Lake ice thickness observations for arctic Alaska from 1962 to 2017

Lake ice thickness has been systematically measured in a set of 39 lakes located in seven representative study areas ranging from the coastal plain to the mountains of Alaska's North Slope from 2012 to 2017 as part of the CircumArctic Lake Observation Network (CALON) and the Arctic Lake Ice Systems Science (ALISS) Project. Measurements are made in the late winter (March to May) when lake ice thickness is close to its annual maximum. Average ice thicknesses are reported for study area per year based on average from many lakes and multiple measurements per lake (typically made near the lake center). Maximum ice thickness is estimated based on fitting an ice growth curve based on local air temperature records (and in most cases snow depth and density) to observations. Additional late winter ice thickness data from these same study areas collected by other project is also reported for the period from 1962 to 2011 and estimates of maximum ice thickness made using the same technique. Only lakes with floating ice regimes (i.e. depths greater than maximum ice thickness) are reported in this dataset.