Explore Antarctica and Greenland like never before.
The tour takes about six minutes, on a phone or a computer. Not sure which to choose? Compare the two editions.
3D ICE turns state-of-the-art Antarctic and Greenland datasets into a 3D world you can explore in your browser, from the bedrock hidden under kilometres of ice to the ocean currents around it. It comes in two editions: a public edition with a guided tour, and a research edition with every dataset and layer.
Editions
Two ways to explore
Both editions run the same explorer on the same data. Start with the public edition if you are new to the ice sheets, and open the research edition when you need every dataset and layer.
For everyone
Public edition
A guided first look at the ice sheets, with the science explained as you go.
- A nine-stop guided tour, from the ice continent to the land hidden beneath it, the Southern Ocean, Antarctica's future and Greenland
- A plain-language note beside every layer, citing the data it draws on
- Ice flow, ocean currents, sea level, Antarctica's future to 2300, and the land that rises once the ice is gone
- Made for phones, tablets, classrooms and outreach stands
For researchers
Research edition
Every dataset, resolution and layer, with the sources behind them.
- Bed topography from BedMachine and Bedmap3 in Antarctica, and from BedMachine and QRF in Greenland, each at two resolutions
- Ice velocity, basal friction and ocean currents in four depth bands, for both ice sheets
- In Antarctica, subglacial effective pressure and channels and, on the BedMachine terrain, ice-shelf basal melt and thermal driving
- Antarctica's future to 2300 under three ISMIP6 scenarios: the mean of eight ice-sheet models, with their sea-level range
- The ice-free rebound from the published Paxman et al. (2022) response, with idealised ELRA and Airy models for comparison
- A data snapshot that links the datasets in view to their sources, and an along-flow profile of the ice surface, ice base and bed for any flowline you click
Compare the two editions
| Feature | Public edition | Research edition |
|---|---|---|
| Guided tour and layer explainers | Yes | No |
| Bed topography | BedMachine, one resolution per region | BedMachine, Bedmap3 (Antarctica) and QRF (Greenland), two resolutions each |
| Ice flow | Animated flowlines coloured by speed | Flowlines, the surface velocity field and flowline profiles |
| Ocean currents | One layer, all depths together | Four depth bands, each on its own |
| Basal friction, subglacial water and ice-shelf melt | No | Yes; subglacial water and ice-shelf melt in Antarctica only |
| Antarctica's future (ISMIP6, to 2300) | Three scenarios, coloured by thickness change | The same, or coloured by grounded and floating ice, with method and models in the data snapshot |
| Ice-free rebound | The published Paxman et al. (2022) response | The published response, plus idealised ELRA and Airy models with an adjustable sea-level datum |
| Place search, names and research stations | Yes | Yes, plus drainage basins |
| Sources | Cited in the layer explainers | A data snapshot linking the datasets in view to their sources |
| Best on | Phones, tablets and computers | Computers with a larger screen |
Antarctica
Discover Key Features of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
A vast, frozen desert at the bottom of the Earth, Antarctica holds 90% of the world’s ice and hides a dynamic, hidden landscape of subglacial lakes and rivers that shape our future coastlines.
Antarctic ice velocity and flowlines
Watch how fast-flowing ice streams and drainage patterns connect the deep continental interior to outlet glaciers and massive ice shelves across Antarctica.
Or open it in the research edition, with the velocity field.
Basin boundaries
Visualize distinct catchment outlines to see exactly how the ice sheet is partitioned, highlighting why regional ice loss must be interpreted within its specific basin context.
Subglacial features
Reveal the hidden world: modelled effective pressure and subglacial channels beneath kilometres of ice.
Ocean circulations
Dive into the annual-mean circulation of the Southern Ocean, from the open sea into the cavities beneath the Antarctic ice shelves.
Or open it in the research edition, with a switch for each depth band.
Greenland
Seamlessly Transition to Greenland in One Unified 3D Environment
Serving as the Arctic’s climate sentinel, the Greenland Ice Sheet is a rapidly transforming giant whose accelerating melt directly drives global sea-level rise and influences ocean circulation.
