A New Resource for Arctic Freshwater Science: The AISIT δ18O Database

AISIT (AI for Stable Isotope Tracers) is an interdisciplinary programme involving scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the National Oceanographic Centre to harmonise δ18O freshwater tracer data, creating a standardised, machine-readable database of pan-Arctic δ18O and related environmental data. 

δ18O is an invaluable isotope tracer which can be used to understand whether Arctic oceanic water originated from glaciers, sea ice, rivers and precipitation or Pacific water inflow.

Over the last year we have curated 99 pan-Arctic δ18O datasets to create the most comprehensive single δ18O database to date. We believe this dataset could be used to train machine-learning models that predict δ18O values across the Arctic ocean and could be used to understand how warming in the Arctic is leading to a change in freshwater distribution in the region. 

A map of data points in the AISIT database

Seasonal distribution of data in the AISIT database

If this dataset sounds of interest to you, it can be accessed here. The team are also hosting a competition (showcased at the NERC Digital Gathering 2026) where you can win exclusive BAS merch by submitting a Jupyter notebook in which you analyse the data to answer a scientific question. Enter the competition here by 30th October 2026.

The current database is currently in paper review. The team is hoping to expand the dataset in the future. If you have any data you would like to contribute, please contact the project team.

Prizes on offer for winners of the AISIT Hackathon Competition.