v3.0.0

v3.0.0 (2023-08-24)

• Switch to .qgz compressed project file.
• Resolve Font "Helvetica" font not available on system warnings.
• Update layer_list.csv to include new column indicating if each layer is
  stored on disk. Internet-required layers take the value False.
• Configure gradient style legends, add new style validations for gradient legends.
• Fix palletted styles.
• Publish versioned Docker images to DockerHub and GHCR for improved reproducibility.

⚠️ Breaking changes

• Minimum supported version of QGIS is now v3.28.
• QGreenland Custom is no longer supported.

Documentation

• Restructured documentation for improved readability.
• Added documentation of QGreenland future plans under next NSF grant.
• Improved recommended citations for QGreenland.

Layers

New

• Add new "Places/Populated places" layer, replacing the "Places/Towns and
  settlements" layer.
• Add new "Internet-required data/Geological Map (1:500 000)" layer from GEUS.
• Add new "Geology/Mineral occurrences" layer from GEUS.
• Add new "Glaciology/Ice sheet velocity" layers:
  • "GrIMP/Annual ice sheet velocity vectors 2021"
  • "GrIMP/Annual ice sheet velocity magnitude 2021 (200m)"
  • "GrIMP/Annual ice sheet velocity x component 2021 (200m)"
  • "GrIMP/Annual ice sheet velocity y component 2021 (200m)"
• Add "Geology/Tectonic plates" polygon layer. This layer accompanies the
  existing "Geology/Tectonic plate boundaries" polyline layer from the same
  dataset.
• Add new WMS layers from the Danish Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure
  (SDFI):
  • "Internet-required data/Topographic map of Greenland"
  • "Internet-required data/Satellite orthophoto mosaic (10-0.2m)"
• Add new "Internet-required data/Blue Marble shaded relief and Bathymetry
  (500m)" WMS layer from NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS)
• Add new "Places/" layers from Asiaq/NunaGIS:
  • Buildings
  • Roads
• Add new "Biology/Vegetation/Vegetation classification map (1km)" layer from
  the Raster Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map produced by Raynolds et al.,
  2019.
• Add new "Oceanography/Seawater salinity (25km)" layers from the World Ocean
  Atlas 2023.

Updated

• Fix descriptions of "Hydrology" outlets and basins layers.
• Move "Hydrology" streams, outlets, and basisns layers from Mankoff
  et al. into "Streams, outlets, and basins" subgroup.
• Rename "Places/Place names database" -> "Places/Points of interest". Towns and
  settlements are now excluded from this layer (in favor of the more-up-to-date
  "Populated places" layer.
• Update the BedMachine dataset ("Terrain models/BedMachine v5") to v5, which was
  released in September 2022.
• Fix title of BedMachine "ice thickness error" layer (remove /)
• Update the geothermal heat flow dataset ("Geophysics/Heat flow (Colgan et
  al.)" layers) to v2.
• Update "Sea ice/Weekly age (12.5km)" layers (2010-2020 -> 2011-2021)
• Update "Sea ice/Monthly mean concentration (25km)" layers (2010-2021 -> 2011-2022)
• Update the "Oceanography/Seawater temperature 2018 (25km)" layers:
  • Use the World Ocean Atlas 2023 Temperature data. These new layers are
    climatological averages between 1991-2020. Previous input data (WOA 2018)
    was an average for the years 1955-2017.
  • Update layer group name to remove "2018" ("Oceanography/Seawater Temperature
    2018 (25km)" -> "Oceanography/Seawater Temperature (25km))"
  • Improve layer descriptions
  • Expand layer extent to QGreenland 'background' boundary.
• Update the "Glaciology/Surface elevation change" layers to the latest version
  (v3) of the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Surface Elevation Change dataset
  from the European Space Agency (ESA). This extends the timeseries to include a
  surface elevation change layer for 2016-2020.
• Rename "Geophysics/World Magnetic Model/Dip poles" layer group ->
  "Geophysics/World Magnetic Model/Geomagnetic north pole"
• Rename "Sea ice/Median extent" layer group -> "Sea ice/Median extent
  (1981-2010)"
• Update "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth (400m)" layer to use the General
  Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Grid 2023, replacing the Bathymetric
  Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) dataset. The GEBCO grid includes the IBCAO
  grid. This update includes the most recent data and expands the spatial extent
  of this layer to the QGreenland background boundary to make it consistent with
  other ocenaography layers.
• Replace "Human Activity/Research sites/" layers related to PROMICE and GC-Net
  ("PROMICE automated weather stations", "Former PROMICE automated weather
  stations", "GC-Net automated weather stations") with one layer ("PROMICE and
  GC-Net automated weather stations") from a more up-to-date dataset provided by
  GEUS.
• Improve symbology for "Regional climate models/RACMO model output/Annual mean
  wind vectors 1958-2019 (5km)" by removing color mapping to magnitude
  values. This was causing conflicts with other layers' color maps.
• Renamed "Geophysics/Heat flux/Heat flow (Colgan et al.)/Flow from multiple
  observations (55km)" to "Gridded heat flow (55km)"

