This database provides access to internal layers digitised from airborne radio-echo sounding (RES) surveys conducted across the Antarctic Ice Sheet by a consortium of the UK Scott Polar Research Institute, US National Science Foundation and the Technical University of Denmark between 1974 and 1979. The internal layers at the time of surveying were only recorded onto film. In 2004 the original film records were scanned into a digital database, and from 2004-2006 ''digitised'' internal layers were retrieved from the new electronic records. The database contains digitised internal layers from the original analogue records, as well as 3-dimensional visualisations of the internal layers overlaid over Antarctic subglacial topography (BEDMAP).

The RES surveys conducted by this SPRI-NSF-TUD consortium took in approximately 400,000 km of flight track across both the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheets. Covering ~70% of the ice sheet overall. The surveys were driven principally by a desire to measure ice thickness, but also captured numerous internal layers existing through most of the depth profile across large swathes of the ice sheet.

Compilation of the database was sponsored by the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, and the data is hosted by NERC/British Antarctic Survey.