Greenland ice velocity and flowlines
Focus on a complex network of outlet glaciers and fast-flow structures, visualizing how ice is swiftly routed from high-altitude interior catchments down to the coast.
Or open it in the research edition, with the velocity field.
Ocean circulations
Examine the ocean currents on Greenland’s continental shelf and offshore that carry heat towards its marine-terminating glaciers.
Or open it in the research edition, with a switch for each depth band.
Latest Updates
What’s new in 3D ICE
Follow the newest ways to explore polar data, with each release dated so you can quickly see what changed.
See Antarctica's ice to 2300
A year slider plays the Antarctic ice sheet from 2015 to 2300 under low emissions, high emissions, and high emissions with ice-shelf collapse. Each map is the mean change of eight ISMIP6 ice-sheet models (Seroussi et al., 2024), applied to today's ice, with the models' contribution to sea level and its range.
- Scenarios: UKESM1-0-LL climate forcing under SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5, and SSP5-8.5 with ice shelves that break up as their surfaces melt.
- Flowlines: The ice-flow lines ride on the projected surface and speed up where the models' glaciers do.
- Tour: A new stop plays the high-emission future in fifteen seconds.
Meet the public edition, with a guided tour
3D ICE now comes in two editions. The new public edition keeps the core of the explorer for visitors, classrooms and outreach stands, and explains the science as you go, in English and Chinese. The research edition keeps every dataset and layer at its usual address.
- Tour: Nine stops take you from the ice continent to the bedrock beneath it, the Southern Ocean, Antarctica's future and Greenland.
- Explainers: Open the (i) beside any layer to read, in plain language, what it shows and the data it draws on.
- Remove the ice: Watch the ice melt away and the land beneath it rise, over three seconds.
Watch the bed rebound once the ice is gone
A new isostatic-rebound layer shows how far the solid Earth springs back once the present ice load is removed, so you can see which bed that sits below sea level today would rise above it, in both Antarctica and Greenland.
- Scenario: Scrub Deglaciation & rebound from today through to full equilibrium.
- Earth response: The published response of Paxman et al. (2022) by default, with regional flexure and local Airy isostasy as idealised what-ifs.
- Emergence: Highlight newly emergent land and read the uplift, area and sea-level-equivalent figures alongside the model assumptions.
Find polar places and geographic features
The Antarctica and Greenland explorer now brings research stations, curated geographic names, and refined basins into one searchable experience.
- Layers: Choose the Places & Geographic Features layers you want to see.
- Search: Find places and features by name, including refined basins.
- Focus: Jump between Antarctica and Greenland and move directly to a result.
Key Features
What makes 3D ICE different
Real 3D, right in your browser
Rotate, zoom and tilt the ice sheets, make the ice see-through and exaggerate the relief, as if you were holding a physical model. There is nothing to install: any browser with WebGL will do.
Traceable to its sources
Every layer is drawn from a published dataset, model or preprint and names its source, so what you see can be traced back to the original product.
Both ice sheets in one place
Switch between Antarctica and Greenland in one environment, with the same controls and the same core layers for each: land, ice, ocean and the rebound once the ice is gone. Subglacial water, ice-shelf melt and the projections to 2300 are for Antarctica only.
Smooth on phones, sharp on large screens
Balanced terrain keeps phones and tablets smooth. For a large desktop screen, the research edition’s HD terrain (4 km in Antarctica, 1 km in Greenland) shows much finer detail.
Source Data
The datasets behind 3D ICE
Every layer comes from a published dataset, model or preprint. The research edition’s data snapshot links the datasets in view to their sources, and the public edition’s layer explainers cite the data they draw on. The code of 3D ICE, and the scripts that prepare the data packages, are open source under the MIT License on GitHub; the data themselves stay under their producers’ licences and terms, listed in DATA_LICENSES.md.
