Gravity, magnetic and radar data were acquired during a joint UK-Argentina (BAS/IAA) project, during the austral summer 1998-1999. 10,771 line km of data were acquired using a BAS Twin Otter, covering an area of 21,000 km2 that comprises the James Ross Island archipelago and the NW corner of the Weddell Sea. Gravity and magnetic data were simultaneously acquired at a constant barometric height of 2000 m, providing a terrain clearance of approximately 100 m over the highest peaks. The main flight lines were flown along an E-W direction with 2000 m spacing over James Ross Island and at 4000 m interval offshore. Tie lines, oriented meridionally, were spaced 10,000 m and extended beyond the magnetic survey to provide a regional context to the survey area as required also for airborne gravity data analysis. Magnetic data were acquired at a frequency of 10 Hz using vapour cesium magnetometers mounted on the aircraft wing tips, and resampled to 1 Hz after compensation for manoeuvre noise. A triaxial fluxgate magnetometer was mounted close to the tail of the aircraft, providing magnetic attitude information used in the data compensation. However, gravity acquisition defines that turbulent conditions are avoided and so manoeuvre noise is generally minimal. Ashtech Z12 duel frequency GPS receivers were used for survey navigation and for post-processing of the GPS data. Magnetic data were de-spiked to remove avionics noise and then smoothed (- 300 m low pass filter), before re-sampling from 10 to 1 Hz. The data were first corrected for diurnal variations using low-pass filtered base station data (30 min low-pass filter). For the internal field we used the Definitive Geomagnetic Reference Field Model 1995. The final data processing step was network levelling and microlevelling (Ferraccioli et al., 1998). We present here the processed line aeromagnetic data collected using scintrex cesium magnetometers mounted on the BAS aerogeophysical equipped Twin Otter. Data are provided as XYZ ASCII line data.

Airborne gravity data were collected using a Zero Length Spring Corporation (ZLS)-modified LaCoste and Romberg model S air-sea gravimeter. The meter was mounted in a gyro-stabilised, shock mounted platform at the centre of mass of the aircraft to minimise the effect of vibrations and rotational motions. GPS data were recorded with an Ashtech Z12 dual frequency receiver in the aircraft and at a fixed base station. Differential, carrier phase, kinematic GPS methods were then used to calculate all the navigational information used for the dynamic corrections of the aerogravity data. Standard processing steps were taken to convert the raw gravity data to free air anomalies, including latitude, free air and Eotvos corrections. The vertical accelerations of the aircraft, which dominate the gravity signal recorded by the meter, were calculated by double differencing GPS height measurements. In addition, a correction was made for gravimeter reading errors caused by the platform tilting when it was subjected to horizontal accelerations (Swain, 1996). After making the above corrections, the data were low pass filtered for wavelengths less than 9 km to remove short wavelength noise from the geological signal. The data were continued to a common altitude of 2050 m and levelled. Cross-over analysis at 118 intersections yielded a standard deviation of 2.9 mGal, which is within the 1-5 mGal error range typically reported for airborne gravity surveys after levelling. Comparison between airborne measurements and previous land-based gravity data (Garrett, 1990), yielded an RMS difference of ~4.5 mGal, which is within the 2 sigma range for airborne gravity data accuracy.

ADMAP2 is the second generation Antarctic magnetic compilation for the region south of 60 deg S. This dataset includes 3.5 million line-km of aeromagnetic and marine magnetic data from multiple nations, which is more than double that in the original ADMAP compilation. For the new compilation, the magnetic data sets were corrected for the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, diurnal effects, and high-frequency errors and levelled, gridded, and stitched together. The new dataset provides an unprecedented view of the sub-surface geological structure of Antarctica. It represents a major milestone of the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly (ADMAP) Project. Funding was provided by the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI). Grant Numbers: PM15040, PE17050.