Removed

• Remove "Biology/Fish/Arctic Char" layer.
• Remove Humanitarian Open Street Map (HOTOSM) layers ("Places/Community map
  (crowd-sourced)"). These layers had innaccuracies and missing locations that
  we received feedback on. These layers were not considered usable.
• Remove outdated "Terrain Models/Topographic map (1 to 500,000)" layer from the
  Danish Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure (SDFI). Replaced by above
  mentioned "Internet-required data/Topographic map of Greenland" WMS layer.
• Remove "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth contours" layer. This layer was pulled
  from the "Geological map of the Arctic / Carte gologique de l'Arctique"
  (Harrison et al., 2011) dataset and was provided with the geological data for
  additional context. It was derived from the (IBCAO) grid. Comparing this with
  the current IBCAO and GEBCO grids, these contours seem outdated. They also
  only cover a portion of QGreenland's background extent. Users can produce
  their own custom contour layer from the included "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth
  (400m)" layer using the Processing Toolbox (GDAL -> Raster extraction -> Contour).

v3.0.0alpha4

• QGreenland Custom is no longer supported.
• Remove "Biology/Fish/Arctic Char" layer.
• Add "Geology/Tectonic plates" polygon layer. This layer accompanies the
  existing "Geology/Tectonic plate boundaries" polyline layer from the same
  dataset.
• Fix descriptions of "Hydrology" outlets and basins layers.
• Add new "Places" layers: "Towns" and "Settlements". These layers replace the
  previously removed "Towns and settlements" layer.
• Rename "Places/Place names database" -> "Places/Points of interest". Towns and
  settlements are now excluded from this layer (in favor of the more-up-to-date
  "Towns" and "Settlements" layers.
• Establish a more explicit/readable pattern for defining the order of QGreenland's
  layers and groups in the Layers Panel

