Coastal change data for the Antarctic Peninsula region, 1843 to 2008

The dataset records ice coast and ice shelf front positions and hence change for the period 1843 to 2008. Archival maps, aerial photographs and satellite images of the Antarctic Peninsula were used to reveal the past shape of the ice coastline. The coastlines were mapped in a GIS (ESRI Arc/Info) using a mosaic of Landsat TM imagery as a common reference. Over 2000 aerial photographs and over 100 satellite images were used to compile the dataset that includes the fronts of 244 glaciers and 20 ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula. As the coastlines were digitised on-screen, metadata for each coast segment were added to the attribute table. The dataset is part of a wider project by the U.S. Geological Survey to record coastal-change for the whole continent.