Report on BEDMAP to 6 July 1998
The BEDMAP programme was conceived prior to the XXIV meeting of SCAR in Cambridge 1996. At that meeting an outline of the programme was presented to the working groups on Glaciology and Geodesy and Geographic Information, it was well received and supported by both groups. The working group on Glaciology confirmed this in the recommendation (Glac-XXIV-2).
On 21 & 22nd of October 1996, a working group of 21 scientists from eight countries met in the Arundel House Hotel, Cambridge, UK, under the joint sponsorship of the European Ice Sheet Modelling Initiative (EISMINT) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). They met to consider the desirability and feasibility of pursuing the BEDMAP proposal. The workshop achieved consensus on the following points which appeared in the meeting report.
! Adequate topographic data is of fundamental importance to many scientific disciplines active in Antarctica, including, ice sheet modelling, geoid interpretation, magnetic anomaly mapping, tectonic interpretation, ice core interpretation, oceanography, global isostasy and sea level prediction
!
An outstanding step forward for Antarctic science would be achieved in many disciplines of Antarctic science by the production of a new topographic model for Antarctica!
At present this can only be achieved by bringing together existing data from researchers across the world!
We will endeavour to compile such a database of ice thickness measurements and then this will be compiled to give a variety of digital and map products of value to scientists!
The work will be done under the banner of BEDMAP within the SCAR/GLOCHANT framework. All nations and researchers with appropriate data to contribute will be encouraged to join the BEDMAP Consortium!
The products of the BEDMAP project will be published jointly by the BEDMAP Consortium giving due acknowledgement to all participants, with copyright residing with SCAR.At the Symposium on Antarctica and Global Change in Hobart 1997, I presented a poster on behalf of the BEDMAP Consortium showing the geographic distribution of airborne and oversnow traverses that have measured ice thickness data in Antarctica. This was intended to show the advances that could be made through the BEDMAP programme.
Since that time BEDMAP has not progressed as fast as we may have hoped. This was largely due to other pressures on my time. I have now, however, secured funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council to support a BEDMAP Database Manager. This is a one-year full-time post which Matt Lythe (formerly of ICAIR, New Zealand) has accepted as from 6/7/98. With a dedicated researcher now working on the programme I am confident that considerable progress will be made in the near future.
David Vaughan
British Antarctic Survey
Cambridge