Geophysical observations of the subglacial environment provide essential topographic data to ice-sheet models, from which predictions are made of how the Greenland and Antarctic polar ice masses will decrease under continued fossil fuel burning and contribute significantly to global sea level rise.For Antarctica, the most recent database, Bedmap3, is a digital representation of topographic data gathered by numerous organizations and countries over 60 years, with a variety of resolutions, systems and survey orientations.The result is an excellent gathering of complex data, but also a product that is not optimised for use in ice-sheet modelling.Furthermore, geophysical data that make up Bedmap3 include a wealth of information relevant to Antarctic ice flow, such as bed roughness, geotechnical properties of the bed, presence of basal water and/or sediment, internal layers and basal ice units that have not been gathered at a continental scale.As a consequence, Antarctic ice-sheet modelling is not as capable as it might be.The same is similarly true for Greenland.Around 80 scientists gathered in Edinburgh on 6-7 May 2025 for a Royal Society Theo Murphy Discussion Meeting to consider how ice-sheet geophysical data can be better collected and used for the ultimate purpose of predicting global sea level, through improved ice-sheet modelling.The discussions were wide ranging.They included how we should best: (i) improve radar systems, including new swath approaches; (ii) consider the needs of ice-sheet modelling when designing surveys; (iii) orient surveys so that data can be adopted efficiently into models; (iv) build data intensity and resolution
Siegert et al. (Thu,) studied this question.