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LIVIST User Manual

Version: 1.0
Platform: CryoStack
Last Updated: July 2026

1. Introduction

What is LIVIST?

LIVIST (Living Ice Sheet Temperature) is an interactive web application for visualizing and exploring Antarctic ice-sheet temperature products derived from radar observations and constrained by borehole measurements.

The application enables researchers, educators, and students to explore Antarctic englacial temperature fields directly within a web browser without requiring specialized software installation.

LIVIST is fully integrated into the CryoStack platform and combines multiple datasets into an interactive environment that supports scientific exploration, data visualization, and access to published temperature products.

Open LIVIST at

https://cryostack.eas.gatech.edu/livist/

2. Getting Started

No software installation is required.

Simply open

https://cryostack.eas.gatech.edu/livist/

The application automatically loads the Antarctic map together with the available datasets and interactive controls.

A typical workflow consists of

  1. Opening LIVIST.
  2. Selecting a temperature product.
  3. Navigating to a region of interest.
  4. Displaying borehole observations.
  5. Exploring Antarctic drainage basins.
  6. Downloading supporting datasets if desired.
  7. Performing additional analyses using the LIVIST Python package.

3. Application Interface

The LIVIST interface consists of three primary components.

The top navigation bar provides quick access to the major application resources.

Menu Description
LIVIST Returns to the main interactive map.
User Manual Opens this documentation.
Python Package Documentation Technical API documentation for developers and Python users.
Data Repository Opens the published datasets hosted on Source Cooperative.

Interactive Antarctic Map

The central map provides the primary visualization environment.

Users can

  • zoom
  • pan
  • inspect datasets
  • compare products
  • investigate borehole locations
  • identify Antarctic place names
  • explore drainage basins

Standard mouse and touch controls are supported.

Map Controls

Depending on the selected dataset, the control panel allows users to

  • select available temperature products
  • enable or disable geographic layers
  • display borehole observations
  • inspect map information
  • explore supporting datasets

4. Exploring Temperature Products

LIVIST visualizes Antarctic ice-sheet temperatures inferred from radar observations together with supporting geophysical constraints.

Available products are described through

temperature-sources.json

These products may differ in

  • observational source
  • processing methodology
  • spatial resolution
  • geographic coverage
  • inference technique
  • uncertainty

Users should consult the associated metadata before comparing different products.

5. Borehole Observations

Borehole measurements provide direct observations of subsurface ice temperatures.

These observations serve as important constraints for evaluating radar-derived temperature products.

Borehole metadata are loaded from

boreholes.json

Depending on the site, available information may include

  • borehole name
  • latitude
  • longitude
  • temperature profile
  • measurement depth
  • source publication

Because boreholes represent point measurements, they should not be interpreted as continuous temperature fields.

6. Antarctic Drainage Basins

Drainage-basin boundaries provide geographic context for interpreting regional temperature variations.

These boundaries are loaded from

basins.json

They allow users to

  • identify Antarctic drainage systems
  • compare neighboring regions
  • interpret large-scale spatial temperature patterns

7. Place Names and Basemap

LIVIST includes supporting geographic layers for orientation.

These include

place-names.json
quantartica-simple-basemap.json

These datasets provide

  • Antarctic place names
  • coastlines
  • geographic reference information
  • simplified basemap layers

8. Data Repository

All published LIVIST datasets are hosted on Source Cooperative.

https://source.coop/englacial/ice-sheet-temperature

The repository provides access to

  • published datasets
  • metadata
  • downloadable files
  • supporting documentation

The CryoStack application reads these published products for visualization.

9. Python Package

LIVIST also provides a Python package for scientific workflows.

Major modules include

livist.borehole
livist.client
livist.config
livist.temperature

Typical applications include

  • loading borehole observations
  • accessing temperature products
  • downloading datasets
  • integrating LIVIST into Python workflows

Complete API documentation is available through

Python Package Documentation

10. Typical Workflow

A common scientific workflow is

Open LIVIST
        ↓
Select Temperature Product
        ↓
Navigate Antarctica
        ↓
Enable Borehole Layer
        ↓
Inspect Temperature Patterns
        ↓
Compare Products
        ↓
Download Data
        ↓
Analyze Using Python

11. Interpreting Results

Radar-derived temperature products represent inferred temperature estimates.

When interpreting results, users should consider

  • radar acquisition method
  • processing methodology
  • spatial resolution
  • uncertainty
  • borehole constraints
  • geographic coverage
  • data gaps

Comparisons between products should always account for differences in processing methodology.

12. Developer Guide

Frontend

The LIVIST web interface is implemented using

  • React
  • TypeScript
  • Chakra UI
  • deck.gl
  • Vite

To build the frontend

cd frontend
yarn install
yarn build

The production build is written to

frontend/dist/

CryoStack serves the application under

/livist/

Documentation

Documentation is generated using Zensical.

Build the documentation with

uv run zensical build

The generated documentation is written to

site/

CryoStack serves the documentation from

/livist/docs/

Generating Products

To regenerate all published products

scripts/generate

Required software includes

  • GDAL (with Parquet support)
  • Tippecanoe

A custom GDAL installation may be specified using

GDAL=/path/to/gdal scripts/generate

Uploading Products

Project maintainers can upload products using

scripts/upload

Uploading requires

  • AWS CLI
  • Source Cooperative credentials
  • write access to the repository

Adding New Data Sources

Temperature and attenuation products are configured in

config.toml

After adding a new source

scripts/generate
scripts/upload

should be executed.

Testing

Run the unit tests

uv run pytest

Run project checks

scripts/check

13. Troubleshooting

The map does not appear

Rebuild the frontend

cd frontend
yarn build

Confirm

frontend/dist/index.html

exists.

Documentation is missing

Rebuild

uv run zensical build

Confirm

site/index.html

exists.

Changes are not visible

Rebuild

cd frontend
yarn build

cd ..
uv run zensical build

Restart CryoStack

~/CryoLauncher/reboot_gui.sh

Finally, refresh your browser.

14. Support

For scientific questions regarding LIVIST, datasets, or Antarctic temperature products, contact

Eliza Dawson
Georgia Institute of Technology

📧 edawson31@gatech.edu

When reporting an issue, please include

  • a description of the problem,
  • screenshots if available,
  • your browser,
  • your operating system,
  • and any error messages.

For CryoStack deployment or integration issues, please use the CryoLauncher GitHub repository issue tracker.

15. Source Code

CryoStack

https://github.com/ICESEE-project/CryoLauncher

LIVIST

https://github.com/ICESEE-project/living-ice-sheet-temperature

Within CryoLauncher, LIVIST is maintained as a Git submodule

external/living-ice-sheet-temperature

16. Citation

If you use LIVIST or CryoStack in publications, presentations, reports, or educational materials, please cite the software together with the datasets used in your work.

CryoStack

Kyanjo, B., Alexander A. R., Winnie C,, Dawson E., Tarzona A. and contributors (2026).
CryoStack: A Platform for Interactive Cryosphere Modeling, Data Products, and Scientific Workflows.
Georgia Institute of Technology.

https://cryostack.eas.gatech.edu

LIVIST

Dawson, E., Kyanjo, B., and contributors (2026).
LIVIST: Living Ice Sheet Temperature.
CryoStack.

https://cryostack.eas.gatech.edu/livist/

Data

Please also cite the published Antarctic ice-sheet temperature datasets available through

https://source.coop/englacial/ice-sheet-temperature

and any associated scientific publications describing those datasets.

17. License

LIVIST is distributed under the MIT License.

CryoStack is distributed under the BSD 2-Clause License.