Cryosphere Community Datapool & ccdtools: Release Information

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Cryosphere Community Datapool and ccdtools release

:rocket: Release: ccdtools v0.2.1

What can you expect to be able to do with this?

A user should be able to

  • install ccdtools into their own Python environment from PyPI, conda or GitHub.
  • discover, search and load datasets from the Cryosphere Community Datapool (CCD) on NCI Gadi directly from a Python workflow, script or notebook, returning Pandas DataFrames, GeoPandas GeoDataFrames or Xarray Datasets as appropriate.

About the Cryosphere Community Datapool (CCD)

The Cryosphere Community Datapool (CCD) is a joint data sharing and discovery project between ACCESS-NRI and the Cryospheric Sciences Working Group (CSWG). The CCD has been designed as an open-access and freely available cryospheric data resource for the Australian scientific community, and houses a variety of datasets commonly used to parameterise ice sheet models. The CCD is hosted on the NCI Gadi supercomputer within project av17.

Datasets are currently grouped into the following categories:

  • Elevation and geometry — digital elevation models and key geometry attributes, including bed topography/bathymetry, ice surface elevation, ice thickness, and ice/ocean masks.
  • Ice velocity — ice velocity parameters, including surface ice velocities and associated error estimates.
  • Geospatial — geospatial information commonly used to discretise ice sheet models, including ice sheet basin boundaries and grounding line locations.
  • Basal forcing — basal forcing fields, such as geothermal heat flux and ice shelf basal melt datasets.
  • Surface forcing — surface forcing fields, such as temperature and surface mass balance.
  • ISMIP6 simulation — results from ISMIP6 model simulations of Antarctica and Greenland.
  • ISMIP6 forcing — forcing parameters, such as surface mass balance, surface temperature, surface wind speeds and geothermal heat flux.

ccdtools is the open-source Python interface to the CCD, developed by ACCESS-NRI. A full list and description of the available datasets, including their Gadi paths and original sources, is maintained on the ACCESS-Hive Docs CCD page.

:loudspeaker: THIS IS A BETA RELEASE :loudspeaker:

This is a beta release while building the data repository, rolling out features and getting feedback from the community.

More information on release stages are available on the Hive Docs:

Release stages - ACCESS-Hive Docs

Feedback

We welcome feedback from all interested users. This is a chance to improve this proposed new release.

Please provide feedback through relevant channels within Cryosphere > Cryosphere Community DataPool (CCD) community space on this forum.

ACCESS-NRI is interested in all feedback, positive or negative, but in particular we would like to know:

  • Are the instructions clear and easy to follow? Is there anything unclear, missing or incorrect?
  • Are there datasets you use regularly that are missing from the CCD?

Prerequisites

The CCD data is hosted on NCI Gadi. To use it you need to:

How to use

Install from PyPI:

pip install access-ccdtools

or with conda, from the accessnri channel:

conda install accessnri::access_ccdtools

Then, from Python for an example dataset:

# 1. Initialize the catalog
catalog = DataCatalog()

# 2. Browse and search for datasets
results = catalog.search('ice velocity')
catalog  # View interactive catalog

# 3. Load data
data = catalog.load_dataset('dataset_name', version='v1', subdataset='sub1')

Features

:white_check_mark: Unified dataset catalog: a centralised catalog of cryosphere-focused datasets maintained in a flexible YAML configuration.
:white_check_mark: Dataset discovery and search: keyword search across dataset names, display names and descriptive tags (e.g. “antarctica”, “ice velocity”, “ice thickness”), plus an interactive catalog view.
:white_check_mark: Version and subdataset management: support for datasets with multiple versions and hierarchical subdatasets, enabling access to specific data variants and historical version comparisons.
:white_check_mark: Flexible data loaders: CSV, GeoPackage, Shapefile, GeoTIFF and NetCDF handled transparently, returning Pandas DataFrames, GeoPandas GeoDataFrames or Xarray Datasets.
:white_check_mark: Resolution and parameter filtering: for datasets with multiple resolutions or static/annual variants, the correct data subset is filtered and loaded automatically.
:white_check_mark: Available from PyPI and conda, with documentation and tutorials.

Common use cases

  • Model initialisation — quickly access ice sheet model input datasets (topography, velocities, boundaries).
  • Scientific analysis — discover and load multi-source cryosphere datasets for comparative studies.
  • Data discovery — explore available datasets and their properties through keyword search.
  • Version control — access specific dataset versions for reproducibility and validation studies.

Limitations

:stop_sign: The CCD data is hosted on NCI Gadi and is only accessible from Gadi (including ARE). ccdtools does not download or mirror data locally.
:stop_sign: Membership of the av17 and cm45 NCI projects is required.
:stop_sign: ccdtools is under active development. The API may change between releases.

Future developments

:construction: Continued expansion of the CCD dataset catalog in response to community requests.
:construction: Further development of the ccdtools API, loaders and tutorials.
:construction: Contributions from the community to expand both dataset offerings and enhance functionality.

To request a new dataset be added to the CCD, or an update to a currently supported dataset, please create an issue in the ccdtools GitHub repository using the New Dataset Request template. For broader discussions around cryospheric data, please start a thread in the Cryosphere Community Datapool category of the ACCESS-Hive Forum.

Credits (Latest developments only)

:star: Development of ccdtools (@lawrenceabird @mtetley @justinh2002)

:star: Curation and deployment of the Cryosphere Community Datapool (@lawrenceabird @mtetley)

:star: Documentation (@lawrenceabird @mtetley)

:star: Dataset suggestions and testing from the Cryospheric Sciences Working Group

Support

Replies to this topic are disabled.

If you have specific questions about this release please add a topic on this forum and tag with help (more information about support for ACCESS-NRI’s released software).

Resources