v3.0.0alpha3

• Remove Humanitarian Open Street Map (HOTOSM) layers ("Places/Community map
  (crowd-sourced)"). These layers had innaccuracies and missing locations that
  we received feedback on. These layers were not considered usable.
• Update the BedMachine dataset ("Terrain models/BedMachine") to v5, which was
  released in September 2022.
• Update the geothermal heat flow dataset ("Geophysics/Heat flow (Colgan et
  al.)" layers) to v2.
• Update "Sea ice/Weekly age (12.5km)" layers (2010-2020 -> 2011-2021)
• Update "Sea ice/Monthly mean concentration (25km)" layers (2010-2021 -> 2011-2022)
• Update the "Oceanography/Seawater temperature 2018 (25km)" layers:
  • Use the World Ocean Atlas 2023 Temperature data. These new layers are
    climatological averages between 1991-2020. Previous input data (WOA 2018)
    was an average for the years 1955-2017.
  • Update layer group name to remove "2018" ("Oceanography/Seawater Temperature
    2018 (25km)" -> "Oceanography/Seawater Temperature (25km))"
  • Improve layer descriptions
  • Expand layer extent to QGreenland 'background' boundary.
• Add new WMS layers from the Danish Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure
  (SDFI):
  • "Internet-required data/Topographic map of Greenland"
  • "Internet-required data/Satellite orthophoto mosaic (10-0.2m)"
• Remove outdated "Terrain Models/Topographic map (1 to 500,000)" layer from the
  Danish Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure (SDFI). Replaced by above
  mentioned "Internet-required data/Topographic map of Greenland" WMS layer.
• Add new "Internet-required data/Blue Marble shaded relief and Bathymetry
  (500m)" WMS layer from NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS)
• Add new "Places/" layers from Asiaq/NunaGIS:
  • Buildings
  • Roads
• Update the "Glaciology/Surface elevation change" layers to the latest version
  (v3) of the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Surface Elevation Change dataset
  from the European Space Agency (ESA). This extends the timeseries to include a
  surface elevation change layer for 2016-2020.
• Rename "Geophysics/World Magnetic Model/Dip poles" layer group ->
  "Geophysics/World Magnetic Model/Geomagnetic north pole"
• Rename "Sea ice/Median extent" layer group -> "Sea ice/Median extent
  (1981-2010)"
• Update "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth (400m)" layer to use the General
  Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Grid 2023, replacing the Bathymetric
  Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) dataset. The GEBCO grid includes the IBCAO
  grid. This update includes the most recent data and expands the spatial extent
  of this layer to the QGreenland background boundary to make it consistent with
  other ocenaography layers.
• Remove "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth contours" layer. This layer was pulled
  from the "Geological map of the Arctic / Carte gologique de l'Arctique"
  (Harrison et al., 2011) dataset and was provided with the geological data for
  additional context. It was derived from the (IBCAO) grid. Comparing this with
  the current IBCAO and GEBCO grids, these contours seem outdated. They also
  only cover a portion of QGreenland's background extent. Users can produce
  their own custom contour layer from the included
  "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth (400m)" layer using the Processing Toolbox
  (GDAL -> Raster extraction -> Contour).
• Replace "Human Activity/Research sites/" layers related to PROMICE and GC-Net
  ("PROMICE automated weather stations", "Former PROMICE automated weather
  stations", "GC-Net automated weather stations") with one layer ("PROMICE and
  GC-Net automated weather stations") from a more up-to-date dataset provided by
  GEUS.
• Add new "Biology/Vegetation/Vegetation classification map (1km)" layer from
  the Raster Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map produced by Raynolds et al.,
  2019.

