Air-ice-ocean temperature profile recorded in the landfast ice region in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica, derived from Sea Ice Mass Balance Array (SIMBA) from April to November 2021

The data recorded field observations of landfast ice thickness and air–ice–sea temperature outside Zhongshan Station in Prize Bay, East Antarctica. From April 16 to November 7, 2021, an observation station was established by the wintering team at the coastal landfast ice site, about 1 km off Zhongshan Station (69°22′ S, 76°22′ E). A set of Sea Ice Mass Balance Array (SIMBA) was deployed 90 m north from the shore, which contained 240 temperature sensors with 2 cm intervals mounted on the thermistor string. The 4.8 m long SIMBA temperature chains recorded the vertical temperature profiles of air–snow–ice–ocean every 6 hours. The SIMBA had a resolution of ±0.0625℃. The observation site is about 90 m from the shore, and the water depth is about 13 m. Variations in landfast ice thickness can be calculated from differences in air, sea ice, and ocean temperature gradients. The results showed that the sea ice temperature gradient is noticeable, ranging from 0.11℃ to 0.24℃ cm-1. The ocean temperature is stable, close to the freezing point, between -1.7℃ and -1.9℃. The landfast ice was 44 cm thick on the first observation day of 16 April, then continued to freeze from May to mid-October, and reached the maximum thickness of 142 cm on 22 October. The annual mean growth rate was 0.5±0.3 cm d-1, and the maximum daily growth rate was 1.6 cm d-1 on May 10, 2021. The results showed that the SIMBA recorded data has good quality and can be used as a basic data set for sea ice thermodynamic analysis and remote sensing verification.The data is recorded in text format (.txt). The fields include the time and temperature recorded by 240 thermistor sensors.