Tracks of icebergs, such as ‘Berghaus’, pictured here in Lancaster Sound in July 2011 are available in the IBTD. (Jean-Jacques Pangrazi)

The Iceberg Beacon Track Database is a collection of 224 iceberg drift tracks with a total of 719,045 positions from the Arctic and (North) Atlantic oceans. Each track is accompanied by metadata that describes the iceberg shape, dimensions (m), beacon model, and other ancillary information that can be used in research related to iceberg drift climatology, developing and validating drift models, and
validating remote sensing iceberg detection algorithms. The beacon tracks were collected by 12 academic, industry, and government research groups from 1997 to 2025. They all include timestamps (UTC) and position data (latitude and longitude: dd.dddd°), and may include temperature (K), barometric pressure (Pa), heading, pitch, and roll (degrees). All beacon tracks have been processed and consolidated into the same framework, and are available in geospatial formats for mapping and analysis. Although the current data extent is largely within Canadian waters, we consider all drift tracks of Northern Hemisphere icebergs and related features (ice islands, bergy bits, and other fragments) to be within the scope of this collection. We encourage those who have beacon tracks to submit them for inclusion into subsequent versions of the Iceberg Beacon Track Database.

The database is available for download here: 

Garbo A, Rajewicz J, Mueller D, Tivy A, Copland L, Turnbull I, Desjardins L, Barber D, Peterson I, Prinsenberg S, Dalton A, Briggs R, Crawford A, Lamontagne P, Roth, JC, King T, Hicks M, Spring W, Conner S, Hill C. (2025) Iceberg Beacon Track Database (IBTD) [version 1.0]. Canadian Cryospheric Information Network. https://doi.org/10.21963/13340

For more information about the database, please consult: 

Mueller D, Rajewicz, J, Garbo A, Tivy A (2025) Iceberg Beacon Track Database (IBTD) [version 1.0] Documentation. Water and Ice Research Lab, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. https://doi.org/10.22215/wirl/2025.1

Support:

This project was undertaken with the financial support of  the Program on Energy Research and Development (PERD), a federal program managed by National Resources Canada, through funding to the Canadian Ice Service (Adrienne Tivy), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Derek Mueller) and the National Research Council of Canada (Philippe Lamontagne).