Antarctica
- MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 4
- Bedmap3 Antarctica, Version 1.0
- MEaSUREs Antarctic Boundaries for IPY 2007-2009 from Satellite Radar, Version 2
- MEaSUREs Phase-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map, Version 1
- Antarctic Ice Sheet Ensemble Friction Inversion (AISEFI): Basal Shear Stress with Uncertainties (Jager, 2026)
- Insights from an Ensemble Inverse Method to Quantify Basal Friction Uncertainties for Ice-Sheet Models, Part 2: Antarctic Ice Sheet (Jager et al., 2026, preprint)
- Data for: Antarctic Wide Subglacial Hydrology Modeling (Ehrenfeucht, 2024)
- Antarctic Wide Subglacial Hydrology Modeling (Ehrenfeucht et al., 2025)
- WAOM2 Annual-Mean Antarctic Ocean Circulation Fields
- Multi-Model Estimate of Antarctic Ice-Shelf Basal Melting and Ocean Drivers: Data (Galton-Fenzi, 2025)
- Multi-Model Estimate of Antarctic Ice-Shelf Basal Mass Budget and Ocean Drivers (Galton-Fenzi et al., 2025)
- Grid Files of the Total Isostatic Response to the Complete Unloading of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, Version 3 (Paxman, Austermann & Hollyday, 2026)
- Total Isostatic Response to the Complete Unloading of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets (Paxman, Austermann & Hollyday, 2022)
- ISMIP6 23rd Century Projections, Antarctica to 2300 (Nowicki & ISMIP6 Team, 2024; Seroussi et al., 2024)
- Antarctic Ice Sheet Surface Elevation Change from Multi-Mission Radar Altimetry, Version 1.0 (CPOM, 2026; ESA ERS-2, Envisat and CryoSat-2 data)
- Trends in Antarctic Ice Sheet Elevation and Mass (Shepherd et al., 2019)
- NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 6 (Meier et al., 2026)
- A Comparison of Different Ways of Dealing with Isostasy: Examples from Modelling the Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Cycle (Le Meur & Huybrechts, 1996)
- COMNAP Antarctic Facilities List (COMNAP 2025; educational and non-commercial use)
- SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
- Natural Earth Physical Labels
- NOAA NCEI Paleoclimatology Ice-Core Archive
- Global Ice Drilling and Archive Location Data for Select Ice Cores (Davidge, Brooks & Mah, 2022)
Greenland
- IceBridge BedMachine Greenland, Version 6
- QRF Greenland Subglacial Topography (2025)
- Glacier Catchments/Basins for the Greenland Ice Sheet (Mouginot & Rignot, 2019)
- ITS_LIVE V02.1 Summary Velocity Mosaic, 2014–2024 (NASA MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE)
- MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE Regional Glacier and Ice Sheet Surface Velocities, Version 2 (Gardner et al., 2025)
- auto-RIFT: Increased West Antarctic and Unchanged East Antarctic Ice Discharge over the Last 7 Years (Gardner et al., 2018)
- Greenland Ice Sheet Ensemble Friction Inversion (GrISEFI): Basal Shear Stress with Uncertainties (Jager, 2026)
- Insights from an Ensemble Inverse Method to Quantify Basal Friction Uncertainties for Ice-Sheet Models, Part 1: Greenland Ice Sheet (Jager et al., 2026, preprint)
- Arctic Ocean Physics Analysis and Forecast, generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information
- NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 6 (Meier et al., 2026)
- Grid Files of the Total Isostatic Response to the Complete Unloading of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, Version 3 (Paxman, Austermann & Hollyday, 2026)
- Total Isostatic Response to the Complete Unloading of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets (Paxman, Austermann & Hollyday, 2022)
- A Comparison of Different Ways of Dealing with Isostasy: Examples from Modelling the Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Cycle (Le Meur & Huybrechts, 1996)
- INTERACT Research-Station Directory
- Greenland Place Names Register (NunaGIS)
- IHO-IOC GEBCO Gazetteer of Undersea Feature Names
- Natural Earth Physical Labels
- NOAA NCEI Paleoclimatology Ice-Core Archive
- Global Ice Drilling and Archive Location Data for Select Ice Cores (Davidge, Brooks & Mah, 2022)
Community
Let’s Build the Ultimate Cryosphere Hub Together
3D ICE is continually evolving, and I’d love to hear feedback from the glaciology community to help me improve it further.
- Have data to share? If you have Antarctic or Greenland datasets you’d like me to integrate into 3D ICE, please reach out.
- Spread the word: If you find this tool useful for your research, teaching, or outreach, please feel free to share it with your network.
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