, for the PMIP4 files, Tarasov et al. (2014) and Abe-Ouchi et al. (2013) |
| Leger et al. (2024), PaleoGrIS 1.0 | CC BY 4.0 (Mendeley Data) |
| Margold et al. (2015), with Stokes et al. (2016) | Outlines CC BY 4.0 (figshare); ages from the source data of Stokes et al. (2016), Nature, no open licence stated |
Making the dataset
julia -t 8 fesmdata.jl remap IceHistorySee GHF for making single products and adding a source.
Downloads
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.
Global
Version 2.2.1 (2026-10-16, packages). 40 files, 1.11 GB.
julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory Global # all grids julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory GLOBAL-5DEG # one grid
GLOBAL-0.1DEG 1 files, 3.9 MB
| GLOBAL-0.1DEG_IceHistory-Batchelor2019_PaleoMIST_LGC.nc | 3.9 MB |
GLOBAL-0.25DEG 3 files, 459.5 MB
| GLOBAL-0.25DEG_IceHistory-Batchelor2019_PaleoMIST_LGC.nc | 1.2 MB |
| GLOBAL-0.25DEG_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 229.2 MB |
| GLOBAL-0.25DEG_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 229.1 MB |
GLOBAL-0.5DEG 9 files, 456.5 MB
GLOBAL-1DEG 9 files, 140.9 MB
GLOBAL-2DEG 9 files, 37.7 MB
GLOBAL-5DEG 9 files, 6.9 MB
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-Batchelor2019_PaleoMIST_LGC.nc | 48.5 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-GLAC1D.nc | 3.0 MB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9894.nc | 512.4 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9927.nc | 600.0 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-ICE5G.nc | 295.5 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-ICE6G_C.nc | 919.7 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-PRISM4.nc | 70.2 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 705.8 kB |
| GLOBAL-5DEG_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 703.7 kB |
Antarctica
Version 2.2.1 (2026-10-16, packages). 21 files, 1.14 GB.
julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory Antarctica # all grids julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory ANT-32KM # one grid
ANT-8KM 3 files, 495.1 MB
| ANT-8KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_D.nc | 232.3 MB |
| ANT-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 131.5 MB |
| ANT-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 131.3 MB |
ANT-16KM 9 files, 513.4 MB
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D.nc | 182.1 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9894.nc | 60.6 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9927.nc | 60.9 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-ICE5G.nc | 21.2 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_C.nc | 53.0 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_D.nc | 61.9 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-PRISM4.nc | 852.0 kB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 36.4 MB |
| ANT-16KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 36.4 MB |
ANT-32KM 9 files, 130.2 MB
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D.nc | 46.0 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9894.nc | 16.3 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9927.nc | 16.4 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-ICE5G.nc | 4.4 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_C.nc | 11.6 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_D.nc | 16.5 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-PRISM4.nc | 277.1 kB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 9.4 MB |
| ANT-32KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 9.3 MB |
GreenlandPaleo
Version 2.2.1 (2026-10-16, packages). 29 files, 207.4 MB.
julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory GreenlandPaleo # all grids julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory GRL-PAL-32KM # one grid
GRL-PAL-1KM 1 files, 875.2 kB
| GRL-PAL-1KM_IceHistory-PaleoGrIS.nc | 875.2 kB |
GRL-PAL-2KM 2 files, 4.4 MB
| GRL-PAL-2KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 3.9 MB |
| GRL-PAL-2KM_IceHistory-PaleoGrIS.nc | 416.4 kB |
GRL-PAL-4KM 2 files, 2.5 MB
| GRL-PAL-4KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 2.3 MB |
| GRL-PAL-4KM_IceHistory-PaleoGrIS.nc | 191.0 kB |
GRL-PAL-8KM 4 files, 59.3 MB
| GRL-PAL-8KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 811.4 kB |
| GRL-PAL-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoGrIS.nc | 90.5 kB |
| GRL-PAL-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 29.2 MB |
| GRL-PAL-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 29.1 MB |
GRL-PAL-16KM 10 files, 111.2 MB
GRL-PAL-32KM 10 files, 29.3 MB
North
Version 2.2.1 (2026-10-16, packages). 28 files, 1.66 GB.
julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory North # all grids julia fesmdata.jl fetch IceHistory NH-32KM # one grid
NH-2KM 2 files, 22.9 MB
| NH-2KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 20.8 MB |
| NH-2KM_IceHistory-Margold2015.nc | 2.1 MB |
NH-4KM 2 files, 13.3 MB
| NH-4KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 12.4 MB |
| NH-4KM_IceHistory-Margold2015.nc | 876.3 kB |
NH-8KM 4 files, 561.2 MB
| NH-8KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 4.9 MB |
| NH-8KM_IceHistory-Margold2015.nc | 416.3 kB |
| NH-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 278.0 MB |
| NH-8KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 277.8 MB |
NH-16KM 10 files, 846.8 MB
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 2.2 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D.nc | 400.2 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9894.nc | 61.3 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9927.nc | 73.9 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-ICE5G.nc | 39.4 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_C.nc | 116.4 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-Margold2015.nc | 199.4 kB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-PRISM4.nc | 2.0 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 75.7 MB |
| NH-16KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 75.6 MB |
NH-32KM 10 files, 219.4 MB
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-Batchelor2019.nc | 769.2 kB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D.nc | 101.7 MB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9894.nc | 17.2 MB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-GLAC1D_nn9927.nc | 21.1 MB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-ICE5G.nc | 9.7 MB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-ICE6G_C.nc | 29.5 MB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-Margold2015.nc | 115.6 kB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-PRISM4.nc | 598.5 kB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST.nc | 19.4 MB |
| NH-32KM_IceHistory-PaleoMIST_max.nc | 19.4 MB |
Nests and crops
These nests and crops get products of IceHistory 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 IceHistory Amery.
| Nest or crop | Cut from | Products |
|---|---|---|
| Amery | Antarctica | 9 |
| Amundsen | Antarctica | 9 |
| Eurasia | North | 10 |
| FilchnerRonne | Antarctica | 9 |
| Greenland | GreenlandPaleo | 10 |
| Helheim | GreenlandPaleo | 10 |
| Jakobshavn | GreenlandPaleo | 10 |
| Laurentide | North | 10 |
| NEGIS | GreenlandPaleo | 10 |
| Petermann | GreenlandPaleo | 10 |
| PineIsland | Antarctica | 9 |
| Ross | Antarctica | 9 |
| Thwaites | Antarctica | 9 |
| WilkesBasin | Antarctica | 9 |
Figures
Batchelor2019
Batchelor2019_PaleoMIST_LGC
GLAC1D
GLAC1D_nn9894
GLAC1D_nn9927
ICE5G
ICE6G_C
ICE6G_D
Margold2015
PRISM4
PaleoGrIS
PaleoMIST
PaleoMIST_max