v2.0.0

• New layers:
  • "Geophysics/World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map" available in QGreenland Custom (QGIS plugin)
  • "Geophysics/Albedo":
  • July 2018 albedo (1km)
  • July 2019 albedo (1km)
  • "Geophysics/Heat flux/Flow from multiple observations (55km)"
  • "Geophysics/Heat flux/Flow measurement locations"
  • "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth contours"
  • "Geology/Geological map/Ice thickness contours"
  • "Sea ice/Monthly mean concentration (25 km)/September (min monthly extent)/September 2021"
  • "Sea ice/Monthly mean concentration (25 km)/Feb or March (max monthly extent)/March 2021"
• Updated layers:
  • "Earthquakes" updated to include 2021 data
  • "Sea ice / Monthly Mean Concentration (25km) / Feb or March (max monthly extent)" updated to include 2021 data
  • "Reference/Borders/Global coastlines" updated to use GSHHG dataset instead of Natural Earth.
  • "Reference/Latitude lines": Resolve issue with clipping of latitude reference layers
  • "Basemaps/Background (500m)": Use JPEG compression to significantly reduce file size
  • Remove "Monthly sea ice extent (1978 - present)" (time-series, online-only).
  • Convert RACMO promice mask layers to Byte data type.
  • Update Bedmachine dataset metadata to reflect new v4 data.
  • Convert "Likely basal thermal state June 23 1993 - April 26 2013 (5km)" layer to Int16 data type.
  • "Regional climate models/RACMO model output/Runoff 1958-2019 (1km)": change colormap, make 0 values transarent.
  • "Reference/Timezones": add labels.
  • "Reference/Borders/Greenland coastlines": update style to remove green tint.
  • "Geology/Earthquakes M above 2.5 1900-2020": show all earthquakes in background boundary instead of subsetting to region around Greenland.
  • "Reference/Longitude lines": display positive degrees West instead of negative.
  • "Hydrology/Inventory of marginal lakes"
  • "Monthly sea ice extent (1978 - present)" (time-series, online-only)
  • "Glaciology/Glacier terminus positions 2000-2021" layers to use NSIDC-0642 V2 (released Oct. 2021). Add layers for 2017-2021 winter seasons.
• Moved layers:
  • "Geophysics/Geothermal heat flux (5km)" layer to "Geophysics/Heat flux/Flux from ice cores (Greve, R.) (5km)".
  • "Oceanography/Bathymetric chart of the Arctic Ocean (400m)" layer to "Oceanography/Bathymetry/Depth (400m)"
  • "Human activity/Research stations" group to "Human activity/Research sites"
  • REMOVED from QGreenland zip package; available via QGreenland plugin:
  • "Glaciology/Ice sheet velocity/ITS_LIVE"
  • "Terrain models/Arctic DEM"
• Remove online layers from the QGreenland Custom QGIS plugin manifest. Once support for online layers is added to the plugin, online layers will be re-added to the manifest file.
• Add metadata.txt with layer information to layer data directory. This allows users who are not using the QGreenland project to access e.g., the layer's abstract and citation information.
• Upgrade GDAL version used for running layer pipelines to v3.4.0
• Update .txt documentation in the package (e.g. README.txt) to rich HTML documentation.
• Remove most WMM layers from core package. Retain dip poles, main field declination, and blackout zones layers.
• Improve raster compression.
• Add scalebar to map viewport in lower-right corner.
• BREAKING: minimum supported version of QGIS is now v3.16.
• New Time Controller allows visualization of time-series layers.
• Overhaul YAML configuration to Python configuration.
• All processing steps are now expressed in configuration.
• Add provenance information to QGIS Layer Properties "History" tab.
• Update and improve documentation for v2.0.0
• Remove UserGuide.pdf and MakingDataQGRCompatible.pdf in core zip package, information in these documents is now represented in UserGuide.pdf
• Switch back to .qgs project file from .qgz; There is qgis/QGIS#42033 conveniently opening .qgz project files in OSX for some versions of QGIS 3.16.x.

v1.0.2

Sea ice median extent and age layer titles and groups have been updated to be more descriptive, correctly reflect date ranges for each layer, and replace incorrectly selected data. For full details, see CHANGELOG.

v1.0.1

• Remove STYLE.txt from zip package.
• Fix README mistakes

v1.0.0

• Enable Greenland coastline layer by default, add semitransparent fill.
• Avoid use of special characters in layer titles for Windows compatibility.
• Update PDF documentation, add compatibility guide.
• Remove layers due to inaccurate data:
  • All layers in Biology/Mammals group
• Update various layer styles.
• Fix various issues in layer/dataset metadata.
• Add notes about data issues to abstracts for various datasets.

v1.0.0 Release Candidate 2

• Fixed mistake in raster processing code that resulted in GDAL unnecessarily
  requesting ~22GB of diskspace for reprojection.

v1.0.0 Release Candidate 1

• Add styles for World Magnetic Model layers.
• Fix descriptions for World Magnetic Model layers.
• Increase coverage of Arctic Char and Vegetation Biomass.
• Fix pixel sizes for some rasters.
• Add User Guide and Quick Start Guide pdfs to built package.

v0.55.0

v0.55.0 (2021-02-09)

• Update RACMO data:
• New version of the Annual mean temperature at 2m 1958-2019 (1km) layer that
  fixes bad temperature values.
• Apply style enhancements to many layers.